I scowled. Then sighed, although I really wanted to growl my frustrations at her.
"She is really a very nice person, you know."
I cringed, aware that Sigrun had the strangest way of picking up on my thoughts. "Of course she is," I responded, a little too quickly. "I never said otherwise."
"I saw the way you two looked at each other." Sigrun stepped aside to allow an Ulfr to pass by, his hands filled with files and papers. "Ingrid feels threatened. This is the first time a Valkyrie has ever been given the position of Team Leader. It had always been a Warrior until Fenrir decided to give her a chance. And she has taken her responsibility very seriously."
"And she sees me as a threat?"
"Not a threat. Just different."
Different.
My hackles rose at the mere thought of the word. For a brief moment, flashes of memory taunted me, painful images of my pathetic struggles with being different all my life, starting with that first visit to a psychiatrist at age five to find out why I claimed to see golden auras around people. What would my old psychiatrist think now if he knew the glowing people were in reality Warriors of Valhalla, the brave chosen ones who would fight for Odin at Ragnarok?
Even as a teen, I was always the outsider, the different kid, the newcomer. Alone in Midgard, alone in Asgard.
My silence drew a small punch from Sigrun. "Stop being silly. I know that look. You are different. But in a good way, a special way."
I smiled, my heart a lot warmer that it had been five minutes ago. Sigrun had a way of always putting me at ease. But peace was the last thing I could attain right now.
Fen and Ingrid's raised voices drew my attention back to the computer. He beckoned us all to come over to the table. "Attention, team. I have the details of our mission." He waited only seconds for us to move closer before he filled us in on the new einherjar. He outlined the Retrieval very briefly, but I gave him only half my attention.
My thoughts remained fixed on the woman on the monitor and the words that blinked beside her photograph.
Retrieval: Medeia Karim.
Retrieval meant this woman was about to join the ranks of Odin's most prized Warriors.
And it also meant she was about to die.
Chapter 16
We kept silent as we absorbed the details of the mission. I guess even the most seasoned of Asgard's Warriors didn't take death for granted.
Fen's attention shifted from the laptop to the whiteboard with its multicolored pins. Arms folded, he studied the pin placements as if the fate of the world lay upon his Ulfr shoulders.
I stepped closer to the board. "Fen?"
He turned to me, the worried look in his eye making my stomach twist. I'd seen that look before. On our last mission to LA. Somehow I didn't want to know any more.
"This should not be happening." He shook his head, the movement sharp and angry. He met my eyes, his frown bleeding darkness and worry into the crevices of his face. Then he turned on his heel and went back to the laptop, tapping the keys and bringing up a map of the world. This time, his computer savvy made no impression.
"It is all the black pins that are worrying him," Ingrid said softly beside me.
"What do they mean? The black pins?" I still wasn't sure I liked her all that much, but I saw her with different eyes now, aware that she had a huge pile on her plate.
"Every black pin on that board indicates a Warrior we have lost."
"Lost?" I shook my head. Behind me, a wave of concerned questions swept through the rest of the team. Fen's dark frown and the sad tinge to Ingrid's eyes screamed that something was very wrong.
"They are all dead." Whatever warmth had flickered in Ingrid's expression in the last few sympathetic moments disappeared as her jaw clenched and her attention returned to the laptop.
I frowned. Warriors were supposed to be dead, and although I wanted to say as much, something in the air—a certain, sudden fear of what she might confirm—made me wait for her to elaborate in her own time. Maybe I could ignore the cold fingers of instinct, which held my gut in its tight fist. Maybe I was wrong and this had nothing to do with the lost einherjar in LA.
"Over the last three weeks, every Warrior we have found and tried to retrieve has turned out to be irretrievable." Ingrid walked toward the map, gesturing at the clusters of black pins that stabbed into various locations on the northern tip of the African continent. Cairo sat surrounded by black with only one green pin left. "This pin is the last Warrior we have on our list. Medeia Karim. After her, it is a waiting game until the next Warrior turns up."
