Mercury's War

CHAPTER 13

Ria laid her bling on the cabinet. It was quite a nice haul: several nearly perfect diamonds, emeralds so brilliant they were nearly blinding and a tiger’s-eye stone that swirled with magic and majesty.

She slid the stones into a velvet bag, tied it off and tucked it into the pocket of her jeans, then flipped her sat phone closed and erased the speed dial set to go straight to Leo’s emergency number. Her threat to Dane. Had the bribe not pleased her, she would have called and tattled to hell and back.

She wasn’t mercenary. It wasn’t the worth of the stones or even the stones themselves. It was the fact that they seemed to keep Dane from involving her in games that were too messy to consider allowing Leo to catch them in. She was a sucker for the games herself, but she did have a bit of caution. Dane had none.

To say Mercury was upset over the payment was putting things mildly. There were still tiny, rumbling growls echoing in his throat. And those tiny sparks of blue hadn’t completely left his eyes.

Feral displacement was a phenomenon that Breeds couldn’t control, though, and he had all the signs of it, but it was firmly under control. Dane still had his heart in his chest, and Rye still had his head on his shoulders. Ria was contenting herself with that even though she suspected Dane might have lost more blood than was wise.

“Look at her, Rye.” His tone was amused despite the pain in it. “I’m surprised she didn’t pull her jeweler’s glass out.”

She turned to face him, her insides still shaking, the knowledge of how close Dane had actually come to dying horrified her.

“You have a trip scheduled to Asia next week,” she told him. “I expect natural pearls when you return.”

He gave her a hooded look and glanced at the velvet bag. “I just paid you a fortune.”

“Two fortunes aren’t enough for what you put me through tonight,” she snapped, feeling the tears clog her throat again. “You’ve lost your mind, Dane.” She couldn’t control the accent that slipped into her voice either, and she knew every man in the room could smell her pain and her fear.

Dane grimaced at that, his gaze sliding to where Mercury attempted to place her behind him once again.

“I’d say you’ve slipped the path a bit yourself, love,” he drawled. “Why doesn’t it surprise me that you’ve mated a feral?”

“There’s no mating.” Mercury snarled the denial, and Ria thought her heart was going to break.

Hell, he could have just remained silent.

Dane stared between them, his golden brown eyes thoughtful for long moments.

“My mistake,” he finally said slowly as he glanced to Rye. “She can’t do anything the easy way, can she?”

Rye laid his head back on the couch and stared at the ceiling while Dane settled into the corner and stared back at the other Breeds in the room. Especially his brothers.

“Don’t start,” she warned him as she slid around Mercury once again, certain Dane was going to begin baiting Callan and Jonas. “This has gone too far.”

Dane shrugged. “Very well. You called for extraction. Pack your bags and I’ll have the limo sent from the private airfield we landed at. Rye and I hiked in. I doubt you want to take that path out, though. We’ll have you safe and sound in your own bed within hours. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Her lonely, cold bed. Without Mercury’s hard, warm body.

She turned back to the others, her gaze moving over Callan and Jonas’s suspicious, savage expressions. They weren’t pleased, and they knew something was going on.

“It’s gone too far,” she told Dane.

He stared back at her coolly. “You’re going to get your heart broke, love. You know what that does to you. Makes Leo damned growly. And Elizabeth will try to fuss over you. You know how you hate that.”

His voice was gentle, a reminder of how easily she could be hurt, and a warning. The warning came a second before Mercury’s arms surrounded her, warm and strong, and he pulled her close against his chest.

His head lowered, his lips at her ear. “You’re not leaving.” He nipped the shell of her ear after growling the demand against it.

Ria’s gaze remained locked with Dane’s, and she knew he saw what she was trying to hide even from herself.

“We have to finish this, Dane.” She let her hands grip Mercury’s wrists, aware of the suspicion directed on her now. “It can’t go any further.”

Mercury tensed behind her; Callan and Jonas watched her with hard, implacable expressions.

