Jumping on the bed, Zaira grabbed the organizer, then made a frustrated sound. “I don’t know how to find the data I need!”
Aden gave in to temptation and, wrapping his arms around her, dropped a kiss to the tip of one bare breast. “I’ll wake Tamar. Put on some clothes.”
Fingers weaving through his hair, Zaira pressed her lips to his temple. “After we find Persephone,” she whispered, “we’ll take a whole night just for us.”
“Deal.”
Tamar was rubbing her eyes when she walked into the restricted underground part of the main training complex, the natural tight curls of her hair looking as if she’d stuck a finger into an electrical socket, and her clothing yellow pajamas with white stars on them that had Axl taking a long look as he came in at the same time.
Then his eyes dipped to the pink sheepskin boots into which Tamar had shoved her feet.
“Civilian,” Tamar said before he could make a comment. “Civilian who has had only four hours of sleep because she’s obsessed with ripping apart all these shell companies upon shell companies.”
Axl ran his eyes up and down again. “How exactly did you pass for Silent? Was the examiner blind and psychically deaf?”
Tamar made a face at him. “Go on and take your vitamins, Battle-Ax. No creaky old men needed here.” Stomping into tech central on the insult, the entire room lined with banks of computers, she sat down in front of the central core and proved that her brain was functioning at full capacity. “What do you need?”
Zaira braced her hand on Tamar’s desk while Aden took a minute to touch base with Axl, no doubt checking on his physical and psychic status. “Can you dig up all building permits that bear the signature of the official who received the bribe?” she asked Tamar.
“Sure.” The younger woman began to work. “It’ll be hundreds if not thousands. Time frame will narrow it.”
“Month on either side of the bribe,” Zaira said after a moment’s thought. “We can go wider if this doesn’t pan out.”
“Or if it does.” Aden’s quiet words had her looking up. “If he can be bribed once . . .”
Zaira nodded, watched Tamar work. Creaky old man? she telepathed when Tamar paused to allow the computer to run the search algorithm she’d just input.
Heat bloomed under the silken ebony of the other woman’s skin. He always makes me feel like a child with dirt on my face. Her fingers raced over the old-fashioned physical keyboard she preferred over a projected one. “Got it. Main screen.”
Setting aside her curiosity about the way Axl, who so rarely spoke to anyone, had spoken to the young civilian analyst, Zaira went toward the main screen, now filled with a comprehensive list of roughly two hundred permits. “Strike out the properties we’ve already checked, and those linked to anyone in the Ruling Coalition.” Not that she trusted them all, but there was no reason for anyone in power to destabilize the Net.
That still left around a hundred and fifty permits.
“How about the ones related to places like restaurants or other public locations?” Tamar suggested.
“Yes, do it.” She could go back to those later, double-check.
This cut took them under the seventy-five mark.
“The majority look to be small residential dwellings,” Aden said, scanning the list. “We can’t disregard them, not with how easy it would be to turn a basement into a dungeon, but let’s put those ones in a separate group, see what’s left over.”
Fifteen permits.
Seven had to do with a single comm station. It turned out to belong in part to SnowDancer, the rest owned by another changeling pack. “I think it’s fairly safe to disregard that,” Zaira said.
“Agreed.” Aden’s body brushed hers, the living warmth of him welcome. “There’s zero chance Hawke Snow doesn’t have trusted people working at that station—nothing this big could go on under their noses.”
The other eight took more time to break down.
Two were warehouses that appeared likely at first glance, but further digging showed that both had burned down a year ago, the permits for a slightly different rebuild currently in progress. Their locations meant no underground facility was possible.
The third was related to a lab that processed medical specimens and wanted to extend its fumigation and air-conditioning systems. The fourth and fifth involved adding sanitary facilities to the lowest level of a midrise building in a city fringe location. The sixth had to do with the renovation of a store in the main shopping district. The seventh linked to major repair work in a high-rise that had structural issues, while the eighth was a brand-new apartment building to be constructed on a large lot.