Page 116 of The Mech Who Loved Me
Xander paled, shakinghishead.
"You're a tool, Xander, that's all you and the rest of the humanists are to them. They're the ones stirring up the riots. They don't care how many humans or Nighthawks die in the streets. And I'm trying to stop it. We're on the samesidehere."
"Fuck." Xander scraped his hands overhisface.
"Can youhelpme?"
"What do you want to know?" Xander askedhoarsely.
Relief flooded through him—he hadn't been certain if his oldest friend would do this. "Tell me about the humanists, tell me what they're planning, what they're up to, what the latest rallyingcriesare."
And Xander did, spilling about riots, and people getting together and muttering, and the odd theft. Nothing he neededtohear.
"What are they complaining aboutthemost?"
"It's the blood taxes, K," Xander said. "Those cursed draining factories looming in the East End, churning with blood—our blood—to feed those pasty-faced vultures. That's the bone of contention. Some said we should blow them up, but then the taxes will go up again to refill them, and the Echelon guards them like hawksthesedays."
"That's not very helpful. How could this weapon—" Kincaid froze. He'd been phrasing it carefully, to keep Xander in the dark about Black Vein, but if he called it what it really was... it all made a horrible sort of sense. Poison. Black Vein was poisonous to blue bloods, and how better to poison the whole bloody lot of them than to contaminate their food source? "Jaysus, that's it. The draining factories." He shoved to hisfeet. "Ava?"
She and Maggie appeared in a flurry of skirts. Ava looked to him. "Whatisit?"
"Ulbricht's not looking for dart guns, or pistols. He's going to poison the blood supplies at the drainingfactories."
Twenty-Eight
"LET'SNOT WASTE any more time," Malloryn commanded, slipping inside his steel-plated armor vest. "We're looking for humanists, or Ulbricht and his SOG, but don't forget thedhampir. They've seemingly gone to ground, but we cannot afford to presume they won't resurface at somepoint."
They were gathered near the outer edge of the factories, and smoke billowed into the moonlit skies as the factory furnaces burned coal. Ava breathed into her cupped hands. Nerves skittered in her belly. They needed to shut down this attack before it began, but she hoped they wouldn't be clashing with humanists tonight. ForKincaid'ssake.
Maggie had given another hint before they left: some of the humanists had been talking about bombing the factories. Hopefully those plans hadn't amountedtomuch.
And it might be a hunch—Ulbricht wanting to poison the blood supply—but she hoped it paid out. She wanted this done, case or no case. She'd proven to herself what sheneededto.
"Hold still," Byrnes muttered nearby, tugging the laces on Ingrid's armored corsettight.
"I'm not the one who can be poisoned," Ingrid muttered, and theireyesmet.
Kincaid checked his pistol, shooting Ava a look as if to say he knew exactly how Ingrid felt. Ava had insisted upon coming, and Gemma was fitting her out in split skirts, with an armored corset, and a set ofpistols.
A hiss of rope whirred past her as Charlie rappelled off the top of a building, landing in the street beside them and unhooking his grappling device. "There's definitely some suspicious movement near the factories. Lynch is coordinating the Nighthawks at factories one, two and three, and he's content to leave four and five to us. I couldn't afford to get too close, but there are dozens of shadows slipping into thefactory."
"Ulbricht?" shedemanded.
"Can'tsay."
A sudden noise rattled her to the core. Avaflinched.
"Just a cat," Kincaid murmured, stroking her back. He did thatoften.
She couldn't quite explain to him why she was so nervous. He'd insist she staybehind.
"Move out," Malloryn said, slipping the auditory device into his ear so he'd be able to communicate with them. "And keep your eyes open. If it is Ulbricht, then I want himalive."
"And if it's the humanists, then we use minimum force," Kincaidinsisted.
"Indeed," Malloryn murmured. "Unless we're backed into acorner."
Ava slid the small brass communicator in her own ear, hearing the crackle of someone's harsh breathing. She wanted to be brave. She wanted to help the others, and she hated the idea of seeing Kincaid head in there without her to watch his back, but factory five loomed aheadofher.