“Well then, I guess that’s that.” He relaxed farther back into the couch, a mocking smile crossing his lips. “If I don’t make it out of here alive, be sure to tell the Leo I did him proud,” he chuckled.

Ria shook her head and turned to Callan. “Pride Leader Lyons, it is my sincerest regret to inform you that I wasn’t sent here in any way to track expenditures by Sanctuary from the Vanderale support funds. As always, those have been given by the Leo, your father, and they have no strings attached.”

Callan rose slowly to his feet, power humming through him, his amber eyes brightening, glowing as animalistic anger began to surge inside him.

“What the hell have you two been doing in my fucking home?” He glared between them.

“Protecting it.” Dane surged to his feet as well, drawing Callan’s focus from Ria to him. “Remember, mate, she’s my employee. You have a problem with that, you’ll take it up with me.”

Callan swung back to Ria, the look on his face so filled with anger that for a moment she swore she was facing the Leo.

“Back down, Callan,” Mercury growled, trying to push her behind his larger body again. “Let’s see what she has to say first.”

“What she has to say?” Callan’s voice boomed through the cabin as Jonas moved warily to his feet. “You want me to hear what she has to say? She came into my home on a lie? Under this little bastard’s orders.” He shoved his finger toward Dane.

“I should point out, Leo and Elizabeth were wed before my conception.”

Callan turned and snarled in his face. Nose to nose. The rage emanating from him was a terrible thing to see.

“See why he brings me bribes,” Ria murmured to Callan. “This is what I have to put up with when Leo finds out I’ve helped him in one of his games. But it’s usually my face Leo’s screaming into.”

She moved to Mercury’s side, pushing at his restraining arm to no avail as Callan swung on her. He took one look at Mercury’s face before growling furiously and pacing to the other side of the room.

“That’s what Leo does when Elizabeth gets in front of him,” she whispered to Mercury. Almost amused. If it had been Leo, she might have been amused, but who knew which way Callan’s genetics had actually swung?

He turned back to them and glared at her. “I can hear every word out of your mouth,” he snapped.

“Keep snarling at me.” She watched him warily though her tone was airy. “I’ll get half a dozen perfect pearls next week rather than the few scrawny ones he would have brought me otherwise.” She shrugged, burying her fear. When one dealt with Breeds, one never admitted to fear. Even to oneself.

“What have you been doing in my home?” His tone sliced through the room, and Ria swallowed tightly. Even Dane appeared a bit wary.

“Tracking the person or persons responsible for slipping information about Breed mating heat and age depression to a pharmaceutical company researching a drug to exploit its ability to work on the human body. Three non-Breeds have already died and one is missing due to that research, and scientific information regarding it is leaking from your home, Pride Leader Lyons.”

“Impossible,” he snarled furiously. “Every transmission, every fax, every breath taken in that compound is monitored. There’s no way to slip that information out. Not without being caught.”

“There is, though,” she told him softly. “If you’re trained in creating a code to carry it, then you can slip anything out. Unless someone trained to break that code finds it. I found the code, Mr. Lyons; now I just have to break it.”

Silence filled the room. Jonas, Callan and Dane all stared at her in suspended disbelief.

“You can pay up when we get back to the office,” Rye commented to Dane from his position on the couch. “I told you she’d do it in less than a month.”

“Are you telling me someone within the estate house has been giving secrets to some fucking bastard Council researchers? And he knew about it?” His finger pointed imperiously to Dane.

She breathed in slowly. “No, Pride Leader. Someone is selling secrets concerning mating heat to a drug manufacturer who is now experimenting on non-Breeds. And they’re doing it for money.”

The roar of rage that shook the cabin had her flinching, and this time she stepped behind Mercury willingly. Because in over twenty years of dealing with the Leo, she had never, not even once, seen the rage in him that now filled his son.

And Leo had never, in all the years Dane had been an adult, jumped for Dane as Callan did. It took Jonas, Rye and Mercury to pull him back, as Dane rose slowly to his feet and Ria watched the compassion flicker across his features.

