Fangs of Fate (Untish #1)

Chapter 41

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

CHANCE

Command Central was a literal mess. Files covered the entirety of the counters, desks, and even some of the control board. Paper files. Apparently, leadership here did not appreciate modern technology. Holland and I had been instructed to meet the head of the base here twenty minutes ago. I paced over to the board and picked up another file, browsing it. They were all the same. Personnel files from all the staff on base.

“I suppose we can just commandeer the library and cart these files over there,” Holland spoke as she lifted a stack of files in her arms.

“You’ve got to be kidding? We can access all this electronically.” I looked at her like she’d grown two heads.

“Dale, leadership was using these paper files for a reason. My gut says that there is a reason for that. With all the redacted information and missing or classified digitalized reports, I can’t help but wonder if these paper files offer something that our electronic ones don’t.”

I just leveled a look at her. I was done having the same conversation.

“What if the attack wasn’t just physical? We know they breached the lab and database in the Eastern Outpost, what if they contaminated our e-files?”

My jaw dropped. How had I not thought of this? It would explain so much—and it would prevent yet another argument.

“Gather as much as you can and let’s go commandeer that library.” I began scooping up files. This would take a while.

A knock on the door drew my attention. Anax Clark and Dux Carran entered the room, the latter looking just as confused as I must have at first.

“As you can see, the files are all here as promised. Our hunt has been going…slowly,” Anax Clark said as she walked over to the whiteboard on the wall. It looked like something out of a murder mystery, red lines connecting to names and photos of evidence. Definitely old-school.

“Why did you choose to use paper instead of the electronic files?” Holland asked. Did Anax Clark suspect a cyber-attack as well?

“I personally believe you can’t see the whole picture with just electronic files. It helps to visualize it. Believe it or not, we didn’t always have electronic files and disks to project our data. It used to all be paper.” Anax Clark huffed a sigh. Her light blonde hair was freckled with grey, and her shoulders held a certain slump to them—a tell-tale of age.

“So, you resorted to paper because it helps you see everything?” I asked, my voice held a bit of superiority, even I could admit that. But it was a long day and if I was honest with myself, I was disappointed that she too hadn’t drawn the same conclusion Holland and I had.

“Boy, I’ve told you once and I’ll tell you again, seniority knows a thing or two. Anax Clark was my commanding officer when I first enlisted a century ago. Somethings are better old-school.” The look on Carran’s face softened as he gazed at Clark.

My shoulders involuntarily shook. The image of those two?—

“What did you conclude?” Holland’s voice interrupted my train of thought. Thank Mother Blood.

“Not much. I have listed three potential moles based on their whereabouts and possible motives. But honestly, I know these three and I have a hard time actually believing any one of them did this.” Anax Clark pointed to the board where three photos of young-looking vampires were.

“Did you find any evidence of tampering with our database or research facility?” I asked.

“No. Not here at least. EO’s research database was breached and their command center is where most causalities were found. However, I’ve been instructed to focus solely on this base’s attack and none of the assailants made it past the inner courtyard. Nothing of value there. Not really sure why they even bothered.” She pushed large, thick-framed glasses higher up her sharp nose. They say a nose never stops growing and dear blood, hers must’ve been growing for a century or two.

“What of intel value is there in the inner courtyard?” Holland asked, approaching a map in the corner of the room.

“Not much.” Clark walked, or rather limped, over to the map to show Holland where they entered.

“They breached the wall here,” she pointed to the far eastern side of the outpost, “then cut a path through the outer courtyard, past the dokimoses’ lodging, and made their way here to the inner courtyard.” She drew a path with her crooked finger.

“Is that a power frame?” I pointed to a box in the map near the inner courtyard.

“It is. But we never lost power,” Clark answered, shaking her now crooked finger in a way that took way too much effort.

“You wouldn’t have to lose power for them to siphon data,” I said. It was all beginning to make more sense. The Southern Outpost was known to have the largest data stores of all four outposts due to the fact that it was the oldest. There are certain files here that aren’t even housed at HQ and are still being uploaded to the cloud. This was purely an intel mission. It had to be.

“Who here has clearance to access the database?” Holland asked walking back to the who-done-it board.

“Most of the staff. All arches and the majority of dokimoses. It’s a part of their training. Although,” Anax Clark paused taking a deep breath, “in order to access anything of value you’d need a higher clearance badge or a hell of a coding genius.”

“How many of ya’ have upper-level clearance?” Dux Carran spoke from the corner of the room. Even from where he stood, his voice was far too loud for the tiny space.

“Well, I’d say all anaxes and duxes have higher clearance, but the only ones who can access the entirety of all classified files is myself, Dr. Webbler, and Dux Johns.”

Interesting. I looked at Holland and she looked back at me. The board didn’t list any of those three.

“Thank you for your time, Anax Clark, we know you must have a lot going on. Do you mind if we set up in the library?” Holland asked, I could feel a prickle in the air. Subtle, but powerful.

“Not at all. I have a lot to do. With you all rolling in like bats out of hell with tall tales of evil creatures, I’m swamped with enough paperwork for a lifetime.” Clark looked at Carran. “Not that I mind, it’s good to see you again.” There was definitely history there.

My shoulders shook. Fuck, I didn’t want to think about that.

