Chapter 174

The limousine pulled up to a private hangar at the airport. A jet with the Navarre royal crest on its tail was waiting. Their luggage was being loaded onto the plane. A crew in smart uniforms stood by. On the tarmac nearby, a cargo plane’s ramp lowered, and the ground crew carefully loaded the Mustang, Bugatti, SLR McLaren, and Ducati into the cargo plane.

“Your chariot awaits, Your Highness,” Louis said to Angelique, bowing.

“Why, thank you, kind sir,” Angelique replied.

“Can I get a bow too?” Maeve asked.

Louis bowed to her. “Of course, my lady.”

Maeve laughed. “That’s still too bourgeois for me.”

“Alright, Comrade Fyres.” Louis straightened up. “Let’s board.”

She went still. He hadn’t used that name since West Virginia. He thought he’d made a mistake until a slow smile spread across her face.

“Almost got me, Collins,” she said. “You’re lucky I like you.”

“I know.” He kissed her cheek. “Let’s go.”

They boarded the jet and settled into the plush cream-colored seats. A steward offered them mimosas and fresh fruit.

“It’s smaller than the Presidential jet,” Gladice said, looking around the cabin.

“Because we are the exiled royal family of Navarre, not the rulers of the Dominion of the Pacific,” Angelique said.

“Still,” Gladice said. “It’s not bad.”

“Ain’t nothing we have is bad,” Savannah said.

Cherish took a mimosa and looked out the window, watching the ground crew secure the cargo plane.

“I wonder what my parents are doing now,” she said.

“Probably blowing up another Dixie convoy with snakes and gasoline,” Gladice said, raising her glass. “God bless those crazy bastards.”

“Don’t say that,” Cherish said. “They are not crazy. They are just traditional.”

“Okay,” Gladice said. “Then they are traditional crazy bastards. My salute to Nicholas and Rita stands.”

Cherish gave her a weak smile and went back to looking out the window.

“Don’t mind her, Cherry,” Donya said, putting a hand on her arm. “She’s just being Glads.”

“I am always Glads,” Gladice said. “It’s my superpower.”

“Hey!” Charles shouted from the front of the cabin. “Who wants to play Knights and Battlemages? Jacques is already getting his ass kicked!”

Savannah smiled. “I’ll beat y’all.”

She went to the front of the cabin and sat with Charles and Jacques, where a large monitor was set up.

Willa opened her laptop. “I’m going to see if I can trace the foundation’s employees. Maybe one of them made a mistake and used a personal account for something. A slip like that can tell us a lot.”

“Good idea,” Louis said. “Social engineering, right?”

“Right,” Willa said. “People are creatures of habit. And they are often lazy. Especially when they think no one is watching.”

The jet took off. Louis looked out the window as the city shrank below them. Cherish took out her phone and started playing a chess game.

“How do you like your new phone, Cherry? Still getting used to it?” Louis asked.

“Yes,” Cherish said, moving a knight. “You can do so many things with it. I never thought I’d have something like this.”

“Who are you playing against?” Maeve asked, leaning over.

“Nora,” Cherish said.

“Who’s Nora?” Donya asked.

“I don’t know,” Cherish said. “She’s a very good player. She always wins.”

“Maybe she’s a professional chess player,” Willa said, looking over her shoulder. “Or a bot.”

“What’s a bot?” Cherish asked.

“An artificial intelligence,” Willa said.

“Oh,” Cherish said. “So she’s not real?”

“Probably not,” Willa said.

“That’s disappointing,” Cherish said. “I thought I made a new friend.”

“You have many friends,” Angelique said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “And you will make more.”

“I know,” Cherish said, moving a bishop. “Still.”

Louis thought of the way she played chess in the underground bunker in Beckley, the intense focus on her face as she defeated Henry and won the knife that had saved them. He’d never seen someone so gentle be so ruthless in a game.

“Have you thought of becoming a champion? Of chess?” he asked.

Cherish shook her head. “I’m not good enough. I just play for fun.”

“You’re better than you think,” Louis said.

“Maybe,” Cherish said. “But I don’t like competition. It makes me nervous. I like to win. But I also feel bad for the other person when they lose.”