The moment he was pulled back, Callan jerked from the others’ hold, stalked to the other side of the room and fought for control.

She watched his shoulders bunching, tensing, as Mercury moved back to her, obviously protecting her.

“Perhaps we should have been a bit more delicate,” Dane commented with a snort. “It seems the pride leader has a bit of a temper.”

“Ms. Rodriquez, is the Leo’s number on your speed dial?” Jonas asked carefully.

Ria remained silent.

“He’s on mine, whelp,” Dane grunted. “Would you like to call him and tell him what we’re investigating? Go ahead, split his loyalties between Sanctuary and the twins my mother just gave birth to before flying out to save her older son. I’m certain those babes don’t need her, even if they do appear to be ill at the moment.” Disgust laced his voice. “Why the bloody hell do you think he doesn’t know about it now?”

That wouldn’t stop Leo from blasting her and Dane both with his anger, though, once he learned about it.

“Callan.” Ria stepped forward, ignoring Mercury’s warning growl as Callan turned, his head lowered, those dangerous eyes watching her closely, the rage burning in him so close to the surface that it washed from him in waves. “Any coup needs an event to give it momentum. You were nearly killed and you’ve been recovering from it. Your senses aren’t back to peak, Sanctuary is ripe for a takeover. Someone is moving to destroy you from the inside out. If the information Dane uncovered is correct, then it’s only a matter of weeks before those secrets are completely shifted to the researchers. We can’t risk that. My job was to uncover the culprit or culprits. And there were very few people we were certain weren’t involved in this, until I had spent some time with those files myself.”

“We knew you weren’t involved,” Dane told him, his voice harsh. “But other than that, we couldn’t be certain. Whoever is moving on you and getting this information out is a strong enough force that other Breeds, enough of them, may back him.”

“There are very few Breeds strong enough to do that,” Callan snapped.

“Exactly,” Dane agreed. “We couldn’t risk the information being leaked, and you trust your inner circle with your life. We had to make certain no one in that inner circle was involved before coming to you.”

Callan turned to Mercury then. “There was no order to relieve you of your rank,” he told him. “And there was no order to confiscate your weapon, your uniform or to force you into testing.”

“You have interoffice memos being falsified?” Dane’s eyes narrowed. “Are you using the tracking equipment we sent you last year?

The caustic look Callan shot him was thick with disgust.

“So you are.” Dane grimaced. “Have you traced them yet?”

“We’re still working on it.”

“Many of the memos coming from Sanctuary to the research institute and subsidiary contacts have come from one office,” Ria informed them then. “I’ve traced the information piggy-backing memos as well as scientific purchases to three locations directly connected to Brandenmore Research.”

“Who?” Callan’s voice was dangerous, savage, the enraged primal male just beneath the surface rising to the fore once more.

“From the Breed labs,” she said softly. “Dr. Elyiana Morrey’s office. And from Pride Leader Lyons’s personal computer.”

Mercury braced his hands on the table and stared at the proof Ria had managed to slip from the files and electronic messages she had duplicated from the office she worked in at Sanctuary. Proof that their safeguards weren’t worth shit, because under the watchful eye of the security cameras she had managed to slip the most incriminating evidence against Ely from the labs. The evidence was pretty damned incriminating against Callan as well.

“I’m not entirely convinced, either way in regards to Dr. Morrey’s involvement,” she stated. “But my suspicions against her have risen by the day. Her aggression when I refused to submit myself to her testing procedures upon my arrival. Her determination to induce the feral adrenaline in Mercury’s system, and her insistence that he be confined. Mercury was trained in a variety of highly sensitive and exacting areas before the feral displacement showed itself. And even after, many of the areas he excelled in still carried high ratings.”

“How the hell do you know that?” Jonas snapped. “Most of the Breed records from his lab were destroyed.”

“Vanderale Industries was hacking labs while you were still in nappies,” Dane sneered back at him. “We’ve had those files for years. Leo was arranging an op against that particular lab to rescue several of the Breeds when news hit that the labs were being hit. Mercury was one of the Breeds he was most concerned about.”

