Suffocate In Spirit - Shadows of the Night 4

Chapter 19

My breath whooshed out of me, hard and fast. My eyes relocated on the computer screen to my left, doing its black routine in stoic silence.

"Can you check who of the security personnel had access to Brown's office?" I said, words pouring out of me.

"Already did that. I checked the day of the last transaction that showed up on the record of the unknown account, figuring whoever took the information did it that day or at least one or two days afterwards. All in all there were three shape shifters on duty. Two of them members of the Fade pack."

I was still staring at the black computer screen. "Show me."

I saw the funny look he gave me from the corner of my eye, but ignored it. He moved his chair back to his computer and the screen flared to life. He logged in wordlessly, while I made my way over, tension spiraling up and down my arms.

A few mouse clicks and the rapid blinking of colors and dots on screen.

"It's here," he finally said.

I leaned forward, staring at two unknown faces. Members of the Fade Pack. I remembered both Alexander's and Fabrice's words. That the alpha of the Fade pack wouldn't work together with the Raven if his life depended on it. There had to be something else. I stared at the screen for a long moment.

"Show me who else worked within that time frame and had access to Brown's office."

He turned to look at me. "Why? I thought we were looking for shape shifters in particular?"

"Just do it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Bossy, aren't we?"

I have him a dark look.

He sighed. "Fine."

* * *

Night had begun to settle, darkness drawn over the city like a blanket of cool silk. I watched the clouds move and shift over the rising moon. The light arched over the Circle's headquarters like a pale, dirty half-halo.

The building was disguised by and draped in magic, crowned by the neon tubes reading Spira. The sight had fooled many a human passerby. Most of them would never know what the word really meant. The name stood for a computer software company and concurrently a corporation trading in the stock market. That it was basically a phantom company of the Circle and that its headquarters was plastered into the middle of the financial district was unknown to the greater part of the non-magical population.

It had taken me even longer to get back into the city. The drive from the apartment to the Circle's headquarters had been long and tiring. I was caught up in one of those rare traffic jams winding its way through the most frequented streets.

I needed to talk to Andy, discuss what Kenneth and I found out. Or at least what we thought we found out. And I would have talked to him, hadn't it been for Brown's phone call. My boss was one of the last people I wanted to talk to at this point in time, but Brown demanded I meet him at the Circle headquarters. Asap. If the head of the Circle calls in the middle of the night, it means business. I knew that. So here I was.

The steps leading up to the entrance had never looked as steep and high as they did this night. I climbed them anyway. I had no idea why he called me in. Didn't know if I should mention what Kenneth had found. Didn't even know how to do that.

No matter what, this meeting might end in a clusterfuck that could unsettle the whole Circle and have me walk Spanish. If the puzzle I'd completed and solved in my head was more than that – not a puzzle, but stark naked reality – things were going to deteriorate. This might be bigger than even I thought.