Page 74 of Lovesick Titan

“But if we leave it, if we wait and try to get more intel on Ludgate first…” Lucy said.

“Danny’s friends and family could end up dead and Ludgate wins,” Mal finished. He stopped and turned to his crew. There were others he could call in to increase their number but no one else he trusted, not with a rescue mission. Not with Danny’s identity. “We have to risk it. Have to reveal Ludgate is behind everything and get his influence away from Zeus.”

“How?” Dom asked, crossing her arms defiantly, much as she hardly looked ready to call it quits.

“We need help to take Ludgate down for good, and there’s only one place all our missing people could be.”

“Zeus’s hideout,” Oz said. “Do you know where it is?”

“No, but I have an idea how to find out. Still need someone on the streets, and you’re our best chance for backup if things go awry. You’ll continue to patrol the neighborhood, but be ready on the comms if we need you.”

Oz nodded.

Frowning, Mal considered their next course of action. “We have to locate the hideout and keep an eye out for Ludgate and Zeus at all times. There’s no way to know where Ludgate might be looking through at any given moment, no matter how carefully we’ve checked for reflections, and we have no idea how to neutralize him if he shows up.”

“Actually,” Priestly brightened as he swiveled his chair back to the computer, “I may be able to help with that. Remember your other directive for me, boss? I accessed Zeus’s home computer while I was inside the house. Found some interesting tech on there to mask reflections. It wasn’t just the outside windows that were frosted. ‘Hades-proof’ is right.”

“Can you make it portable?” Mal crossed back to him, and Oz, Dom, and Lucy backed away to let him through.

Complicated schematics and coding appeared on the screen. “Not without time we don’t have. Zeus’s team was probably working on the same thing. But if you give me an hour,” Priestly glanced at Mal over his shoulder, “I might be able to make it so you can pop a flash drive intoany computer and at least seal off a single room. Could keep the safe house more…well, safe, and—”

“No.Doit. But I’ll be taking the program with me.”

“Where?” Lucy asked.

A plan—a solid, working, improbable but entirely possible plan—started to form in Mal’s mind. “Dom, Lucy, get your gear. Oz, get back on patrol. As soon as Priestly has something I can take with me,” he looked to each of them and felt his confidence returning, “I have one more stop to make before we take this fight to the source.”

Chapter19

For all of Mal’s audacity and love of the game, what he was doing now had never entered his mind as worth the risk for any amount of payoff. But if Ludgate got the drop on them before they found Danny’s friends, they might never get this chance again.

One thing that could always be counted on about people was that they rarely recognized someone out of their element. Take a guy they’re used to seeing in all black or suits or a sleeveless duster and goggles and put him in a baseball cap, sneakers, and hoodie with his hands shoved into his pockets, and even the few officers who looked right at Mal as he strolled through the OCPD merely walked on by without a second glance. Mal had considered donning his stolen police uniform again, but he couldn’t take the risk of someone catching wise at a second sighting.

He wasn’t stopped once during his trek to Captain Shan’s office.

“Hey. You’re not supposed to be…” the captain didn’t finish when Mal closed the door behind him and pulled down his hood, tossed aside his hat, and held a finger to his lips with a silent hush.

Shan tensed, hand going to his gun though he didn’t draw it, as Mal crossed the room to the man’s computer. He ignored the captain until he’d slid the USB into place and every reflective surface in the office turned matte just as Priestly had promised.

“Wouldn’t want our mutual friend Ludgate to eavesdrop,” Mal said, facing the captain, who’d let his hand go limp as he looked around the room at the frosted surfaces. “Wish I could take credit, Captain, but this one belongs to Zeus’s team. Pity I can’tfindthem anywhere.”

Sporting a wary frown, Shan snapped back to Mal. “What’s going on? Where’s Grant?”

Mal smiled. He’d suspected the captain knew Zeus’s identity; now he was certain. “So you haven’t seen him yet…” That might actually work in their favor.

“He’s still on suspension until next week. Thanks toyou. Went to all that trouble to protect your unworthy hide, and there was still an anonymous tip pointing to your location. Couldn’t look the other way when it got sent to every detective in the precinct. You getting sloppy, Cho?”

“Not an anonymous tip, Captain. Danny himself made that call.”

Shan’s eyes betrayed his surprise. “You finally screw up? He was ready to fall on a bullet for you.”

“Yeah,” Mal said with no humor in his voice this time. “I think he just might have.”

Despite how on edge he appeared, Shan relaxed while waiting for an explanation, so Mal gave him one. Told him everything he’d discovered, as well as his concerns that Danny’s friends and family were in danger because Danny wasn’t himself.

“I need their help to put the missing pieces together, but all of them are MIA. You wouldn’t happen to have seen Grant Senior today?”

“No…” Shan sagged into a look of concern. “So this copycat isn’t a copycat? It’s Zeus?”

---