“Except for Henry,” Gladice said. “You didn’t feel bad for him.”

“He was not a bad person,” Cherish said. “And we were playing for things we needed. Not for fun.”

“I always knew you guys were up to something,” Maeve said.

“Why didn’t you report us?” Donya asked.

“Because I was curious,” Maeve said. “And because you were not the usual prisoners. You were… different. You fought, but you also took care of each other. Like a family. I never saw that before.” She smiled. “Now I’m a part of it.”

“And we are glad to have you, Comrade Fyres,” Gladice said.

“Stop calling me that,” Maeve said.

“Alright, Mae-Mae,” Gladice said.

Maeve rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

Angelique looked at Louis. “I’m worried about Common Roots. We have no leads.”

“We have some,” Willa said, looking up from her laptop. “I found a personal blog of a former employee. She quit two years ago. She wrote that she was disillusioned with the foundation’s direction. That they were no longer focused on helping people, but on collecting data.”

“What kind of data?” Louis asked.

“All kinds,” Willa said. “Birth certificates, medical records, education history, employment records, criminal records, social media profiles. Anything they could get their hands on.”

“Why would they do that?” Donya asked.

“I don’t know,” Willa said. “But it sounds like they were building a massive database of personal information, for some purpose.”

“Maybe they are connected to Lumen Path Shipping,” Louis said. “And they provide the data for the kidnappings.”

“That’s a possibility,” Willa said. “But we need more evidence.”

“Can we contact her?” Angelique asked. “The former employee.”

“I tried,” Willa said. “Her blog hasn’t been updated in a year. Her social media accounts are deleted. She has gone dark.”

“I can ask Robin to look for her,” Louis said. “He has better resources than we do.”

“Good idea,” Willa said.

Louis typed a message on the secure channel. A response came back a few minutes later.

“Robin says her name is on the missing person database. She disappeared a year ago,” Louis said. “Just after her last blog post.”

“Shit,” Willa said. “They got to her.”

“Or they silenced her,” Gladice said.

“I think they killed her,” Maeve said. “That’s what they do to people who get in their way.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” Donya said.

“I hope so too,” Maeve said. “But I’m not optimistic.”

“What about the founder?” Angelique asked. “Who runs the foundation?”

“His name is Sebastian Croft,” Willa said, looking at her laptop. “A respected philanthropist, born and raised in Seattle. Passed away three years ago. The foundation has been run by a board of directors since then.”

“Let me guess,” Louis said. “The board members are all upstanding citizens with no ties to anything illegal.”

“Pretty much,” Willa said. “Lawyers, doctors, academics, business leaders. All with clean records.”

“A perfect cover,” Angelique said. “And a perfect way to stay hidden.”

“Where are they now?” Louis asked. “The Dominion Guard should have found something.”

“Robin says all of them have been on vacation since last month,” Willa said. “In different parts of the world. Switzerland, Fiji, Monaco, the Maldives. And they are shocked and appalled by the news. They condemn any illegal activity by their employees, and they are fully cooperating with the investigation.”

“Can we arrest them anyway?” Maeve asked. “And beat the truth out of them?”

“No,” Louis said. “I doubt they know anything. They are probably just figureheads being paid well to sign documents and attend galas.”

“Why last month?” Angelique asked. “Their vacations?”

“That was when we were abducted in New Orleans,” Gladice said. “They probably wanted to be far away when the shit hit the fan.”

“That’s a good point,” Willa said. “A little too convenient, if you ask me.”

“Maybe it’s just coincidence?” Donya said. “People go on vacation all the time.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Gladice said. “Especially not big ones.”

“So the foundation is a shell, the board are puppets, and the employees are ghosts. What does that leave us with?” Angelique asked.

“How about the employees’ families and friends?” Louis asked. “No one can disappear without a trace in the Dominion.”

“Robin is already on it,” Willa said, looking at her laptop. “He says most of them are single, no children. They have few friends and little social life. They are loners. Very convenient.”

“Most of them?” Louis asked.

“There is one exception,” Willa said. “A junior researcher named Ethan Brown. He has a wife and a newborn daughter. His wife just called the Portland police to report him missing. She says he was called into the office for an emergency meeting at 3 a.m. And she lost contact with him this morning.” Willa looked up at them. “Robin says this was about an hour before the Dominion Guard raid.”

