With Silent Screams (15 page)

CHAPTER
18

N
ow, I’m not saying that I hate Washington, D.C., certainly no more than any other capital city. But due to the fact that D.C. was also a neutral city, there tended to be a lot more people vying for whatever scraps of power they could find.

To be fair, there were a lot of scraps lying around, but once someone had a taste they always wanted more. Avalon also had a large interest in the city, which made everyone else feel slightly uneasy, as if Avalon could just take over the whole place and remove those with whom they didn’t agree.

To the outside human looking in, it would have appeared crazy with very little actually getting done, but all the little deals and handshakes that were carried out were usually in place for a long-term plan. On top of all the dealing, there were people who just looked out for themselves. Making everyone else’s job a thousand times harder.

So, I tended to stay away from the city. I was never sure who exactly knew what and where people’s allegiances lay, and so long as they didn’t interfere in my life, I was quite happy to live in ignorant bliss.

We left the airport and grabbed a taxi, and after dropping Caitlin off outside her father’s office, I got the driver to drop me off near the Lincoln Memorial.

As per every single time I’d visited the impressive
structure
, the entire area was full of tourists, both domestic and foreign. Yet it didn’t feel busy. People sat on the steps chatting or
looking
out over the reflecting pool. Others took photos of the
building
and its surroundings. It was quite a peaceful place, even du
ring the day.

“Did you ever meet him?” Roberto asked me as stopped at the spot where Doctor King gave his speech.

I turned around and shook my friend’s hand. Roberto looked, contrary to the laws of time, younger than when I’d last seen him almost thirty years earlier. One of the benefits of being a shape-shifter who can control how he looks. “Who, Lincoln or King?”

“Either?”

“Lincoln, once. He was an interesting man, and very clever. I never had the pleasure of meeting King, though. I wasn’t even in America when he gave his speech here. Did you meet them?”

“I met Doctor King a few times. I was here the day of his speech. We’d been given information that some enemies of Avalon wanted to cause trouble here to make a point. We didn’t allow that to happen.”

“And Lincoln?”

“I was assigned to give him his First Meeting.”

The First Meeting was an old tradition that went back to the formation of the first monarchy of England. When someone was elected or crowned, either as a head of state, or a government, an agent of Avalon was sent to let the new person in charge know exactly where they were in the pecking order. Some didn’t take the meeting well and refused to play along. They tended to be removed fairly quickly. Usually on a permanent basis.

“How did that go?”

“I was probably more nervous than he was. He just sat and listened and at the end shook my hand and told me he had a job to do. Only other man I had an issue meeting was Teddy
Roosevelt
, I thought he was going to shoot me.”

I laughed. “I met him, twice. He was a hell of a force. If he hadn’t been human, he’d have changed the world.”

“You’re not kidding. Did you ever get nervous about any First Meetings?”

“A few,” I admitted. “Henry VII was a difficult one for me. I tried very hard not to kill him within the first few seconds.”

“Why?”

“I liked Richard III, he didn’t deserve the death or reputation he got. Henry was a big part of making sure Richard was vilified. Charles II was an interesting one—I’m pretty sure he was either drunk or stoned for the entire meeting. I met George
Washington,
too. Merlin wanted me to be the first thing the new country saw. To know exactly where they stood. I’d met him a few times before the war, so he already knew the score, but it was still a big deal. It didn’t help that I actually admired him. To take on King George and win, was something I was sure the king was never going t
o let go.”

“Didn’t Merlin tell King George that America was off limits?”

I nodded. “He wanted to send every soldier he had to take back this land. He was told very nicely to mind his own business and stay out of it or he’d be removed from power.”

We walked down the stairs and toward the Reflecting Pool, passing a large group of tourists and their guide as we went.

“You know,” Roberto said when we were out of earshot, “the number of times you’ve asked for a favor since we’ve known each other is zero. My assistant wasn’t very happy to give me a message to meet someone she hadn’t vetted.”

“I’m not exactly flush with time on this one. Send her some flowers from me, if it’ll make your life easier.”

We stopped beside the pool and Roberto took a deep breath. “Why are you here, Nate?”

“I was in Maine and was attacked by a pride of werelions. Werelions who appear to be continuing Simon Olson’s work.”

Roberto’s expression darkened and he cracked his knuckles. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Pretty sure. I need your help trying to figure out who they are.”

“There are three thousand or so werelions in North
America
.
They may be a lot fewer in number than werewolves
, but that doesn’t mean I can just tell you who goes where. I don’t have a list of names, just population numbers, and even that’s about ten years out of date. And I’m not even mentioning how much trouble I could get in for giving you this information.”

“They were Barbary lions,” I told him. “And I know you could get into trouble. I’m asking for the name of one lion who could have turned them. Someone involved with either Simon or the old king of Shadow Falls. If these lions are continuing Simon’s mission, then they would have met with people in a position of enough power to tell them what to do.”

“Do you have any evidence?”

I shook my head. “They went after the old victims who lived through what happened. Then they waited around for two years before killing again. Someone fed them that information, maybe the same person who turned them.”

Roberto rubbed the back of his neck. “If I do this for you, it didn’t come from me. I like it here, I like my job. I enjoy working with the people around me. It takes a huge amount of work to ensure that I look like a younger version of myself every few decades. I do not wish to throw away all my hard work because it got out that I gave you classified information.”

