Chapter 11 – Offer

Tracking their target had been tedious, frustrating, but incredibly satisfying when they’d finally tagged him. Lucy had gotten a snapshot of the vehicle in question, a motorhome, but no picture of the man coming and going. Still, knowing it was a motorhome drastically cut down on potential places that he could stop, especially given the limited capacity of the tanks.

The bulk of the real tedious work had been tracking him to other places than the gold exchange, which required a lot of running around in beast form, and finding which direction the motorhome had gone. That wasn’t his work, but Lucy pulling traffic camera images from each of the major exits. Eventually, though, they’d found he was going south, and Roy had generated a list of probable stops. It would have been faster if they’d had access to GAR’s teleportation network, but they did well enough on their own, visiting a dozen campsites and taking turns sleeping as they drove from place to place.

When they’d picked him up again, it took a lot more time in beast form to track his scent to a second used bookstore. Roy took a flying leap and decided to check other stores on the southward track, and they got more hits than misses. Neither of them had any idea what their target was looking for, but the pattern was undeniable. Stopping only for gas and snacks, mostly in the form of jerky, they tried to get ahead of him.

Alpha Chester had made it clear that directly approaching him was not likely to go well. He didn’t know that anyone was tracking him and had vanished for a good reason, so showing up out of nowhere was likely to be dangerous. At the very least, it would obliterate the only actual lead they had on him, one they’d been exceedingly lucky to find in the first place.

At one of the used bookstores they actually got a good description of their target, having missed him by only a few minutes according to the scent trail, though it didn’t match what John and Roy had seen in the café basement. Which didn’t surprise them, but it was very useful in giving instructions to local shifters on the Alpha’s behalf.

They got a description of one Denver Brown, and instructions to not approach or ask him anything, but ensure that the owners of used book stores along his path would phone in if they saw him. And that they’d include one of Alpha Chester’s cards.

It wasn’t exactly a long shot, but it was more indirect than he liked. Even if Brown got a card in with his books, it wasn’t guaranteed he’d even see it anytime soon. Or if he did, that he’d call the number. So when he finally got a text that Brown had been spotted, and that one of Alpha Chester’s cards was included with his receipt, John and Roy physically crossed their fingers and waited for a message from the Alpha.

Even if he’d told them not to engage, they really hated not being able to bring in a target for Alpha Chester.

***

Callum spent a good few minutes panicking and not doing anything in particular other than picking up the card, looking at it, and dropping it again. He was suddenly possessed of an urge to drink, or smoke, or something, but he didn’t keep any of those vices in his motorhome so the best he could do was pop a soda and somehow cut himself on the aluminum tab.

He grumbled to himself and wrapped a tissue around it, taking a few sips before heading up front and driving off. There was no way that he could avoid calling that number, but he wasn’t going to do it in the town they’d obviously tracked him to. Even if Alpha Chester wasn’t exactly the GAR authorities, Callum didn’t trust that he was safe to interact with. In fact, Callum would probably have to ditch the magical phone he’d gotten after the call, just so it couldn’t be traced back to him specifically. Which was irritating, because those were a lot harder to get than a regular burner.

Fortunately, there was always plenty of empty space outside of any city proper, small back roads and wooded lanes that were miles away from anyone. He navigated to a point essentially at random, making sure there was nobody nearby with his spatial sense as he pulled off into a small gravel lane. Putting the motorhome into park, Callum teleported the card into his hand and took out the phone. When he dialed the number it didn’t ring more than once.

“This is Alpha Chester,” a deep voice said. “Thank you for calling, Mister Brown. Or should I call you Mister Hall?”

“Brown,” Callum said decisively. Better to stick with his current identity, whatever it happened to be. He didn’t even think of denying it; that would just be stupid. “How did you find me?”

“I can assure you, Mister Brown, I intend you no ill will. If you will hear me out I will tell you exactly how we tracked you down. The why will become obvious soon enough.” Callum had to admit the man had presence, even over the phone. His voice was perfectly calm without being condescending or threatening in the slightest.

“Very well,” Callum said. “I’m listening.”

