The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

VOC Insight

"That, we are," Lash said with a thin smile. "Regardless, they're working theories, not facts. I'd just rather have proof before sentencing thousands of Vorinov vampires to death by declaring a clan war."

He then wryly chuckled.

"And I still haven't ruled out some level of involvement by Nosferatu!"

Narcist joined him in that wry chuckle.

"All these twists and turns certainly fit their M.O., that's for sure," she added.

"I'm half tempted to send Dru in to see if she can ferret anything out that we could use. Or we could just hit a couple of their Great Houses on principle, because they are plotting against us regardless," Lash said after sobering slightly.

"She would, too," the veteran tech said. "She's completely smitten with you. You could ask her to do pretty much anything and she would." She frowned. "They all would, come to think of it."

Lash sigh.

"Yeah, and that's the problem. I say the wrong thing out of context and I'll have a lilith-only strike team on the battlefield looking to ash some bastard out. And the Conclave will peg me out the first chance they get!"

Narcist looked at the frowning vampire for a long moment. And in doing so, saw the burden of responsibility he now carried, some self-imposed and some imposed on him. It was a marked contrast to what he carried when she first met him seemingly forever ago.

Then Lash had carried only anger, fire, and the need to spill blood. He was a tempest of destruction that saved her, Truk, and eventually Fiadh more times than she cared to remember.

Reaching out, she laid a light hand on Lash's arm.

"You're overthinking it, boss," she quietly pointed out. "The liliths are smart women and they've got your back. They won't charge into battle and get you, and themselves, into trouble. Not to mention, it's in their best interest to keep you in the best health possible."

Lash looked at her, his face uncertain as he considered Narcist's words. Then, in a show of how much he trusted her, he sighed and nodded.

"You're right, of course," he said, chuckling wryly. "I'm getting way ahead of myself. I need to focus on the here and now. Like hacking the VOC database and getting that report!"

"Right!" Narcist smiled, giving Lash's arm a squeeze. She then turned to the war table.

"Now. Let's see how far we can swim upstream on this live connection!"

The two vampires turned to their task with determination, both moving quickly over their interfaces. In response an image of the pathway they were trying to 'swim upstream' on appeared, with various symbols indicating obstacles they needed to overcome in order to continue progressing.

After what felt like a solid hour of work Narcist leaned back from her interface, her face wearing disappointment and frustration like a mask.

"Not sure who constructed these data pipes but they were determined to prevent backflow," she said with a shake of her head. "Even with you running interference ..."

Lash's mouth twisted with disappointment. They had made almost no progress, outside of mapping the pipeline back to ...

"Wait!" He leaned forward to stare at the map they had laboriously built. "Can you match those network locations to GPS coordinates?"

Frowning, Narcist returned to her interface with determination.

"Maybe," she said as she furiously worked. "I'll have to overlay the network addresses with Internet locations using the IP address database at ICANN in Los Angeles and ..."