“So he was called in to destroy the evidence,” Louis said. “And then they took him with them. To keep him quiet.”

“Or to kill him,” Maeve said. “To eliminate a loose end.”

“And what about the wife and the baby?” Donya asked. “Are they safe?”

“The Dominion Guard is on their way to their apartment,” Willa said. “To protect them and to question them.”

“This is our best lead,” Angelique said. “We need to talk to her.”

“I agree,” Louis said. “Let’s go there as soon as we land.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Willa asked. “She just lost her husband. And she has a baby. She might not be in the mood for a visit from us.”

“We have to try,” Louis said. “She might know something. Or she might have something of his. A phone, a laptop, a notebook. Anything that can help us.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Willa asked.

“Then we will go to the Bourbon Mansion and take a nap,” Gladice said, stretching. “Because I’m getting tired of this shit.”

“Me too,” Maeve said.

“I could use a nap,” Cherish said, looking away from her chess game. “I lost again.”

“You will get her next time, Cherry,” Donya said.

“I hope so,” Cherish said.

“Can we focus on the mission?” Willa said. “Please?”

“I am focused,” Gladice said. “I’m just multitasking.”

“Right,” Willa said.

“What do you think of this Ethan Brown?” Donya asked. “Was he a victim or a villain?”

“Maybe a little of both,” Angelique said. “He might have thought he was doing a good job. Helping people. But then he found out the truth. And it was too late for him.”

“Or he knew what he was doing from the start,” Maeve said. “And he got what he deserved.”

“We will find out when we talk to his wife,” Louis said.

“I hope she’s okay,” Cherish said. “And the baby.”

“I’m sure Robin’s team will take good care of them,” Louis said.

“Let’s hope so,” Willa said. “Because I have a feeling this is not going to be a simple conversation.”

“I have a question,” Cherish said. “What happened to the other branches of the foundation? In the Collective, the Central Union, and the Great Lakes Alliance.”

“Good question,” Willa said. “Let me check.”

She typed on her laptop. After a few minutes, she looked up.

“Robin says the branches in the Collective shut down a few weeks ago. The employees were laid off. The office was closed. But the ones in the Central Union and the Great Lakes Alliance are still active.”

“So they are still gathering data there,” Louis said.

“Looks like it,” Willa said.

“Can we get someone to check them out?” Donya asked.

Philip leaned forward. “I would suggest caution. The Central Union values its neutrality. And the Great Lakes Alliance is not our ally. A Dominion investigation on their soil could be complicated.”

“Dad’s right,” Angelique said. “We can’t go in there without a very good reason. And without permission.”

“So we will stay in the Dominion,” Louis said. “For now. We will focus on Ethan Brown’s wife. What’s her name?”

“Emily,” Willa said. “Emily Brown.”

“Let’s hope she can help us,” Angelique said.

“Got you! I won!” Savannah shouted from the front of the cabin. “Again!”

“Lucky shot!” Charles said. “I demand a rematch!”

“Bring it on, prince boy,” Savannah said.

Louis smiled. “I’m glad someone is having fun.”

“We need it,” Gladice said. “Before we get back to the ugly stuff.”

“I’m sorry about this,” Angelique said. “I wanted you to have a nice visit to my home as a vacation.”

“Are you kidding?” Maeve said. “This is the best vacation I’ve ever had.”

“It’s not a vacation, Maeve. We’re hunting for a conspiracy,” Willa said.

“Same difference,” Maeve said. “I get to ride a Ducati and punch bad guys. That’s my idea of a good time.”

“You are a menace to society,” Willa said.

“And you are a nerd. A hot nerd, but still a nerd.”

“Thank you, I think.”

Louis’s phone buzzed. A message from Robin on the secure channel.

Dominion Guard has secured the apartment. Emily Brown and her daughter are safe.

Louis looked at Angelique. “Good news. Robin’s team is with her.”

“That’s a relief,” Angelique said.

“But it doesn’t make this any easier,” Willa said.

“No,” Louis said. “It doesn’t.”