Ava shot Kincaid a look. The serum? "You have the serum here?" They'd been looking for the mushroom, and instead struck gold.
The boy nodded. "Just promise you won't hurt my father, and I'll show you where it is."
* * *
Edward Leicester was most helpful.
"All of what we have on hand is in that crate," he said, gesturing to a small picnic-basket-shaped box.
Kincaid used a crowbar to pry it open. Inside, dozens of small vials rested neatly, filled with a bright green liquid. "There's more than enough serum here to kill hundreds of blue bloods."
Ava flashed before his eyes, curled in a heap on the floor and bleeding from her eyes, with black veins pulsing behind her pale skin. He felt sick. Blue blood or not, this was a crate full of murder, and he couldn't risk her again.
He needed to find the rest of this bloody serum and destroy it.
"That's only the last crate, sir," Edward said. "They took the rest of them. This one was misplaced in the rush."
"The rush?" Ava asked.
Kincaid slowly lowered the crowbar. "How many crates? Where are they coming from? Who's taking them?"
Edward took a step back, his freckles showing starkly against his pale face. "It's.... We're just shipping them."
"Smuggling, you mean?"
The boy swallowed. "There's a manufacturing facility near Brighton," Edward said. "I don't know what Da's been promised, but the men who came here weren't very nice. All we had to do was smuggle the crates in, hide them in the warehouse, and then hand them over when men with the right codes and tattoos appeared."
"Brighton." He exchanged a look with Ava.
"That seems awfully convenient," she replied. "Considering one of our suspects was supposedly seen in the area."
Lord Ulbricht. "Was it a tattoo of a rising sun?"
Edward's face brightened. "Aye, sir." He revealed his wrist. "One of them had it right here."
"And they were blue bloods?" Ava questioned. "Pale skin, pale hair?"
Edward shook his head. "I don't know, ma'am. I don't think Da would deal with blue bloods, but then he kept me and my brother out of all of this. I... I wasn't supposed to be watching."
"Describe them," she said, taking out her little notebook as Edward ran through the details.
Kincaid paced. Three different men, at least two blond, which could mean blue bloods. Rich clothes, a posh accent, one of them wearing well-shined shoes, so that indicated some money.
"They needed the shipments by tonight at the latest," she repeated, when Edward had finished. "Over three thousand vials of serum to be collected in the last few days." Her breath caught in her throat at the number. "Do you know what they're planning to do with all the serum?"
Edward looked pale now. "I don't really know. We were only the smugglers, ma'am. But... I heard one of them laughing. He said, 'flick the match and watch London burn,' and his friend said, 'they're not going to burn, they're going to die, kicking and clutching their chests.'"
Chests... that could mean hearts. What did this all mean?
Edward swallowed. "And then the first one said, "Nighthawks first."
* * *
"They're going to attack the Nighthawks," Ava said, the words spilling out of her in a rush as she filled in the rest of COR. Three thousand vials of serum. She squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed when she finished, waiting for the others to comment.
"Blood and ashes," Malloryn whispered.
"They could kill the entire Echelon with that amount of serum," Gemma added, in a sickened tone. "As well as the Nighthawks, and any other blue bloods in the general population."
No more blue bloods.
All of her friends, her newfound family.... Ava swayed, and then suddenly there was a warmth against her back, a presence there supporting her. Kincaid's hand rested on the small of her back.
"I won't let it happen, Ava," he told her. "I promise."
And she nodded up at him, letting everything she felt for him fill her eyes. He'd come so far in such a short time. Ava patted his arm, still feeling sickened, and it was only then she realized everyone in the room was looking at the pair of them.
Especially Malloryn.
The duke looked away, standing and pacing the room. "Ulbricht's an antihumanist but surely he wouldn't go this far. He believes in blue blood rights to power, and that humans are nothing but cattle. I can hardly see him spearheading a... a murder spree against blue bloods, and if this gets out of hand, then the very people he's fighting for will die."
"You're right," Kincaid breathed, "but what you're not taking into consideration is the fact none of these deaths are blue bloods of any importance. He doesn't care about the Nighthawks. He never has. He wants to protect the Echelon, and the past. Is Ulbricht arrogant enough to think he could use it and control it?"