“While I am aware you wish no credit for it, I owe you for what you accomplished in Winut. Clara is my grand-niece and if she had come to harm, things might have gone poorly. What you may not know is that Winut is not the only place within my territory the vampires have been trying to expand.”

“So you want me to take out other nests.” Callum chewed his lip. “I don’t have any desire to become a mercenary.”

“I don’t blame you,” Alpha Chester said. “But the only talent I know you have is that of delivering death, and you have a willingness to do so outside of GAR’s accords. If I knew more of your capabilities I might have other ways to employ you, but you strike me as a man who prefers his secrets, so I won’t ask.”

“I appreciate that,” Callum said dryly. “Considering I’m not even certain I’ll agree to this job.”

“Let me begin by assuring you that I will not, under any circumstances, tell GAR about you. I’m assuming that sooner or later you will change your identity again, so doing so would only get me your ire, and I do not want that.” Alpha Chester’s rumble remained steady and calm, and Callum had to wonder if he’d rehearsed his speech. “I know a potential asset when I see one, and I could offer you quite a bit in exchange for your help, all completely off the record, of course.”

“I see.” Callum put the phone on speaker so he could rest it on the dash, since his cheek and ear felt like they were almost burning from the combined heat of the phone and stress. “Money isn’t really an issue for me, but I could use information. Lots of information, especially about mages, the way their magic works and their society.”

Part of him hated admitting that much, but he was already compromised with Chester, so it wasn’t really that much of a risk. As Chester had said, if things went badly he’d simply vanish again, though if he had to do that money might well become an issue. It turned out to be surprisingly easy to burn through cash when he had to abandon everything he’d purchased.

“I can certainly offer that,” Chester said thoughtfully, not even asking why he needed it. “I have access to an expert in mages who also does not officially exist. While he is generally reclusive, he owes me enough that I can set up a meeting with him. By phone, I would assume.”

“Possibly,” Callum admitted. He was sorely tempted. Not that he liked the idea of going around killing more people, but when it came to vampires there weren’t any real moral objections. What was more, it wasn’t likely that anyone would be able to link him to them other than Alpha Chester. So really he wouldn’t be more exposed there.

“Tell me about what you need done,” he said at last.

“There are four shifter towns that the vampires have targeted,” Alpha Chester began. “Down from five, after what happened in Winut.”

“But why? If vampires have to prey on humans to survive — they do, right?” Callum asked, and got an affirmative from Chester.

“It’s a political move. The way representation is handled within GAR is complicated, but they are effectively abusing rules and a lack of enforcement to establish nests where they should not and ultimately reduce my influence.”

“Which means that there’s probably all kinds of places with no protections at all against vampire predation,” Callum said. There was a brief silence, as if Chester was actually startled by that particular conclusion, before the Alpha spoke again.

“Yes, though they generally tend to stick to the cities, and GAR places limitations on their immigration numbers.” Callum wasn’t impressed by that. Not that he was going to go even further vigilante, but it seemed to be madness to him to allow any predators of humanity into the world if they could avoid it.

Not that he was much surprised. People were stupid and would ally with the devil himself if he promised them power. While he didn’t know the full truth of vampires, it was obvious they were powerful. Enormous amounts of guns, gold, and goons didn’t come from nowhere.

“So you want me to take care of the other four?” Callum made a face. That was quite the ask and he wasn’t sure he was quite ready for that level of massacre. Or that he had the tools for it. There was no guarantee that he could approach the others the same way as the last one.

In fact, he’d gone over his actions in Winut again and again, partly to just reconcile being able to commit such violence, and partly to recriminate himself over being so careless. Luck had played a major role, since there were a dozen ways things could have gone badly, both with the vampires and the shifters. Even with all that luck on his side, he’d been found by GAR solely because he was still in the vicinity and absolutely couldn’t stand up to close scrutiny.

“In short, yes. I understand there is a risk of the Vampire Council itself becoming interested, but considering your circumstances you don’t have anything to fear from them.” Chester sounded amused at the thought.

