Page 67 of Crimson Oath
“No, because I was distracted by your smell of plastic and fried potatoes.” Oleg folded his hands on the table. “I gave someone a phone to track where she was, and my personal secretary who oversees these things says she can no longer see the location.”
It had been in Arosh’s fortress for several nights, then it was in a parking garage, then it had simply disappeared.
“Oh.” Grisha opened his laptop and began typing. “Have you tried calling it?”
“No.”
“Okay.” The human frowned before his eyes went wide. “Does this personknowshe has the phone?”
“I expect yes. By now she would.”
“But she hasn’t called you.”
“No.”
“Does she have your phone number?” He frowned. “Do youhavea phone number?”
“I do.” Oleg pulled the slim electronic device from his pocket. It was the first phone he’d ever had, and there was only one number programmed in. The device was in a thick plastic case, and he handed it to his secretary every morning to take care of it while he slept. “I programmed that number into the phone.”
“But you haven’t called her?”
“No.” It was up to Tatyana to call him. He wasn’t going to chase her anymore.
Well, he was, but he wanted to give her the feeling that she was reaching out to him, not being tracked. “Is there a way to discover where the phone is right now?”
Grisha folded his hands and leaned forward. “So if the phone’s battery has died, we cannot find it.”
“Why not?”
“You gave her a phone,” Grisha said. “Not a chip or a tracker of some kind? Like… a tag?”
Oleg scowled. “She is also not a beagle.”
The human lifted both hands. “Of course not, but the most likely thing that happened is that she didn’t know she had the phone, so the battery died. And once the battery dies, a phone is essentially dead.”
“I see.” Oleg hadn’t thought about batteries. He turned over the black plastic thing in his hand. His phone was always charged. He’d assumed they were self-powering. “Interesting.”
“But if she turns the phone on, I can track it,” Grisha said. “If you give me the number, I can put an alert on it so if the phone is turned on and pings a tower, I can triangulate it and find a location. If that happens, I can let you know. Or your secretary.”
Very little of that made sense to Oleg, but he nodded anyway. Mika said the young man was one of their most competent computer employees.
“Yes,” Oleg snapped at him. “Do that.”
“Of course.” Grisha started typing again. “Tell me the number please?”
Oleg rattled it off, then pushed back from the table. “Good. You must send a message to Mika or my secretary when you find it.”
“If.”The man sounded a little panicked. “If I find it. If she doesn’t charge the phone?—”
“Yes, yes.” Oleg waved a hand as he stood. “She will charge it.”
His little wolf would be too curious where the phone came from. Or she would know where the phone came from and she would want to berate him for being pushy or overbearing or something like that.
Mika walked into the room just as Oleg was standing up. “Are you finished?”
“Yes, my young friend is going to track Tatyana’s phone and tell me when it turns on again.”
“If she hasn’t thrown it away or shorted it out,” Mika said.
