Page 83 of Awry
“But,” Coda moans, “my tech and —”
“I’ll help you pack,” Gigi spits again.“We’ll ship it.Zaya, we’re on the other side of the fucking globe, sorry.”
“This isn’t necessary,” I choke out.“I just haven’t had much sleep.”
“We’re coming,” Gigi says.“End of discussion.”Then I can literally hear her stomping off, doors opening, then slamming shut.
A long pause follows, in which I unfold myself from the pretzel shape I’ve twisted myself into and cross back to the sink to splash more water on my face.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur.“I’ll talk her out of —”
“We’re coming,” Coda says tersely.“What Gigi wants, she gets.”
“But … you —”
“I’ll be fine.We’ll spend some favors and get a private plane.No shipping, and minimal time outdoors needed.”
I huff, trying to wrap my mind around the monumental offer that Coda and Gigi have just made to me.It’s possible that Coda is actually agoraphobic, among other things.The hacker could and would compensate with multiple travel routes and methods to move through the world— and multiple escape routes to back those up.
I should protest more, except I just … I just don’t want to.
“There’s a beach house …” I say lamely.“And a cottage deeper in the south woods.Plus, here in the main house, lots of places to tuck yourself away.”
“It’ll be fine,” Coda snaps, getting testy now.
“At least use some of my favors,” I say, getting a bit pissy back.
The hacker ignores me.“Tell me what you need.”
I sigh, forcing myself to leave the comforting closeness of hiding — from no one — in the tiny bathroom and to wander back into the kitchen to check on my ice cream.
“Your aunt?”Coda asks.
“I don’t have enough info about that yet,” I say, scrubbing my hand over my face.According to the timer on the machine, the ice cream still needs another ten minutes to churn.
“I need photos to track her movements,” Coda says, the tapping of their fingers heard in the background once again as they fly over keyboards.“That is … if she left the property?Because that’s just one big … void … even for me.Maybe when I’m actually on site, I’ll be able to see it all better on a digital level?”
“I think …” I still haven’t managed to piece much of the puzzle of the last few hours of my aunt’s life together.The cake I still need to clean up left to grow moldy in the front room, afternoon tea interrupted.Or a visitor?The mage in the beach house scrying before dropping dead, and the shifter digging something up in the family graveyard.The third bond mate … missing?Or maybe they, Devlin, dropped dead somewhere off the property?That could be something for Coda to track.
“She … Disa … would have to leave the property to be killed.Not that I even thought that possible, at all.There must be some photos on my phone …” Except I can’t think of a single recent shot that would have included my aunt, not even on her last birthday.Lots of shots of the food we ate that day, though.“And her combat mage, Devlin, is unaccounted for.”I haven’t been out to the cottage, didn’t even know if Devlin used it as a base, but the shifters have presumably checked it by now.That assumes they know the cottage exists, of course.But Rath seems to know the property.Too well.
“I’ll start working with what you have,” Coda says, having obviously already checked my phone for photos.“But if you can find something originally captured on film, it would be better.”
Essence didn’t generally unintentionally affect technology, but digital selfies with the Conduit were a completely different thing.
“They can be older, but a solid shot of her face is best,” Coda adds.“I can feed in the other details, height, weight, you know.”
“Well, she never looks … looked … much older than her midtwenties, so …” I struggle, suddenly breathless again, through another staggering well of grief.
Another pause, then Coda speaks carefully.“Same as you.”
I don’t answer.
“You didn’t call about your aunt.Didn’t ask me to help.”
“No.I … couldn’t.”
Coda lets it go, but I get an inkling they aren’t that happy that I’ve been keeping secrets.“I’ve sent you everything I have on Precious.Her father is a fucking piece of shit, and he pretty much runs the Federation.The government there are just pretty puppets.Shifters, sex, drugs, he traffics in all of it.Weapons, money laundering.Mercenaries.You want someone killed in the nastiest of ways?You hire through Cataclysm MC.”
