Page 22 of Shadow of the Moon

“I think you’ve answered everything we needed, Mr. Winchester,” Devlin said, smoothly taking up the slack in the conversation. “If you don’t mind, let’s keep this conversation between us. Right now, there’s no obvious danger. We’re just trying to suss out what they’re planning. When we have more information, we’ll let you know.”

Devlin reached out and shook the man’s hand. Amberly did the same, then walked through the office door he held open for her. They smiled at the receptionist but didn’t respond when she tried to start a conversation.

They walked out to their stolen vehicle, quiet. When they settled into the car and Devlin cranked the engine, she glanced across at him. “What do you think?”

“I think he answered what we asked, and we’re a little further ahead in knowledge, but not much else.”

Yeah, that’s kind of where she was, too. Digging in her bag, she pulled out the packet of pictures, flipping through them again. She set the one of the girl and the one of the school aside, and focused on the others. “This one keeps nagging at me,” she said as she pulled one out. It was a picture of handwriting.

“It looks like a shopping list, the way it’s laid out. Hold it out.”

Amberly held it out, away, near the window. Devlin squinted. “Does that say wire? And maybe that second one, 9mm. Or maybe I’m just seeing what’s on my brain. And does that say Zed at the top? Is that the end of a word?”

Amberly gasped. “No, it’s a name, and I know that name!”

Flinging the picture to the dash, she rooted for her file on Regent. Then she started flipping through papers until she stopped on one. It was a list of known associates. Zed Torrance was the fifth name down on the list. Triumphantly, she held the paper up for Devlin to see. He grinned, nodding.

“And now we just have to find Torrance. If he’s with Regent, he’ll be running errands for him. He’s a low-level crook, known more for burglaries and robberies than anything else. But he’s gotten arrested with Regent twice for disorderly conduct. I think they were protesting a natural gas pipeline or something, carrying AR 15s.”

“Ah, yes, let’s dance on the edge of death and hope no one shoots a pipeline to blow everyone up. Does Mr. Torrance have an address?”

“No, but his mother does,” Amberly grinned, flipping through the papers again. “Though she’s about a five and a half hour drive North from here.”

“No problem,” Devlin said, settling back into the chair. “That’s the direction we were headed, anyway.”

They fueled up at a truck stop and got on the interstate headed North. Amberly pored over the pictures, trying to figure out what they were.

“We don’t have a scanner,” Devlin said, “but why don’t you take a picture of them with my phone and do a reverse image search.”

“Oh, good idea,” she breathed, grabbing his phone from the center console. Without thinking, she typed in a code. The phone opened. “You still use the same code,” she laughed.

Devlin scowled and shrugged. “Yeah.”

It took a few different shots, but she eventually found the correct lighting to get Google to work its magic.

“One brick building corner has no results, but the different angle of the same corner came up as… a library in Alexandria, Virginia.”

“Outside of Washington, D.C.”

They shared a look. If the info that Necco had given her was correct, there would be an attack at the end of this week, on the anniversary of 9-11. It was the perfect time for Regent to make a splash. Everyone would already be in front of their TVs.

“Obviously, Zed is still working for him. If we find Zed, we probably find Regent.”

“More than likely,” Devlin agreed. “Or maybe Zed has been given the shopping list. That’s why his name is at the top.”

The car accelerated smoothly onto the interstate, and for the first time, Amberly appreciated that he was here. They maybe didn’t get along like they used to, but Devlin could be relied upon in a challenge. He didn’t even bat an eye at needing to travel another six hours, just took the wheel and got to it. Which allowed her to brood over the pictures some more.

Another building corner came up as a coffee shop in Newport News, Virginia. She looked the place up, but it didn’t seem special for any reason.

Man, if only Necco had taken better pics.

“If I could call this in, I could have a dozen sets of eyes looking at it within minutes,” she sighed.

“And have the CIA breathing down your neck and trying to take Regent in. I plan on taking him out, like the CIA was supposed to do three years ago.”

Amberly shook her head. “We were going to interrogate him, collect his contacts. Then stash him away. But you tried to kill him.”

Devlin gave her a dark look, but didn’t contradict her.

---