Burned (2 page)

"Don't you
want to take in the show? Given how much money you must have lost
when young Alec ran off, it can't have been easy to pay the cover
charge to get in here. You might as well get your money's worth."

Kaleb forced
his face not to respond to the jab. That part was easy. Controlling
his body temperature, blood flow, and heartbeat was quite a bit more
difficult. He didn't manage it as well as he normally did, but for
once their surroundings proved to be an advantage. Even shape shifter
hearing struggled to pick out the sound of a single heartbeat when
surrounded by the thumping base washing over them.

The truth was
that Puppeteer didn't have any idea how much money Alec had made off
with. Given that Kaleb's son had managed to escape capture for so
long, it wasn't a huge leap to assume that he'd gotten away with
something
, but Puppeteer was fishing. He wanted some sign of
just how weakened Kaleb was at that moment.

"If you
have something to say, then say it. I have a number of other things
that I should be spending my time on right now."

"You never
have been any fun, Graves. I keep inviting you here to the city that
never sleeps in the hope that you'll loosen up, but you always manage
to disappoint me."

"I don't
have time to loosen up, and you know it. Neither of us do—not
given the stakes that we are playing for. Now, what do you want?"

It was a
not-so-subtle reminder of the purpose that bound them together.
Puppeteer looked for a moment like he wanted to argue the point, but
the truth was that they couldn't afford anything other than constant
vigilance, not with the list of enemies currently gunning for both of
them.

"After our
most recent series of losses, you're pack is far and away the largest
single pool of manpower in our organization. I'm going to need you to
loan me some people."

"Absolutely
not. You know our deal. You control the less savory of our assets and
I have carte blanche when it comes to when and where my people are
used. I'm not going to let you waste members of my pack the way
you've wasted others of our kind over the years."

"You can
monitor them—you can be a full partner as far as the operation
goes, even. There will be plenty of glory to go around after this
one."

The offer was
unusual enough to make Kaleb pause. "What do you have in the
works?"

"You
remember that failed rescue attempt that your son led against the
group we had escorting Agony north?"

"Of course
I do. We lost almost two dozen people in that operation, an operation
you and your agent assured us we couldn't lose."

"There's
only so much I can anticipate, Graves. It was your people who were
supposed be our insurance policy. You were the one who told us that
Brandon was more than capable of defeating any three hybrids."

It was all that
Kaleb could do not to flinch at the reminder. Those had been his
exact words, which was embarrassing because it had indeed been a
group of three hybrids that had stopped Brandon.

"I stand
by my words. Brandon went up against two hybrids armed with swords
from the time of the monarchy, and Agony of all people. Despite that,
he managed to kill Agony single-handedly. It would have only been a
matter of time before the other two would have joined that traitor in
death if not for the presence of a fourth combatant who shot Brandon
several times before he managed to get away."

The two of them
stared at each other for several seconds before both breaking away at
the same time. There had been plenty of dishonor to go around when it
came to that particular operation.

Kaleb let the
silence stretch back out for a while, but when it became apparent
that Puppeteer wasn't going to say anything else without being
prompted, he took the bait.

"How does
your operation tie back to the business with Agony?"

"I'm going
to use the same resource. The pieces are already all lined up; we
just need the right push to knock them over. I can't make that happen
with just my resources though—not without risking the other
side being able to track me down—and that would be foolish at
this juncture, even for a prize like bringing your son down."

"Yes,
heaven forbid you run the same risks that the rest of us run on a
daily basis."

"It's not
the same and you know it. You're a target, but everyone knows that
you dying would only slow down our plans slightly. I, on the other
hand, am the last member of our little group that any member of the
rebellion would gladly sign their life away to kill."

Kaleb leaned
back in his chair. "I need more details before I can commit."

"No, not
here, not now. Our last operation went too far off of the rails not
to have been compromised on your end."

"I told
you already. Leaking the information to Samantha was the only way to
be sure that Alec would show up and hit the convoy where we wanted it
to be hit."

"Maybe,
but it appears that your beloved wife has much deeper ties with the
rebellion than any of us have been led to believe. She needs to be
put down."

Kaleb's
knuckles had gone white, but for once he didn't have to worry about
hiding his true feelings. "If you ever even consider acting on
that little suggestion of yours, I'll see you dead. Samantha serves a
necessary purpose inside of my pack—a purpose that is all the
more vital now that Alec isn't serving as a counter balance to
Brandon. Samantha is a lightning rod for all of the discontent inside
of the pack—if she were dead it wouldn't make the whispers go
away, they would just go underground where I couldn't monitor them
anymore."

"So you
say. I'm beginning to doubt our little arrangement, Graves. So far I
haven't said anything to our…employer to indicate that things
with your son are as serious as they actually are, but being the one
to come clean about that little problem would go a long way toward
cleaning the ledger where my past transgressions are concerned."

Kaleb felt
himself go completely still. It was a lack of reaction that in its
own way was nearly as bad as jumping up and down on the table in
front of them, but he couldn't help it. Everyone had fears—everyone.
Kaleb was no exception to that rule. He was fortunate in that most of
his fears revolved around
things
rather than
people
,
but there was one person he didn't even begin to pretend—at
least not to himself—that he wasn't scared of. Puppeteer had
just referenced that person, a person Kaleb was working very hard to
keep in the dark regarding a large number of things.

"I think
that you're overestimating just how much leeway a revelation like
that would buy you. Your past indiscretion is a very serious matter,
a matter that I've faithfully kept secret for more than a decade
now."

"You're
not leaving me much of a choice, Kaleb. I know how hard it is to sign
the death warrant of someone you helped bring into this world."