“Won’t it be obvious you’re involved if these trouble nests of yours are all attacked?” Callum figured Chester knew what he was doing, but it seemed a pretty transparent ploy.

“Possibly. I intend on having the local Alphas challenge as soon as you’ve neutralized the vampires, which should muddy the waters, but I need not admit anything to anyone. The vampires decided to abuse the rules, so they have only themselves to blame.” Chester’s voice changed from amused to cold and hard.

“Is there a time constraint?” Callum teleported his notepad to himself and started jotting down ideas. Part of him was staggered that he was even thinking about it, but he knew he really needed the information and resources and contacts that Chester could offer. Not that he was planning to be a mercenary, but he couldn’t do other things without revealing he was a space mage. And he wasn’t even that good of one yet, either, since he couldn’t do long distance teleportation.

Callum figured he needed knowledge of how to do that plus a solid basis for enchanting in order to be properly independent. Actually, he needed that whole checklist that Gayle had provided, if he wanted to pass as a mage at all. The only way he was going to get that was to do some work for other people. He couldn’t make a career out of running and hiding.

“Some more than others. I will text an information packet to the phone you’re using, if that works for you.”

“Sure,” Callum said, tapping his pencil against his lips. “Access to your expert for the first job, and additional payment for the others as events warrant.” He knew that a targeted hit was probably worth a lot. Millions, in the mundane world, though probably less in the supernatural world. He had no idea how to arrange a dead drop or the like for any other kind of payment, but he could figure it out. He wasn’t going to do it for free, even if he firmly believed human predators needed to die.

Stolen novel; please report.

“So you’re willing?” Alpha Chester asked, even as Callum’s phone buzzed with the receipt of an incoming text message.

“Probably,” Callum said, looking at the text message. It had an attached picture that, according the message, had his information embedded inside. It wasn’t something he’d seen before, but it seemed easy enough to deal with. He teleported his laptop and connector up front to transfer it over, not too terribly worried about potential malware. It wasn’t like he was keeping the phone, and the laptop got scrubbed fairly often. “I’ll text you after I have the chance to read this over.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Alpha Chester said.

“So, how did you find me?” Callum had almost forgotten the question, distracted as he was by Chester’s offer.

“Ah, I had my trackers follow your scent from the area near Keith’s store. Where you asked him to pass a message. From there, it was a lot of hard work following your movements until we could get surveillance footage. We probably would have lost you eventually if you hadn’t hit every used bookstore on the way south. That’s how I could anticipate you.”

“Ah. I appreciate you telling me.” Callum almost groaned. He hadn’t even thought about how stupidly predictable he was being. Though from the sound of it, the only reason he’d been caught at all was because he violated the golden rule of changing identities. He’d reached out to someone his current identity shouldn’t have known.

“Was there anything else, Mister Brown?”

“No. You’ll be hearing from me soon.” Callum hung up the phone. Once the file was transferred over to his laptop he removed the memory card and cast out his sense to find a good place to discard the phone. Finding a tree hollow, he displaced the phone there and drove away.

Part of him was getting annoyed at having to get a new burner every time, but he’d stopped getting smartphones a while back, so it wasn’t that terrible an expense. Alpha Chester probably wouldn’t bother to tap his phone or trace his location, but Callum couldn’t know that. Nor could he know if other parties were listening in, ones that Alpha Chester wasn’t aware of or hadn’t mentioned.

It was only hours later, driving any direction but south, that Callum parked and looked at what Alpha Chester had sent him. The file was all text, with no pictures of the vampires or places, but the précis was to the point, giving an address, a priority, and a count of assets. There was even a categorization of the type of mage that they had with them, though only two of the four had mages.

That just seemed short-sighted to Callum. He knew what mages could do, and it didn’t seem that shifters or vampires or even fae had any good way to keep mages at bay other than their natural speed and toughness. While he’d still have to check, those two wouldn’t be even moderately dangerous for him.

After teleporting around the town until he found a restaurant with free wifi, Callum searched the locations of the vampire nests, finding them sprawled out across Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Something like eight hundred miles of driving, according to the maps, so it wasn’t something he could do in a day.