Pete pulled up the calendar app with a worried look on his face and searched Greg’s calendar. “Her name is Lorelei Reichenbach. Boss, I recall asking you toe see the… anomaly, but I can’t recall what it was.”
“Same for me,” Kirk agreed.
Roy looked to Mary. “I’d be curious if you would be affected by the audio.”
“DON’T YOU DARE! I don’t want to have something removing memories from my mind,” Mary snapped.Text ? owned by N?velDrama.Org.
Roy held up his hands in surrender, then he looked to Pete. “Please make a clip of the lobby footage between 5:05 PM and 5:07 PM and send it to my ount. Don’t worry about the memory block. I’ll see if I can’t get it restored.”
He looked at Mary and gestured for her to follow. He ducked into the supply room and handed Mary seven packages of earplugs. “Get Team One. Three vehicles for the return trip. Take a pair of these for yourself and hand the rest out. Earpieces will be useless due to the nature of her abilities. We’ll need to use hand signals only. I seem to be immune to the sound… magic. You might be as well as I suspect it might be due to the Wild Magic but just in case, wear them.” Her eyebrows rose then she hustled away. He called Cam.
“Hi Roy, what’s up?” she said.
“Hi, Cam. Where are Henry and Sigrid going tonight?” he asked.
Cam snorted. “Aren’t you taking your role as Henry’s dad a little far?”
“We have a situation. Where are they?” he asked again.
“They’re going to the Met, then out to dinner.”
“I’m taking a security team to meet them,” he exined.
“Shit. I’ming too.” She disconnected.
He nodded to himself as he’d expected her to say that. Roy went back to the surveince desk.
Pete turned to look at him. “We just watched the video of us calling you over to see the anomaly. It’s disturbing that we can’t see what we were talking about or remember it.”
“Yeah, it’s tricky shit. I need to show Cam. Did you send me the file?” Roy asked.
“Yes, boss!”
“Good. We’re heading out, so I’ll see you twoter,” he said, looking into their eyes, and they nodded. He didn’t like the unease he saw there. He was going to do something about that.
He marched out into the lobby and met Cam. They took the elevator down to the garage and saw the SUV’s ready to go. They had VRL drivers for each so the vehicles would remain nearby for the extraction. Team One was in the second and third vehicles, so Roy opened the back door of the first, and Cam entered and slid over behind the driver as he entered and closed the door. Mary was in the front passenger seat and turned to face them.
“Where to?” she asked.
“The Met,” Roy said.
Mary used her radio to pass that along to the other two vehicles, and they started driving.
“What’s the threat?” Cam asked.
Roy described the events in the security department with the video. He gave her his working theory. He pulled his cell out and yed the clip for Cam, turning the sound off first.
“What caused them to all do that?” Cam said, then frowned as she scanned the video back to watch the reaction again. “It didn’t affect Henry or Sigrid.”
“The woman sings… magic. Her song didn’t affect Sigrid or Henry, and it doesn’t affect me either. Well, I feel thepulsion, but I can resist it,” Roy exined. He gestured to Mary. “I think Mary might also be resistant, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
“So, who is this woman?” Cam asked.
“ording to Greg Wilson’s calendar, her name is Lorelei Reichenbach.”
Cam’s expression clouded with a frown. “That name… seems familiar. I’ve read it somewhere.” She shook her head as it wasn’ting to her. “Shouldn’t we call Sigrid? Warn her?”
Roy shook his head. “As they aren’t affected by the woman’s ability, they shouldn’t be directly at risk, but we are talking about someone with significant power. We were lucky her little test didn’t have a more severe action. There’s a high risk for coteral damage and drawing the attention of the Hidden Races Council.”
“What kind of race has this kind of power?” Mary asked.
Cam thought about that, and there was only one she could think of… and they didn’t exist any longer. Her eyes locked on Roy’s in shock.
“Aye, tis the witch again, if I’m right,” he sighed to Cam quietly.
“Hello? Is someone going to answer my question?” Mary said in annoyance.
