Page 14 of Aleko
“And I’ll be looking for you to continue to keep this level of safety in mind for him,” said Trevor.
Alex nodded again. Selkies had pods that acted very much like packs. Trevor was telling him that he expected Alex to keep Colin safe as though they were part of his pack.
“Your brother is my brother,” said Alex, which was an old wolf phrase to fall back on, but Alex didn’t know what else to say. He wanted to keep them safe, but the truth was that he agreed with Colin.
Trevor nodded, looking reassured.
By the time he hit the water, Alex was feeling steadier. Like everything else that had led up to this point, he could only takeit one step at a time and face the challenge in front of him. Colin gave him the thumbs up and began his dive downward. Even without shifting, the selkies had no trouble regulating their oxygen levels and had no need to make the steady descent that Alex had to take. On the way back up, they would be even more irritating as they would simply swim back to the surface without worrying about the bends. Alex could always go ahead and follow, but it would take his healing power a few minutes to catch up, and he’d spend the intervening time upchucking the contents of his stomach and feeling the bubbles burst in his bloodstream.
Trevor jetted ahead of them—the massive bodied North Atlantic grey seal looking distinctly out of place in the Aegean. He turned summersaults to annoy his brother, clearly laughing at the two human-shaped swimmers, before streaking down to the next air bubble. Seals could hold their breath for an extended amount of time, but even they couldn’t complete a dive at this depth without additional oxygen. It had taken Alex two days to recover from setting the air bubbles in place. The magicless air of Greece required him to use only his own strength to bring them into existence, and that level of magic work had left him exhausted.
By the time they reached the wreck, Trevor had stopped doing tricks and was sticking close to his brother. They all could feel the press of something ugly lingering over the ship. It gave Alex the urge to scrape at his skin as if to peel off a layer of slime, but it didn’t appear to be affecting them otherwise. Alex scanned the wreck, turning his head to allow the camera attached to his mask to pick up the entire scene. The ship was cracked between the mid-ship and the bridge and lay on its side in a slight V. The crack had been determined to be too dangerous as the initial point of entry. They would be methodical, slow, and safe. Alex tore his eyes away from the jagged, black fracture in the metalskin of the ship and held up his thumb to show Sebastian and Pellos watching the live stream on the boat that everything was OK.
They started at the stern as they had agreed. TheStrumwolkewas an S-boat armed with torpedoes, and two flak guns mounted aft and mid-ship. At just under seventeen meters long, the boat was designed to go fast and hit hard. It was a patrol boat, not meant for long-haul voyages, but the paper trail that Hudson had discovered in Germany indicated that theStrumwolkehad been intending to tie in with a destroyer and then make its way up the coast of France and detonate their payload in the English channel. The Allied team had chosen to attack before it reached the destroyer. At the time, Britain and France had the largest concentration of Supernaturals fighting for the Allies. Alex estimated that the death toll would have been closer to five thousand had theStrumwolkesucceeded.
The aft hatch was open, the door half ripped off its hinges and hanging like a broken tooth out onto the deck. Coral had grown on it, but the branches looked sickly. He scanned the deck again and realized that none of the plant life that had taken root on the ship looked healthy. According to the plans, the rear of the vessel had one room, but there would be three cabins under the domedkalottebridge. Alex knew the odds were that there would be no bodies left inside. Marine life would have taken care of any remains if there were any left, but still, he steeled himself. Alex inhaled deeply from his oxygen tank and reached for a glow stick on his belt.
Trevor nosed into the aft hatch and popped back out, giving him a head shake. Alex looked in as well, holding the glow stick in front of him. The cabin was riddled with bullet holes but empty. He shrugged and pointed toward the bridge—both the Green brothers nodded.
They got to the domed bridge and stopped at the doorway,where the metal door hung askew on one torn hinge. There, wedged in the doorframe, was a Ka-Bar knife with anAcarved into the flat end of the pommel. Those were American issue, and Alex knew exactly where this one had come from—he’d sent it to Howell.
Episode 11
Sergio
Eliandra
Lia waited on the main floor of Sergio’s warehouse and tried not to shiver. He did a lot of cold storage, and the warehouse was a good twenty degrees cooler than outside. Sergio had sent a car for her at five, but it was now six, and his Arabs still hadn’t shown up. She’d gotten half her fee upfront. The euros made a reassuring lump in her pocket. And she was pretty sure he’d pay her for her time whether they showed up or not, but she got more nervous as the forklift drivers and all the employees began to shut down and finish for the day. The office manager said goodbye to Sergio, apprehensively glancing at the bodyguards before scuttling away.
