Page 21 of Alan

7

Alan

“We’ll split into three teams,” I announced, standing at the front of the room. “Team One, led by Dallas, will take the west side of the mountain and the loch. Team Two, led by Owen, will take the east side. I will lead Team Three along with Tamhas, and we will cover the south.”

I nodded to Ainsley, Leslie, Bonnie. “You three will take to the air and watch each team from above. At the first sight of danger or anything you believe we should be aware of, you will alert us.”

I touched two fingers to the earpiece already tucked into my ear. “We’ll stay in contact at all times. Keep the channel free of chatter.”

With that, we headed out, all of us dressed in clothing suited for hiking—boots, long-sleeved shirts, pants with pockets which carried water flasks, everything in dark colors. It would have been much easier to locate Keira if we could all fly, but none of us were of a mind to assist her while we were undressed and in our human forms.

“How much do you know about this Emelie?” I asked Tamhas as we entered the woods.

“Keira spoke of her quite a lot in the early days, while we still emailed. They’ve known each other since they were young children. Both of them were orphaned at a young age—though I suppose we know something of why Keira was,” he added.

A brief flash of guilt struck me. Yes. I knew of at least some of the reason why.

“They’ve been all but inseparable ever since. They passed in and out of the same group homes once or twice, attended the same school, kept in touch when the system separated them for one reason or another. They lived within walking distance in New York.”

“And Emelie supported herself through hacking?” There was no suppressing the distaste in my voice. I would never blame a woman for doing whatever it took to support herself, but her means of support had led to Keira finding our mountain.

And had brought Emelie to us, as well.

I could hardly be anything but disapproving.

“She’s quite talented at it,” Tamhas explained.

“I had guessed as much, seeing as how she found us when there was no end to the security measures in place to prevent such discovery.”

“Admit it. You feel a grudging sense of admiration toward her for being able to do it.”

“Do not speak for me.”

“She is the only person who had ever been able to track us in spite of the proxies in place—and it isn’t as though I’m the only one of the clan whoever sent an email or browsed on the internet. We might have been discovered at any point, but we were not.”

“She’s quite talented and intelligent. Your point has been well made,” I grumbled.

My dragon did not appreciate the fact that it was a woman who’d managed to best us. He did not adhere to anti-sexist thinking. A creature of ancient times.

“And a faithful friend,” Tamhas added, as though he had not already driven the point home. “She took quite a chance, coming out here to find her friend. She knows no one in Scotland. In fact, the impression I’ve received of the lass is that she is more than a bit anti-social. Her choice of occupation is not accidental. It allows her to work alone, away from the world.”

“I suppose we have that much in common, then,” I muttered. “Though we separate ourselves more by necessity than by choice.”

Dallas’s voice came through my earpiece. “Alan, come in.”

“Alan here.”

“We’re at the loch, planning to cover the banks before heading into the woods. All looks normal here.”

“And the same here, along the west face,” Owen reported.

None of this was a surprise. Keira would naturally go back to the place where she’d found Emelie’s bracelet, which would take her along a path heading south. Tamhas led the way to where the signs of struggle were spotted.

“Here,” he said, pointing to a clearing where one birch had fallen against another. “This is where the bracelet was, and as you can see, the leaves had all been brushed away as though someone slid through them.”

“Or crawled,” I murmured, turning in a slow circle to take in the scene. Not a pleasant image, but there was little else the scene before me brought to mind. Someone had taken Emelie by surprise. And she’d tried to get away.

“I doubt it was an animal,” I murmured to Tamhas as the rest of our team surveyed the area. “There would be blood.”

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