“I love how the phrase ‘conjecture’ is really just replacing the word ‘guessing’ with something more sophisticated-sounding,” Breandan added, watching the whole conference unfold with his hand cautiously over his mouth.
Breandan, he was here for the comic relief. And oh, how desperately we needed it.
“We’ve got action on the border crossings near Seattle,” Li said, and the slide on his presentation changed. “Unfortunately we didn’t connect them in time, because they were using new passports, but some things developed after that that steered us in that direction.” He clicked his remote again and five passport photos showed up, three women and two men. “If they’d been using the same passports, we might have been able to track them from country to country, at least among the ones who have electronic records. As it is, we flagged them because they were all caught on a security camera in downtown Seattle in a shootout with unidentified operatives.”
“Of Omega,” I said.
Li cast me a withering glare. It was a regular thing between him and me, so I ignored it. “We haven’t been able to substantiate that.”
I pointed at the blurry, black-and-white images on the screen, which showed the very vague and only slightly enhanced faces of the quintet of Century operatives whom he’d just shown us being shot at by a woman and three men. I reached into a thin file sitting on my desk and tossed out three photos on the center of the conference table, one at a time. “I’m telling you, these are the same people.” The woman was a blond, looked to be in her late thirties, severe, with a worn look around her eyes. “Katheryn Hildegarde, an Omega field officer.” I stood, because that was how I did things whenever I was about to butt heads with Li. “Last known posting was Seattle, along with a few of Omega’s field operations people.”
“You haven’t had any luck chasing down Omega’s remnants?” Foreman said in a way that was just a little shy of accusing me of failing at my job. He wasn’t wrong, though. I’d also spent the last six months chasing Omega’s ghosts with little success.
“No,” I said. “Their headquarters is essentially fallen, remember? These people aren’t dumb. They know if HQ is gone, it’d be smart if they were in the wind.”
“They’ve been highly trained,” Karthik put in. “They were in charge of helping expand and run Omega’s illicit businesses here in America with very little oversight. These are seasoned people, experienced thugs, and usually quite savvy. They’re also used to going well under the radar since Omega’s political connections in the States were significantly weaker than back home in Europe.” He looked down at Hildegarde’s picture. “They’re resourceful, mean, tough fighters. We have yet to get a reasonable line on what Hildegarde is planning to do, other than potentially disrupt Century’s plans.”
“What type is she?” Foreman said, staring down at her picture.
“Medusa,” I replied, and he looked at her hair questioningly. “No snakes,” I answered before he could ask, “but she does have the ability to control her hair, lengthen it, use it as a solid appendage to beat and flail at an enemy, even entrap them within it.”
“She doesn’t really look like she’d turn you to stone with a gaze,” Breandan said, looking at the picture on the table. “She’s actually quite fetching, you know, might be she’d turn parts of you to the same consistency as stone—” He stopped, as if he was remembering where he was. “Sorry,” he said as he flushed.
I ignored it. “Whatever she’s doing, I’d like to talk to Hildegarde. She’s already put a thorn in Century’s eye, and I can’t pretend I don’t like it.” I pointed at Li’s backdrop photo. “Three of Century’s agents were killed in the exchange, along with two of hers.”
“Type?” Foreman asked, his jaw level.
“Impossible to say for sure,” Li said, his voice clipped, “but we suspect at least some of Century’s losses were telepaths, coming down to start the reconnoitering.”
Foreman leaned back. “So this is very good news.”
“If it’s true,” I said cautiously, “yes. Which is why I’d like to find a way to make contact with Hildegarde. Maybe make her an offer.”
“You think she’s going to be interested in any offer that you have to make?” Foreman asked.
“I think she’s killed Century agents, and that puts us on the same side for now,” I replied. I caught my mother’s worried look out of the corner of my eye.