Mercury glanced up at him silently.

Dane sighed. “You’re trained in code, Mercury. Don’t bother denying it. We’ve seen your files. You’re trained to both create and crack sensitive coding. It was part of several of your missions.”

“Not like this.” Mercury waved his hands to the printouts of the information spread out over the kitchen table. I was trained in military code, not in whatever they’re doing here.”

But he could see the threads of it. If he had been going through the transmissions himself, he would have caught it, even if he couldn’t decipher it.

“You were one of the most successful creations the Council had attained. You’re the strongest of the enforcers and you command incredible loyalty. The only reason you don’t head your own command is because you turned it down.” Dane shook his head. “Humble doesn’t become you.”

Mercury shot him a scorching glare. “Humble has never been a concern of mine either. I don’t command because what I do is better served working alone. It’s that simple.”

“And it hides from those who may tell the tale the fact that you’ve been experiencing the feral adrenaline,” Dane pointed out mockingly. “You’ve known the feral displacement could be returning.”

“I handle it.” He shrugged. He had been handling it for years, and he had informed Jonas of his suspicions. That was all he had been required to do.

“Mercury’s loyalty or his ability to handle himself has never come under question,” Callan informed them, his voice cold now.

The rage had solidified to icy determination. Mercury glanced up at his pride leader, meeting his gaze across the table, and felt the certainty of Callan’s trust. It eased the anger that had built at the thought that his pride leader, the man he had sworn his loyalty to, could have distrusted him.

“How many know you didn’t send those communiquйs out?” Dane asked him.

Callan’s nostrils flared. “Kane and Jonas. Kane’s running the diagnostics on the orders that went out, using Vanderale equipment. Neither Ely nor the security tech is aware I didn’t send those orders.”

Dane nodded at that as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at the various information Ria had slipped from her office.

“The information was piggybacked on these electronic memos and purchases.” She slid them free and lined them up. “I ran a diagnostic on each message, and you can see the code that was inserted within it. It was attached to individual letters within words. That technology is so new that Vanderale is even still playing with it. Brandenmore Research has their own electronics branch, though, and they could have refined the program for limited use such as this.” She tapped her fingers against the code that had generated once she printed out the messages using the program Vanderale had invented to display it. “It’s taken most of a week to track this down, and from the looks of it, the rumors that the information is being sent in stages with a deadline appear correct.”

“This came from my office.” Callan slid one of the messages free. “An order for office electronics. It’s an order I sent,” he snarled.

“It is. And it’s a duplicate.” She slid free of the pile another memo that included the coding. “This one is from your computer.” She tapped his. “This one is the one that actually went out in transmission.”

He looked up at her slowly. “Someone is managing to intercept the transmissions before they go out and attach this coding?”

She inhaled slowly as she nodded. “That’s the beauty of this particular technology, and the danger of it.”

Callan’s fists clenched, his expression tightening further.

“How many departments at Sanctuary have been compromised?”

“So far, I’ve found it in nearly every department,” she told him quietly. “The main deliveries are coming from the labs though. Part of my transmission to Dane earlier in the day was a request for the beta program to detect the coding as it goes out. When I asked for the heli-jet, it was actually a request for that.”

Mercury glanced at her, pride filling him at the thought of just how intelligent she truly was. He was still uncertain of the anger he could feel pulsing just below the surface, and he had no idea how she was going to handle what she had seen when Dane slipped into the bedroom.

But she stood beside him now, allowing him the ease he needed in knowing she was safe.

Damn the Council scientists. This woman should have been his, completely his. Not just his woman but his mate. Every instinct inside him reached out to her, held on to her. And he knew the lack of mating heat hurt her.

She had no idea how much it hurt him as well.

“How soon can it be installed?” Callan questioned her.

“How well do you trust the people overseeing the outgoing transmissions?” she asked him. “This can’t be used or installed without their knowledge, Callan.”