Dread sat coiled and heavy in my gut. "Why were they irretrievable? Were y . . . were we too late?" I used the word we because I sensed the other Valkyrie would take offense at anything that sounded critical of her performance. Sucked to be Ingrid on this watch.
"No, we were on time. They just were not retrievable. They had all stopped glowing." Ingrid and Fen shared a covert look, and Odin's general gave her an almost imperceptible nod.
Beside me, Sigrun's wings gave a tiny flutter, and I felt mine shiver too, as if fear had evolved into a cold breeze running its fingers through our feathers.
"The fact that they had stopped glowing so soon was strange enough, but . . ." Ingrid paused, taking a short breath, the skin on her face tightening before she continued. "Each body we found was covered in a strange oily substance." My heart plunged and her words blurred, but I forced myself to listen, even though all I could see was a film of oily black gloop. "We have been unable to identify the liquid. We assume it is the reason the Warriors do not glow any longer."
She looked at Fen, who crossed his arms and addressed the team. "I have not been able to identify it, either. And neither has Odin. It is indeed a strange poison, and though I have also seen it myself, I have been unable decipher what we are dealing with." He sighed. "For this reason we need to get moving. We need to learn more. Tracking Karim is the most important thing right now, not only because she is our only new einherjar at the moment. Her life is in jeopardy, too. We need to find out how they are getting to the new Warriors, and who is it that is killing them. Valkyrie Ingrid has her teams spread out around the city, and we will help to keep a close eye on Karim. Do not interfere no matter what. All you are here to do is to watch."
I wasn't sure I liked the idea of standing back and watching someone meet their death. "So what do we do next? We stake her out?" I asked. The whole spy thing sounded cruel. Were we just supposed to watch her die? Even if a Warrior's natural death was temporary, she would still feel pain and fear. What bothered me most was that now, for the first time, a new Warrior's human death could actually be permanent; we could lose them forever.
"Each team will take a locality that Karim is known to frequent, and will keep an eye on her. You will have satellite phones and cell phones to keep in touch." Fen pointed to a pile of phones on the table. Everyone grabbed a cell plus one of the bulkier satellite phones and pocketed them. Sigrun paused to inspect a cell phone that fitted perfectly within her palm and gleamed silver in the harsh fluorescent light. She frowned, her expression making it clear she had no idea what the device was. But she tucked the phone away without asking any questions. I made a note to get her up to speed as soon as possible.
"We will follow her until she meets her end," Fen continued. "It is imperative we retrieve her as soon as it's time for her burial. Any longer and there is a chance we may lose her too. Whatever is happening to them seems to happen between the funeral and the time we go to get the body."
Ingrid and Fen spoke to each team, discussing individual locations and specific requirements for each pair. Then Ingrid added, "Karim is our only Warrior left in Cairo. This Retrieval must not fail." She walked to me, her face dark with tension and a trace of fear. "Valkyrie Brynhildr, you and Mika will observe Karim today." Ingrid handed me a battered leather satchel. Inside I found an envelope stuffed with money—and directions to a café on the outskirts of the city. I stuffed the phones inside, threw the bag over my shoulder and nodded, accepting her authority with that one small movement.
Ingrid's face softened, the change almost imperceptible. "Protect her. We have lost too many Warriors these past weeks, Valkyrie Brynhildr."
A few minutes and one stone staircase climb later, Mika and I stepped out into the cool night to find a pair of bicycles leaning against the wall beside the door.
"You've got to be kidding me!" I blurted, somewhere between a laugh and a growl. "Bicycles?"
"Is there a problem with the particular method of transport?" asked Mika.
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah! I've never ridden a bicycle with a pair of enormous wings on my back before. I'm going to have major issues with balance." That, plus the fact that the muscles in both my shoulders and my wings were still sore from flight training.
Mika examined the bike, then smirked. "I can see where you would have difficulties."
Damned if she wasn't finding my predicament funny. Nice to discover my new Ulfr partner had a sense of humor. Not so nice to have her grinning at me as I struggled to figure out how to sit on the bicycle without falling flat on my face.
"Okay, here goes. And you have to quit laughing, or I'll have to ask Fen to find me another Ulfr."