"This
isn't about that—this is solely about the fact that I can't
afford to lose anyone else right now. Participation by the unaligned
packs is at an all-time low. It's obvious to me that Alec found out
about some of the measures we've been taking to keep a steady flow of
new recruits headed down to the border."

"You think
that he told someone before he left?"

"I'm
nearly certain of it. My money would have been on Juan, but he died
within hours of the operation that I think Alec stumbled onto. I
don't think there was time for Juan to have communicated anything to
his contacts—Juan wasn't the kind to act on something until
he'd had a chance to confirm it for himself."

"If not
Juan, then who? I thought we had a good line on all of the
communications flowing back and forth between the independent packs."

"We do, but nothing in our business is ever
guaranteed. Either Alec has gotten the word
out since he left home, or Juan had some kind of failsafe in place
that was activated by his death."

"This
could be a very big deal, Kaleb."

"I know,
but there isn't anything more I can do about it until accusations
start to surface. I've already taken all of the precautions I
can—it's just a matter of waiting now, but that's all the more
reason to conserve what people I have left."

"I've been
unwilling to do this up until now because I didn't want to let myself
get into range of one of those trackers, but if you have a
particularly difficult mission that needs to be carried out, I might
be willing to go down and use my…assets…to make sure
it's taken care of."

Kaleb pursed
his lips. That was a definite departure from Puppeteer's past stance,
and they both knew what that signified.

"That's a
very generous offer—one that I might very well take you up on
if the circumstances warrant it—but if we're wrong about the
reason that the independents have stopped coming south, that will
destroy all possibility of getting the flow started back up. The
independents view this as something separate from the Coun'hij in
many ways. You joining in will just make them feel like there isn't
any need for them to help out."

"That
would make our…sponsor…very unhappy."

"Indeed.
That little war has been the wedge I've used to get through a number
of my initiatives that he would otherwise never have agreed to."

"Yeah. The
only thing that can compete with the idea of us killing our cousins
and being killed in turn would be the idea of us killing the
parasites."

"Exactly,
except we tried that and we had to use your werewolves to make it
happen, and it wasn't bloodless where your assets are concerned. I
ran the numbers back then—even before
he
came back ready
to tear me to pieces—and it's not a favorable rate of exchange.
Are you sure there isn't something you can do to change the equation
there?"

"No,
unlike the werewolves, my other assets are oddly unwilling to get
involved in those kinds of fights. I can force them to do it, but
they are never very effective when compelled like that. The only way
to get any kind of real benefit out of them is to manufacture a
situation where their interests and mine coincide. We will just have
to continue on as we've been up until now."

Kaleb reached
up and rubbed his eyes, and it was only partly an act. He was tired
and getting more that way with every passing year. Sleep didn't do
anything to cure this kind of exhaustion. It was a fatigue of the
soul—assuming he still had one—more than anything else.

"Can't you
give me anything else to go on? It isn't that I'm unwilling to help
you, but I'm not going to send my people in blind—there's a
limit to how many plates I can keep spinning at one time, and this
isn't just about you and me. Some of the junior partners are starting
to eye me. I can tell that they are considering the idea that a good
push at the right time might be sufficient to eliminate me and claim
my spot as their own."

Puppeteer
looked away for several seconds, and Kaleb wondered if the other man
was accessing some distant asset. It was possible—it happened
much less frequently with that particular strain, and when it did
happen it rarely happened when Kaleb was around to see it.

"Okay,
here's what I can do. I want you to have a group in the area awaiting
my word. As soon as I have confirmation I'll call you up and you can
assume control of that side of the operation. It's got to be a
priority for you though, Kaleb. You can't just put this on the back
burner like you have with so many of our operations in the past."

"I have
appearances to maintain. I can't just disappear at the drop of a hat.
More importantly, you still haven't given me any details about how
this is going down. Schedule it in advance and tell me what you've
got up your sleeve and we can make this work. Otherwise we'll just
have to both make our separate cases to
him
and hope for the
best."

"I hated
you back before you were brought on as a member, Kaleb, and nothing
has changed over the years. How did we ever end up on the same team?"

"I'm not
sure. I lived through it, and I'm still not sure how
he
managed it."

Kaleb slowed
his breathing down a little further and steepled his fingers so that
he could look at Puppeteer over top of them. Puppeteer stared back
for nearly a minute before finally responding.

"It's just
like I said. I have very limited information about your son and his
allies. That's not something that my asset is particularly interested
in, but it's very clear that they are trying to build a fortress on
top of a foundation of cards. It's only going to take a small push at
the right time to split them up and it won't be pretty when things
start falling apart.

"You know
the breed we're dealing with, Kaleb. They have a kind of sixth sense
when it comes to this kind of thing. Based on what I'm getting this
time around, the results are going to be spectacular. Some of them
will welcome death by the time Brandon and the rest of your people
show up and execute them."

Kaleb could
tell that Puppeteer was watching him—looking for any sign that
he wasn't as committed as he needed to be. That was one thing that
Kaleb knew Puppeteer wasn't going to see—not today, and if
their joint plan went the way that Puppeteer seemed to think it
would, then not ever.

"You can't
tell me anything else about what's going on with that cell of the
rebellion? I'm nervous about getting blindsided again. Neither of us
anticipated that Dream Stealer would be able to put together a second
force of that size to interfere with the Agony movement. Heck, I even
told you that Alec had taken my sword, and we still didn't expect him
to use it, let alone find some swordmaster from a school that was
supposed to be long dead to train him in its use. If we're wrong
about who their allies are and how much help they've managed to drum
up, I could lose everything."