“All communications, outbound as well as in, go through one secured office in the communications bunker,” Callan informed her. “That office is overseen by my sister Sherra. She has four Lionesses working beneath her, each that she’s trained herself.”

“How well can she trust her assistants then?” Ria asked.

Mercury glanced at her. Her attitude had always been respectful toward Callan, not once had she shown so much as a shred of disrespect. But she wasn’t backing down in what she knew, or in her suspicions.

“Ely can’t be behind any of this, nor is she involved.” Jonas had finally spoken up, and Mercury heard the certainty in his voice. It was a certainty he didn’t share.

“Ely’s running scared,” Ria said softly, compassion lacing her voice because, Mercury knew, she was aware that Ely was more than just a friend to all of them.

“Ely’s kept us sane.” Lawe moved in behind Jonas, staring at the evidence on the table before staring back at Ria bitterly. “She’s not capable of this.”

“How secure are the labs?” she asked then.

Jonas grimaced. “No one in or out without clearance, retinal scan and fingerprint authorization. They then pass the security post. Even Breeds coming in for testing are escorted in by the enforcer on duty.”

“Do you trust the enforcers on duty?” Ria asked.

“Fuck, are we allowed to trust anyone now?” Callan growled. “They’re Breeds. They’re men and women who survived hell and know the consequences should we ever lose public approval. I can’t imagine anyone in Sanctuary capable of this.” His finger stabbed into the papers lying before him.

“Yet you know yourself that even your most trusted personnel can be compromised,” she pointed out gently. “Taber proved that.”

Mercury looked back to Callan. They all remembered that. When Callan’s brother Tanner had brought his mate to Sanctuary, she had also brought with her information that an attempted kidnapping of Callan’s son was in the works. Taber, a Lioness entrusted with David’s care, had been the one to attempt to kidnap the child, as well as Tanner’s mate, Scheme.

“Yeah, Taber proved that.” Callan wiped his hand over his face and glanced at the watch on his wrist. “My mate and my children are alone at Sanctuary, and we have a greater risk now than we did then.”

“I contacted Jackal, Callan,” Jonas told him quietly. “He informed Kane, to let the others know to be on guard with their mates and their children. They’re safe.”

But for how much longer? Mercury lifted his gaze to Lawe and Rule before turning to Jonas.

“We need Rule and Lawe back at Sanctuary. The main family is of prime importance and only God knows what could happen if someone actually decided to attempt a coup right now. We have the party tomorrow night, as well as visiting dignitaries arriving the night after. We can’t take any chances with David or the unborn child’s life. We all know just how badly both Council and non-Council scientists would love to get their hands on a mate or child born of those matings.”

“It’s too late to cancel the parties,” Jonas murmured.

“And you don’t want to cancel them,” Ria said. “Horace Engalls of Engalls Pharmaceuticals will be there if I remember the guest list correctly. As well as the CEO of Brandenmore Research. Let’s see what we can detect during these parties. They have no idea we’re onto them,” she stated. “Let’s play them right back.”

“How?” Mercury could feel her mind working; he could feel the confidence and certainty pouring out of her.

“Put Lawe on Horace Engalls. Rule on Phillip Brandenmore. Close quarters. Have Lionesses on their guests. Make certain there’s no way to transfer information while they’re here.”

“Whoever’s transferring information will know we’re onto them,” Mercury pointed out before Jonas or Callan could. But he was thinking, moving through the security that had been designed for both parties and working it out in his head. “They’ll have to use the transmissions,” he said then. “We’ll have the program installed and ready to use. If they can’t transfer information face-to-face, they’ll have to use the transmissions quickly.”

“Exactly. We pinpoint the computers these memos originated from. The Vanderale program can do that, and it can intercept and toss the emails, personal chat messages or memos back to Callan’s program with no one being the wiser. Callan, Kane, Dane and Rye can set a schedule to monitor it without causing suspicion.”

“True.” Dane spoke up then. “We were invited to the party after all.”

