“I already have been, but convenience is more important than cost.”
“Spoken like a true multimillionaire.”
He glanced at me, eyebrows rising. “You’re not exactly poor, dearest Bethany.”
“Thatis beside the point.”
He shook his head, asked Henrick to open the trunk, and retrieved what looked to be a small medical kit. The neutralizing spray was inside. “Arms out.”
I obeyed, doing a slow turn as he quickly and efficiently sprayed me. I wasn’t sure what was in the damn stuff, but by the time I climbed into the car, the horrible scent was gone.
“Sealand next, sir?” Henrick asked.
“Yes, thank you.”
As we smoothly pulled away from the curb and rejoined the traffic, I said, “What do we know about this place? Anything?”
“I called the real estate agent, but he couldn’t tell me a whole lot about its current usage, other than the fact it had been rezoned several months ago for commercial purposes.”
“Did you get a buyer’s name?”
“It was rented, not purchased. The agent was reluctant to part with the rental information, but I convinced him.”
“Threat or bribe?” I asked, amused.
“Cash generally opens more doors than threats. The renter’s name was one Elise Andersen.”
“I take it you’ve run a background on her?”
“I had someone run it for me. Hopefully that way, we’ll delay any alerts being raised if they’re watching everything I do.”
“If the rat followers have infiltrated the IIT, then it’s likely they’ll also have alerts placed on particular names, too.”
“It would depend on whether Carla’s aliases are known by them.” He paused. “Of course, it’s also possible this whole thing is a trap.”
My gaze darted to his. “What makes you say that?”
“The fact it was rented between Macsen’s second and third break-ins. Elise wanted immediate access and paid one year in advance.”
Which wasn’t suspicious in and of itself, but if Mathi’s radar was twitching, I was going to listen. “How are we going to deal with the situation if it is?”
“Henrick will cruise past so we can check if there’s anything untoward going on externally. If there’s nothing obvious, then we’ll approach from an unexpected angle.”
“Unexpected meaning what, precisely?”
His smile flashed. “A roof or skylight is always a good option when they’re expecting you to go through the front or back door.”
“I hope there’s a ladder, because this butt is not designed to be clambering up the side of a building.”
“You don’t need a ladder. Just order the wind to lift us both up there.”
“We could both be taking our lives in our hands, you know that, don’t you?”
My voice was dry, and he laughed. “I trust in the fact that you have no desire to depart this world until you’ve found your mother’s killerandhad your fill of Cynwrig. I suspect the latter could take alongtime.”
“He’s expected to take a wife once he and his sister are crowned, and that gives me at most six months rather than years.” And then there was the whole deal about my allotted time of death, which I couldn’t mention to Mathi because he wasn’t aware of that yet.
“Then all you have to do to delay his marriage is not find Geitha’s Tears.”