“Great. We’ll let you know when we hear back from HQ. We submitted our reports about four hours ago and are waiting to hear back.” Holland scooped up her folders again and then started to head for the door. The tingling in the air stopped immediately.

Anax Clark and Dux Carran blinked several times before nodding in response. Gross, just gross. I picked up several files and followed Holland out the door and down a series of halls until we reached the library.

She set her stack down on the table and then looked to me. “This is going to take a while. Anyone you trust to help us sort through the basics?”

“I wouldn’t trust anyone who was here for the security breach…” I paused, smiling as a thought occurred to me. “But I may have someone new in mind.” A certain blue-haired pixie would be perfect for this.

Hours later my phone buzzed. HQ had finally reviewed our files and I was informed we would have a meeting in forty-five minutes. Perfect. Enough time to finish organizing this utter chaos and then hopefully start getting some answers. If our enemies were willing to use dark magic and they breached our database, then we needed to act, and fast, or we would lose any upcoming battles. Knowledge was power. If my father taught me anything, it was that.

The smell of dusty books was beginning to make my nose itch. Shae was hunched over a stack and making a list of names of dokimoses, arches, duxes, and anaxes. She, of course, came up with an idea to sort the data based on rank, security clearance, and whereabouts during the attack. So far, we were merely filling out the first two columns while Holland was working on placing each person during the attack.

“This would go a lot faster if you’d just let me access the electronic files, I could run a program and?—”

“Shae, we’ve been over this. For now, it’s paper.” I cracked my knuckles before opening another folder.

“I’m just saying, there’s a lot of data here, Chance.” Shae huffed, blowing a blue piece of hair out of her eyes.

“Yeah, well this is a heavily occupied base.”

“Your mom is a heavily occupied base,” Shae retorted, half grumbling.

“And just when I thought you’d grown up,” I teased, elbowing her gently as I circled the table to grab the next stack of files.

Holland circled over from the other table and came over to where Shae was working.

“So, you two grew up together?” Holland didn’t look up as she asked the question. Ever the focused dux.

“You could say that, although I’m not sure that one ever became an adult.” Shae pointed a thumb at me and winked. “But yes, we went to school together, and used to hang out a fair share before this one got too cool for us and up and left for the guara five years back.”

“So…there is a history,” Holland stated casually, even though I could swear her cheeks were coloring. Was she jealous of Shae?

“I mean, I guess. Who doesn’t have history?” Shae clearly wasn’t picking up on Holland’s line of thought.

I sucked my fang. “Would that bother you?” I asked Holland.

Her brown eyes snapped up to mine and for a minute she just stared. “Just making conversation, Dale.”

I’m not sure how I felt about her jealousy. I mean, yes, we hooked up, but it was never a relationship. At least not a spoken one. Females, they were all the same. Too easily attached.

“Oh…” Shae’s grey-blue eyes snapped up to Holland’s honeyed eyes, widening as realization dawned on her. “You mean, you thought?” She bit her lips to stifle a chuckle. “No, blood no! We’ve never been that way.” She giggled and covered her lips with her hand.

Apparently being intimate with me was funny.

“I mean Tate and Chance, now they were always the item, the couple everyone talked about, you know? But me, never. He’s uh, not my type.” Shae cleared her throat and walked to the next stack at the table behind me.

“Tate, huh?” Holland asked.

“Yep, they were like hot and heavy for a bit until…well, until they weren’t.”

“Hot and heavy?” Holland actually looked a little sick.

This was not good. I wasn’t ready for the emotional entanglement a relationship brought. Perhaps it was best Holland thought of me as unavailable. Then again, she clearly couldn’t focus on anything else. Pride swelled within me.

“I wouldn’t say ‘hot and heavy’ . But my romantic history is neither here nor there. How’s your list coming, Holland?” I tried to redirect her to the task at hand. Even if I was secretly pleased she couldn’t get me out of her head.

“My list?” Holland’s eyes bugged out. “Oh, my list. Right, uh I thought, well never mind what I thought.” She shook her head. “It’s coming. Slow but steady.”

“Just like I’ve heard Chance likes it?—”

“Shae, it’s Dux Dale here.”

“Right, should I salute you, or does your ‘anax’ have that one covered?” Shae smirked, clearly noting my aroused state. She was insatiable.

“You two sure sound like there’s a history…” Holland let the accusation hang. Her pale cheeks were flushed and she tucked some brown hair behind her ear while sucking on a fang.

Fuck me. How had I gotten here?

“Shae’s not interested in me, or really any male .” I rested my hand on her shoulders.

“Oh.” Holland’s eyes snapped to mine. “Oh! I just, I’m sorry I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s none of my business anyways. I just thought?—”

“Girl, you are not the first one to be flustered over this one. His count has got to be miles long, but if he’s into you, then he’ll make sure you know it. But like Chance said, nothing to worry about here.” Shae patted Holland on the back before swapping out stacks of files. “These have been all added to my list, they’re ready for you now.”

So much work. I looked around. The files would take at least a week to go through. If we had more help, maybe we could cut down the time but who else could I trust here? I released Holland’s shoulders and walked back to my clipboard.

“Anyone miss me?” a gruff unmistakable voice came from the entrance to the room. I could feel spit spraying. Rusty.