Through the open door, she could see a cargo-type ship docking at the Ash Enterprises warehouse. The black wolf head logo was enormous on the front of the building. She always thought it looked like Anubis. She knew there were at least three other Ash facilities, but this was the one that everyone thought of astheAsh warehouse. She could also see his red sports car still parked in front. She had been hoping that he would have left by the evening, but apparently, that had been too much to hope for.
The crew of the Ash ship seemed to be doing all the things that came with unloading, although no one seemed to be in a hurry. As she watched, a large boat pulled up to the dock. It wasn’t a yacht—just a very sizeable, very expensive boat, like the kind that did tourist and fishing expeditions.
“Close the doors,” Sergio ordered. “I don’t need them seeing everything I’m doing.”
Lia didn’t think they could see anything, but she still sighedwith what was probably relief when the doors shut. She didn’t particularly like Sergio. She knew he dealt in black market goods and refugee smuggling, but at least no one claimed that he was an ageless devil. Even without that rumor, what she heard from her shipping industry clients was that Ash was ruthlessly territorial. What was his, was his, and he wasn’t about to make exceptions or make nice just because someone happened to be his neighbor.
The local residents all called him Mr. Alekos. They liked him well enough. He spent money, after all. But she noticed that when they mentioned him, they all touched the little blue glass circles that dotted houses and jewelry and were meant to ward off the evil eye. But even if she didn’t believe the stuff about the devil, she still could see the way his red sports car parked wherever it wanted and never got a ticket and how Eizo and the rest of the police never wanted anything to do with him.
Until the previous night, Lia had never seen him up close. And while she knew he was handsome—tall, blue eyes and dark black hair—she had completely underestimated how terrifyingly compelling he was. When he had kissed her, she hadn’t justnotpulled away. She had leaned in. And when he’d ordered her to come with him, she had nearly complied. She wasn’t sure why he wanted to find her so badly, but thinking about him gave her a feeling of buzzing bees in her stomach. She wondered what would happen if he did find her. What did he want with the wand? Or did he want her? He’d said he needed her. Or had he? She wasn’t entirely sure what language he’d been speaking. Some of it had been English, but she was almost certain that some of it wasn’t. But sometimes, things got confusing for her. It had been better in Greece, but there had still been a few incidents. Sometimes her memory wasn’t her own. And it was possible that she just wanted him to want her. And if she was honest, that was a more realistic explanation.What would a manlike him want with her anyway?
As the warehouse doors closed, Sergio sent some of his people to bring inthe shipment. Sometimes she thought he forgot she didn’t just switch off understanding Italian when she wasn’t speaking in a meeting.
Two men entered, carrying long crates, and pried off the tops with a crowbar. Inside were long green, military-looking chests, and those were lifted out and placed on the floor.
“Look,” said Sergio, coming over to her, “these people arenot nice.” Considering Sergio’s illegal side businesses, she wondered what kind of people he thought werenot nice. “So don’t say anything more than what I tell you.”
She nodded and rubbed her arms to keep the goosebumps down. Sergio was sweating in the cool air, and for some reason, that made her feel even colder.
“A car is coming,” said the bodyguard by the door.
Sergio began to unlock the chests and flip open the tops. Lia braced herself to see some sort of armaments or something else she would have to turn a blind eye to. But inside, she could see what looked like rocks. She took a step closer. They weren’t rocks—they were clay tablets. Some of them were broken and fragmented. But she could see the indented press of symbols on the front. It looked like a mix of Latin, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and another language she didn’t recognize. Like all things relating to languages, she felt the itch to investigate. But she stopped herself and tried to look like she wasn’t interested.
Sergio eyed the crates and fiddled in his pocket like he was turning over his keys. He’d been doing that all afternoon, and his fidgeting was not helping her nerves any.
The car that pulled up was a Rolls Royce Phantom with gold rims. It was closely followed by two black SUVs. Bodyguards got out of the first SUV and came into the warehouse. When they had surveyed the space, they went back out and openedthe door of the Phantom. A woman exited first. She was dressed in something tight but not too short. She looked like the kind of person Lia thought her stepmother always wanted to be—painfully thin, collar bones jutting out into view above her white Versace dress, with oversized sunglasses above red, red lips. Next out was a sheik. He wore traditional Arabic robes and head covering.
The sheik put on a N95 facemask. The woman gave him strong side-eye and didn’t move to copy him. Lia supposed that a mask would muss her lipstick. Lia pulled up her scarf mask. The sheik looked like the man with the money, so she thought she ought to keep him happy.
