Page 71 of Wicked Deeds

“Your information is in the Cestis database, right?”

I nodded, not surprised he knew about the Annex database.

“So ask Cassandra. She’s in charge. The Cestis database interfaces with the regular ones. But the Cestis control it. And I’m sure it’s well protected. They wouldn’t want the government having access to the names of every witch in the country, would they?”

“No,” I said. The relationship between witches and humans hadn’t always been friendly. There were still countries where magic had been made illegal and witches were underground if they hadn’t fled. So I couldn’t imagine the Cestis would give the government any more access to the database than was strictly necessary. “You’re right. So we need to call Cassandra. And Meredith. But Cassandra first.”

Gwen looked like she wanted to object. I squeezed her arm again. “It will be okay.”

She started gnawing on the thumbnail of her free hand.

Damon passed me his datapad and I called Cassandra, putting the call up on a holoscreen.

“How do I get my record out of the Annex DNA database?” I asked when she answered, skipping even a hello. “And Gwen’s.”

She frowned at me, her initial smile when she’d answered the call replaced by her eagle-eyed, no-nonsense expression. Her Cestis face where the normal silver-haired, curvy, non-threatening, sweet old lady meets Mrs. Claus persona she used to make people comfortable around her vanished and you were left with no doubt you were dealing with someone of vast power and authority. Someone not to be messed with, because they would probably mess you up with ease. “Good morning to you, too, Maggie. You have to put in a request.”

“How long does it take?”

“A few days, a week. I’m not sure how often they review these days. We get reports, of course, but that’s always been moreIan’s thing. He liaises with a lot of the government departments we have to work with.”

“Okay, can it be faster?”

“I can authorize a priority request.” She leaned forward, her eyes glowing gold through the screen.

“Great,” I said, looking down. “Let’s do that. Gwen and I need to get our records out fast and you need to tell them to be on the lookout for hacking attempts.”

Her gaze sharpened even more. “Back up. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Well, first thing you need to know there’s a possibility that Gwen’s my half sister and the second is, if she is, Jack Miller might be our father.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Please hold,”Cassandra snapped. Her image froze and we waited. My grip on Gwen’s arm slid down and I found her hand. She held on, fingers curling around mine, gripping me like I was her anchor in the world. Her hand was warm even though her face was still pale. Smaller than mine.

But very real. Mysister’shand. I suddenly knew I didn’t need the DNA to convince me. I’d do whatever was necessary to keep her out of Jack’s path.

Neither of us spoke. And Damon left us to our silence.

After the longest five minutes in history, Cassandra’s image began to move again. “Your records will be removed. As soon as possible. I’ve got the team checking the security logs, but we could be too late. Though, there are quite a few layers of encryption between the information in the database and anything that identifies you. And he’d have to go back to the UK database for Gwen’s original information. We’ll remove that, too. I’ve contacted Isolde.”

Well, it was something, at least.

“If you need any help working out if there was a breach, let me know,” Damon offered.

“Thank you,” Cassandra said. “Let’s hope that’s not necessary. But now that’s taken care of, Maggie, explain to me why you two think you’re related and Jack’s your father? Does this have anything to do with the accident at the club last night?”

“It does,” I said and gave her the rundown of the DNA testing and about my notification.

“So, so far this is a theory?” Cassandra asked, not sounding skeptical, but somewhat less tense. “You haven’t asked Meredith to confirm?”

“Not yet. If it is Jack, he will have gotten a notification like me. And we figured he might try to get in touch with Gwen. After all, he knows about her even if there’s been no contact. Even if he didn’t want to make contact officially, there’s always the possibility he’d try to find out where she was through less official channels. Try to hack the database and trace the match. Given he’s, well, Jack, we don’t want him tracking Gwen down. So we called you first.” I didn’t mention I’d been about to ask Damon ifhecould hack the database to trace the match in the other direction and find out if it was Jack. I wanted her to help me, not chew me out.

“Well, I can’t fault you for that, but before this goes any further, why don’t you make sure? Call Meredith.”

“You can’t get that info from the database?”

“Meredith already has the data she needs. St. Isidore’s will have Gwen’s information from last night, including the medical histories from the matches. I’m assuming, Maggie, that you downloaded yours. She can compare those. If you didn’t, I can arrange for it to be sent to her. Your records will be removed from the Annex and placed somewhere more secure, not deleted entirely. Call her, and by the time I get there, you’ll know for certain if you’re sisters, and we can proceed accordingly.”

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