“Okay,” Lindsey said, “but just because it wasn’t successful doesn’t mean that wasn’t the goal.”
“True enough,” Luc said, writing “blood supply” on the whiteboard. “What else?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “If not access to the building, maybe access to the blood supply?”
“You’re thinking poison?” Jeff asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Or maybe somebody was especially bloodthirsty?”
“We have the same distraction problem there,” Luc said. “Bryant Industries is big, but not so big that starting a fire at one end of the building is going to pull everybody away from the production floor. I don’t think it would work as a distraction.”
“And besides,” Jeff said, “you’re all still here.”
“The riot was only three days ago,” I said. “How long would it take any adulteration to make its way into stores?”
“Yikes,” Jeff said. “I am not digging this conversation. I’m going to send Catcher a note, ask him to double-check with Charla.”
Luc recapped his marker and ran his fingers through his hair. “Or maybe all of this is just bullshit speculation. Maybe the inspection has nothing to do with anything. Maybe McKetrick made them move up the date because he’s a self-centered prick. Maybe he hoped to catch them unprepared and shut them down.”
“That would help drive vampires out of Chicago,” I said. “If the inspection was clean, maybe the riot’s just another attempt to shut them down.”
Luc uncapped his marker again and scratched “Close them down” across the board with a series of squeaks. “Maybe it’s that simple.”
Maybe, but I doubted it. McKetrick preferred grandstanding when he could get it, and working indirectly to close down a blood supply facility seemed an amateur move for him.
“Got a message from Catcher,” Jeff said. “I’m quoting: ‘Charla thinks blood supply is safe. Frequent testing.’”
To say that was a relief would be an understatement. Poisoning the city’s blood supply would be a quick way to end vampires en masse.
“I don’t suppose Catcher mentioned anything else about the videos?” I asked.
“He said he asked her to check again.”
“So there you go,” Luc said. “We check the videos, and we see if they show us anything interesting.”
They would, I silently thought. The question now was what.
—
As a graduate student, I’d spent a lot of time poring over books and manuscripts. Flipping through pages of centuries-old paper while wearing cotton gloves, staring through the lens of a microfiche machine at illuminated manuscripts. It was usually a slow and time-consuming process.
With that experience under my belt, you’d have thought I’d grown accustomed to being patient and methodical.
But where McKetrick was maybe, possibly concerned, patience was impossible. I sat at the Ops Room table, staring at the whiteboard from a distance and hoping that seeing the big picture would bring me some insight, suggest a clue I’d somehow missed that we could easily backtrack and find in order to secure all the puzzle pieces into the appropriate slots.
But that was easier said than done. You’d also think, having stared at the whiteboard for various mysteries and assignments, and having eventually resolved all of them, I’d get used to the pace. To the grind of looking for information—any information—while waiting for the flint to strike.
The process made me antsy and frustrated, and I found it difficult not to blame myself when clues and solutions weren’t immediate, and when vampires were in danger in the meantime.
Before I could add anything helpful, the Ops Room door opened. Ethan and Scott walked in, Jonah behind them.
I had become a bundle of nerves, because even Masters walking through the door made me paranoid.
“Liege?” Luc asked. There was nervous anticipation in his voice, too, which made me feel slightly less crazy. “The GP?”
“Utter silence,” Ethan said. “No members of the GP are talking to anyone, as far as we can tell. And I’m not yet sure if that’s better or worse than a dressing-down.”
“Maybe they’re getting their own house in order before talking to the rest of us,” Luc said. “But if they’re still being silent, what brings you down here?”
“We’ve just finalized a contract for the apartment building in Lakeview,” Scott said. “We’ve ordered some temporary furnishings while the House décor is being cleaned, and we’re going to start moving people in within the hour.”