Cam looked at her. “Do you recall Mab’s party? In the main hall, the waiters and waitresses were Fae disguised as Djinn and Naiads. That was Mab’s direct jab at the Hidden Races Council, who were directly responsible for the genocide of these two races when they refused to hide from the Humans with the others. Naiads were said to have the ability to control people with their singing.”
Mary blinked at Cam. “If they’re extinct, how-oh! She’s like Henry! Baba Yaga pulled her through time?”
“Yeah, it’s highly likely, but I suspect she isn’t connected to the Wild Magic. The biggest threat she faces is the Hidden Races Council, who’ll probably want her dead,” Roy exined.
Cam beamed a delighted smile at Roy. “You’re protecting her like we protected Henry and Nate!”
He looked ufortable. “Look, you were right about those two, so you’re probably right about this one. I need her to reverse what she did to Pete and Kirk.”
“How do we approach her?” Mary asked. “The Met is a pretty public spot.”
“If she panics, she could cause some severe trouble and chaos with the Human patrons. This is a first contact mission. We’ll keep her under observation and look for an opportunity to establishmunication with her. The team will remain out of site, roughly encircling the target, one gallery away at all times, maintaining line of sightmunications. There may be other observers, so we’ll need to watch for that as well. If Hidden Races Council operatives are identified, we’ll need to get the target out as quickly as possible, and that’s our highest risk scenario.”
“Are we putting Henry at risk? Are you sure we shouldn’t be contacting them?” Cam asked with a frown.
“Henry has no training at surveince and security work. He’s an innocent, and he’s safer remaining unaware.”
-=-
Sigrid giggled at Henry’s attempt to act like the worldly and sophisticated double oh seven spy.
He arched a brow while maintaining his role, cooling surveying therge chamber they were currently sauntering through. “There’s always a master thief or a foreign spy at the museum. One must maintain a high level of observation, or one will get caught up in their intrigue, be that an international smuggling ring or… a threat to world peace!” he said with a soft voice in a terrible imitation of a British ent.
Sigrid’s giggles burst into fullughter, and Henry’s impression of the world’s deadliest spy cracked into a happy grin. He’d won the prize he was after. He loved seeing Sigrid happy.
He nced around at the faces turned in their direction. It seemed not everyone was as pleased to hear the joyful sound ofughter. One set of eyes connected with his, and he felt an almost physical jolt at that. She must have felt it as well, as the tall beauty quickly looked away with a flustered expression and returned to looking at the portrait she stood before. Henry swore he saw a blush on her cheek before she turned away.
Henry looked back to the sweet smile on Sigrid’s face. She also seemed a little embarrassed at her outburst. She yfully pped his arm.
“Thanks for making me look silly at the museum!” she growled with a grin.
“You’re wee for bringing out your sweet and adorable side,” he returned.
They locked eyes, and he felt her hunger for him. He wondered if they were going to make it through the gallery and dinner.
They continued to move from room to room, soaking in the culture and building the delicious tension between them.
-=-
Minkah was pleased by the serendipity of being able to enjoy the Met while observing her target. This venue wasn’t a good candidate location for apprehending him as there were too many witnesses. She noted there was a significant number of patrons in the museum this evening.
Whenughter burst from the tall blonde beauty, Minkah’s eyes were drawn to the couple. From the genuine smile on her target’s face as he watched the woman’s joy, she knew these two were a couple or had at least shared intimate rtions. He seemed far morefortable around her than others she’d witnessed him interact with. The way they touched revealed that as well.
When she saw him cast his gaze around the room, Minkah immediately focused her attention on the painting nearby but picked up an odd squeak sound from the woman next to her. That young woman quickly turned her face from watching her target as well. Minkah saw her blushing and contained a snort of her own. So, the youngdy was attracted to Henry-her target. Minkah understood why-stop!
She forced herself to focus on the painting before her though she found nothing appealing in it. While allowing her eyes to defocus, she tried to re-establish her emotional distance from her target. The problem was, the more she observed him, the clearer her picture of him became, and the more intrigued she was bing. His personality matrix deviated from what it should have been for someone with his boldly masculine physical appearance. Something significant had happened to him to rob him of the confidence he should be disying.