Mercury couldn’t halt the growl that came to his throat as Dane moved closer to Ria. Dane grinned at the sound and backed away once again.

“You’re going to have to let me get back in her good graces, Mercury,” he told him with a chuckle. “Otherwise, she’ll end up costing me a fortune in jewels.”

“That’s okay,” Ria murmured absently as she continued to spread the papers around the table. “Bling is always nice.”

She didn’t sound particularly concerned about letting Dane back into her good graces or allowing him to distract her from whatever she was putting together.

Mercury moved behind her, staring over her shoulder, watching as she moved the pages, studied them, then moved them again. When she was finished, the code laid out began to look more familiar.

“Do you see it?” she asked him, shifting a page before turning it upside down. Another right side up.

“It’s a Council code,” Mercury realized as he narrowed his eyes at it. “Son of a bitch.”

Jonas and Callan both moved in closer.

“What are you looking at?” Jonas bit out.

Mercury looked down at Ria as she turned her head and stared at him.

“This is why they wanted you out of the way,” she whispered.

“I don’t see a damned thing that looks familiar, Mercury,” Jonas snapped. “And I know Council code as well as you.”

“It’s not just mating heat they’re after,” Mercury breathed out roughly. “This code was developed in one place only. The labs I was created in. This code,” Mercury tapped several lines of the attached transmissions, “it’s the code for feral displacement. They’re attempting to duplicate it.”

As he stared at the code, bits and pieces began to show a pattern. Numbers, glyphs, scientific formulas began to come together. He shook his head. Hell, it had been too damned long since he had done this. “It would take months to piece all this information together without the key to the code.”

“We don’t need the key to the code to stop them,” Ria told him, turning back to the papers before glancing back at Callan and Jonas. “Whoever’s behind this knows Mercury’s lab history, the tests he excelled in as well as the experimentation done on him in regards to the feral displacement. Adult Breeds were killed when they began showing it. Mercury is one of the few they allowed to live. Whoever’s doing this knows that.”

“And Ely knows it,” Mercury said dispassionately.

Like Jonas, he found it hard to believe the doctor they had depended on would be the one to betray them. But unlike Jonas, he had firsthand experience in just how far Ely would go to prove he should be locked up, confined, drugged.

The drugs for the feral displacement had made him easier to control, had turned him into an automaton. By time the drug therapy had taken hold, he hadn’t even been certain which world he existed within, or rather which one he fought within. It was a world she would have returned him to.

“Can you slip Dane into the estate tonight to install the program?” Ria asked Callan. “He’ll also need access to the main security terminal in the communications bunker.”

“I can get him in,” Jonas stated.

“We have about eighteen hours to get installed and running,” she added.

Mercury was there when she turned to him. He backed up just enough to meet her eyes, to watch as her gaze moved from his just as quickly as she’d met it, then moved away again.

“You behave.” She pointed to Dane as she moved quickly from the living room back to the bedroom. Mercury let his gaze slide to Dane’s then.

Dane arched a tawny brow mockingly. “Feral displacement,” he murmured. “Interesting.”

Mercury glared back at him. “She’s not in any danger.”

“I never imagined she was.” He grinned. “You know, I have to admit, life has livened up a bit since the Leo revealed himself to this pride. I can see I’m going to have to pace the amusements or I may burn myself out.”

“Shut up, Vanderale,” Jonas ordered him as Mercury stared back at Dane, refusing to be baited by him.

“Invade her bedroom again and you’ll be more than burned out, you’ll be bled out,” he told him.

“Hmm,” Dane murmured. “Too bad you can’t mate though. She would have made a fine mate. A wonderful mother.”

Mercury’s chest clenched. He stared back at Dane, wishing he had killed him when he had the chance.

“Dane,” Jonas growled. “That’s enough.”

“Yes, it is.” Dane shot Mercury a caustic look. “No worries, my friend. When she’s had enough of the hardheaded Breeds here, she’ll return home.” His smile was smug, confident. “And when she does, I’ll be waiting.”