I nodded. “Just thinking.”
“About McKetrick?”
“About the serum. If we’re right, and it works, it could change a lot of lives. Would you consider it? Becoming human again? Giving up the drama?”
He gestured toward the House. “And giving up all this? No, Sentinel.” He took my hand, and we walked toward the basement stairs. “I gave up my humanity many, many moons ago. I’ve no interest in revisiting it.”
We took the stairs to the basement but stopped at the bottom. Ethan looked at me, amusement in his expression. “What are you thinking, Sentinel? That being human again would solve all our problems?”
I’d been thinking about my problems, but I didn’t let on. “Just that things would be simpler.”
Ethan snorted. “Never underestimate the capacity of any living thing for drama, Sentinel. Human, vampire, shifter, or otherwise. We all have our fair share.”
Having said his part, we made our way to the Ops Room. Jonah and the guards were already assembled, minus Juliet, who Luc decided wasn’t quite ready for a field trip. Catcher, Jeff, and Mallory followed behind us.
Lindsey, Mallory, and I exchanged hugs. This was too nerve-racking not to prepare ourselves and take comfort where we could find it.
“Cool hair,” Lindsey said.
Mallory had braided her ombré hair into Princess Leia–style side buns. She was one of the few people I knew—perhaps the only one—who could actually pull off the look.
“Thanks,” she said, touching a bun. “Although I feel like I have cinnamon rolls attached to my head.”
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” I said, pointing to the table.
We took seats around it, and when we were all seated, Ethan kicked things off.
“We believe John McKetrick has been manufacturing a serum intended to turn vampires back into humans. We believe he used Alan Bryant, Charla Bryant’s brother, to develop that serum. We aren’t certain if he planned to allow vampires the choice to become humans again or not. But given his history, it seems likely he would have made the decision for us.
“Alan Bryant wouldn’t provide the information McKetrick needed. So McKetrick stole that information, torched Bryant Industries, and induced a riot to cover up the evidence.”
“It was a distraction,” Jonah said. “Keeping us focused on vampire haters, not on what was really going on between himself and Alan Bryant.”
“And the Grey House riot?” Luc asked.
“Perfecting the distraction,” Jonah said. “One night of rioting is a riot. It’s ne’er-do-wells in action. Two nights of rioting? That’s a movement. That’s political activism.”
“And it spreads his larger message of anti-vampire vitriol,” Ethan said.
Jonah nodded.
“But why my grandfather?” I asked. “He had nothing to do with any of this. He’s only secondarily involved.”
“Maybe he wasn’t only secondarily involved.”
We all looked at Catcher, who met my gaze. “He was looking at that body for Detective Jacobs. The one that washed ashore.”
Ethan frowned. “Okay? So?”
“He called because they weren’t supernaturally able to identify it—because they weren’t exactly sure what it was.”
We sat in stunned silence for a moment.
“It was a failed experiment,” I realized. “McKetrick’s been working on the serum, and he’s had failures. That’s why he kept going back to Alan Bryant. McKetrick must have known he was involved and thought he was getting too close.” I looked at Catcher. “What did Grandpa learn?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “But he’d learned something. He was supposed to meet with Detective Jacobs for coffee the next day.”
“McKetrick found out and decided to put a kibosh on that meeting,” Ethan said. “And your grandfather was involved with vampires, so the rioting cover story plays.”
“That sick, twisted, manipulative son of a bitch,” I muttered.
“So he is,” Ethan said. “And that’s why we’re putting an end to this. Jeff,” he prompted. “The building?”
Jeff spread a map on the table. “It used to be Weingarten Freight,” he said. “Now it’s Hornet Freight, but the floor plan is online either way.”
“What do they ship?” Luc asked, leaning over to get a better glance.
“According to their Web site,” Jeff said, “pretty much anything you want them to. Retail goods, medical goods, sporting equipment, industrial stuff.”
The building was essentially a large square divided into chunks: offices, loading area, warehousing area.