Page 21 of Pack Rage
“But my mama does. I spoke to her last night. She talked to me for a good while, and she had an idea.” I explained what Mama had said about the silver, and her magic. “Then she said she’s going to Eastern, to confront Callaway, whether I go or not. That she’s dying anyway. She wasn’t lying.” My lower lip trembled, but I jutted out my chin to make the tears stop.
“She can do what Grigor did for this house?” Glen whispered. “The look-away spell?”
“She used one on the hallway outside the Alpha’s bedroom last night. She used it on herself all these years in the woods. She says she can wrap one around another person, if she needs to. Or two people.” I turned in his arms, facing him now. “What I need to make this work is more information. You’ve stayed at Eastern, right? You know the layout. I heard you tellin’ Sergeant about the cameras and security systems and whatnot.”
Brow furrowed, he nodded. I jumped out of bed, throwing on one of Del’s t-shirts and a pair of sweatpants, plus some clean underwear that one of the girls had snuck under my arm as we left the Pack House the night before. I threw some more clothes at Glen, then jogged into the kitchen and gathered up paper and a stubby pencil from Del’s junk drawer, calling for Glen to join me.
“Can you draw it?”
Glen did a quick sketch, then added a few more details. “The Mansion is set on about two hundred acres of land, in New York, northwest of the city. There’s a fence that surrounds the Mansion and a few dozen acres, with gates at the front and back. There are three entrances to the Mansion itself—here, here, and here, plus the servant’s entrance here.” He pointed to the front, both sides, and the rear of the main building, which was a sprawling estate that made the Southern Pack House look like a broom closet. The servant’s entrance was through a massive, connected building that he explained was a garage. “They have Enforcers at the gates, but they don’t use many guards to monitor the fences, or at least they didn’t. They rely on their tech, the cameras, with Enforcers inside watching. If they see anything, they send out guards.”
“How many Enforcers do they have?”
“Not entirely sure. Eastern has a thousand or so shifters total, but most of them don’t live near the Mansion. They have pack meetings here.” He drew a semi-circle on the east side ofthe main building, a good distance away, with trees between it and the house. “The fights and pack runs start here. Council meetings are held there as well, under the moon.” He sketched out the doors to the main house, adding in some guarded outposts.
I squinted at the doorways. “Those are the only ways into the main house?”
“No, there’s one more.” He drew it in, an entrance surrounded by trees on a winding drive that came up to the western rear quarter of the house. “No one outside the family and senior Enforcers are supposed to know about this entrance, but Finn showed me and Brand some secrets when we fostered there. That was the biggest one.” He let out a long breath. “I remember when he took us past the rear entrance to the lower levels, on a morning run around the property. We didn’t go in, but Brand went poking around and asked about it. Finn was shocked that he could even mention it to us. He said there was an Alpha command on everyone who knew, even him and his sister, not to tell anyone other than family or their pack’s inner circle about it.”
“Good thing you’re family. He calls you brothers, and he means it,” I said, staring at the map. “Do they use keys, or…?”
He shook his head. “That entry’s a gate covered with ivy that blends into the back wall. After you drive in, a door inside requires a thumbprint. One of the family.”
Finnick.I knew, if I could get close, I could send some thoughts to Brand, and he would get Finnick to let us in. But the cameras there would be hard to take out. “What about the servant’s entrance?”
He blinked. “I… don’t know. They have a lot of house staff, and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t give them keys.” He closed his eyes, thinking. “I passed by that entrance once, and saw a woman bringing in crates of meat for the kitchens. She pusheda button and called out her name, Susan. That was it. And then someone buzzed her in.”
I almost grinned. Del had taught me that if I couldn’t hide, a disguise was a good second option. “Perception is every bit as important as reality. People see what they expect. What did Susan wear?”
“The same thing all the staff wore. Black shoes and skirts. White shirts.”
“Skirts. They’re all women?”
He shrugged. “All the staff I’ve seen in those uniforms. The males are guards or Enforcers.”
I sneered. Of course the women did all the real work. “Do they wear something like an ear tag? Or a leather choker?”
“No,” he said, rubbing the stubble on his chin. “They’re quiet, though. Just like the Southern Pack House staff was under Callaway, only the clothing is nicer at Eastern.”
“That’s it. That’s how I’ll get in. With a little magic, a little disguise, and some luck.” I tried to think of what I’d missed. “Where exactly are the cameras in the back of the property?”
He added them to the map. “Two years ago, they were here. They could have added more since.”
“Why would they? That’s a shit ton of technology already.” I stared at the dozen cameras he’d indicated. “Nice of them to hide those on the trees for me,” I muttered. “Hope they left some good low branches to get up to ‘em. Hmm. Drones, too. Maybe… Maybe we’ll need one of those guns after all.”
“Guns?” Glen echoed me, his voice faint.
Our bond flared with alarm, and I grabbed his hands. To my shock, they were trembling slightly. “Not for the guards. For the cameras we need to take down, and the drones. We could even use a slingshot.”
He pulled his hands away, folding his arms to hide the shaking. “No, you’re right. A gun will be faster, and moreeffective on the tech. All right. I’m not any good with a slingshot, but I do know how to shoot.”
I knew he was remembering the feeling of the bullets tearing through him; I could sense it in our bond. “We can find another way. It’s not our only option.” He took a breath to say something, when a knock interrupted him.
“Flor?” Dean called from outside. Glen jumped up and opened the door.It was raining slightly, but Dean didn’t step inside. He had the sat phone in his hand and gave it to me. “Brand’s just pulled up at the Mansion. He says something big has happened at Eastern.” When I gestured him in, he shook his head. “Also, vans are arriving at the main gate here. Ten of them so far.”
Shit.
“Council troops?” Glen demanded.