“I promise you, it stays between us.”

He removed a card from his pocket and passed it to me. “I’ll call in one hour with that name. My phone is clean, so there are no worries about people listening in. I’ll find out who this
werelion
is. If there are people out there taking up Simon’s
insanity
, they need to be stopped.”

Roberto actually called after an hour and seventeen minutes. I knew because it interrupted the game of Picross I’d started on my phone just after he’d left. I stood up from the memorial steps and walked off to an emptier area.

“Can I assume you’ve found something?” I asked.

“What I’m about to tell you goes no further.”

“I’ll try not to post it online.”

“I’m serious, Nate. I have a family. If this gets out
.…
”

An image of Rean holding his dead son in his arms shot into my mind like a bullet. “It goes no further, I promise.”

“Before I tell you who I found, you need to know that this is some serious shit you’ve uncovered. If you follow through with whatever plan you have, which I only assume will involve pissing these people off, you’re going to bring a hornets nest down on yourself.”

“Won’t be the first time,” I said. “Nor the last, I imagine.”

“Well, I warned you. There are four Barbary lions in North America. Only one lives on the East Coast. His name is Karl Steiner.”

“Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Because he’s the senior aide to Senator Charles Whitehorn.”

“Ah, shit, how the hell did the ex-king of Shadow Falls
manage
to get a job as a senator, anyway?”

“If you believe certain rumors in the city, it’s because he purchased the win from the good people of his constituency. A
journalist
started looking into his dealings a few years back, when he was first running. That journalist very quickly shelved the story and moved to another state.”

“What do you know about this Karl Steiner guy?”

“He’s ambitious, dangerous, and pretty much operates as Charles Whitehorn’s shadow. He’s not a man you want to get angry. He’s got a temper. Rumor had it, he once got his bodyguards to put some student in the hospital for bad-mouthing him in a bar. They waited until he left for the night and jumped him. There’s no concrete proof, just whispers. The kid wouldn’t press charges and refused to give details. Other than that there are also rumors that he’s killed people for his boss.”

“Anything that isn’t rumor or conjecture?”

“I’ve met him twice and I wanted a shower straight after both meetings. He’s not all there, and he’s certainly not above doing what it takes to get the job done. He’s also devoted to his boss. Utterly devoted.”

“Any sort of relationship there that can be exploited?”

“They’re not romantically involved, if that’s what you’re asking. Karl likes his women paid for. That much is well known.”

“Any of them willing to talk?”

“Publicly, not a hope in hell. In private, we’ve found a few things. He hates Galahad—they found it weird that he mentions someone from mythology.”

“So, they’re not exactly clued in on Avalon. Karl can bitch and moan and they don’t know what the hell he’s talking about. Any idea why the hate?”

“Nope, he just hates him with a passion. Apparently he has a plan to get back at Galahad for some unknown slight. One girl told us it was all he would talk about for hours at a time. Also, he sees himself as taking over from Charles at some point. The phrase he used was a plan of succession. Apparently Karl’s the one who arranges everything. Charles just reaps whatever rewards come his way.”

“Okay, so they’re both assholes. You sure Charles is not in charge of what’s happening here?”

“That’s possible, but the more likely scenario is that Karl’s in charge of the operation, and letting his boss take the glory, so to speak. You think they’re trying to humiliate Galahad by killing people in his territory?”

“If that’s the case, why make the bodies vanish? You’d nail the corpses to the walls of town hall, set them on fire, and sit down to wait for Galahad to turn up. No, this isn’t about humiliation, although it could be about revenge. If Karl hates him that much, he could be using these werelions to kill people for him.”

“You think that’s what’s happening?”

I nodded. “It sounds that way, although the why’s still elude me. I wonder how Karl will react when I tell him I know about his little pride in Maine?”

“Badly, I’m going to guess.”

“Do you know what Simon’s plan was? Because I haven’t
spoken
to him or Galahad in over thirty years, and it’s too much of a coincidence that people are dying in the same place he w
as killing.”

“No idea, although I wouldn’t have thought the king of Shadow Falls would have been keen on telling me anything.”

“Good point. Do you have any contact details for Karl?”

“You’re going to call and tell him what? That you know what he’s up to? They have no idea who you are, and will send people after you until you’re dead or they are. We both know
you’re
not going down without a fight. You’re going to turn this town into a war zone.”

“Will you please have some trust in me, Roberto? I’m not going to start a war, but I do need to confirm that he’s the one involved. And if he is, he can tell me who the lions in Maine are. It would make life a lot easier if I had their names. It means no more being hunted in the woods. I’d be the one with the advantage.”

“What about your friend?”

“What friend?” I asked innocently.

“Caitlin Moore, she’s in town with you.”

“She’s here to visit her dad.”

“She came with you to this city so she can have a family reunion?”

“People are being murdered in Stratford. I think she’d quite like to stop them. I told her she could come, I figured maybe some of her contacts might be of help if you didn’t come through.”

“Thanks for that.”

“Hey, I was asking a lot. And I’m thankful you came through with what I asked, but even so it pays to have a backup. But it doesn’t matter, you came through. And on the plus side, it also means I don’t have to ask her to do anything she might not want to.”

“You’re okay asking me, though.”