Page 35 of Broken Princess
“Really?”
“Yup. And get this… some electric toothbrushes and razors contain little chips these days too.”
“So you’re not even safe in the fucking bathroom. Christ…”
“No. Sorry to break it to you. If the NSA wants to listen to you, they can. Doesn’t matter who you are or how important you are,” Rowan said. “Like I said before, even the president isn’t safe. Vigil can be used against literally anyone.”
“Why the hell don’t any of the other agencies know about it?” I asked. “The Caldwell guys would love to get their hands on something like this.”
“I know, but the directors here don’t want it to be shared. I guess it’s like an ace up their sleeve.”
I nodded slowly. “Right. Why did you tell me about it, anyway?”
“Because I used it on your mother,” Rowan said, face reddening.
“You’ve been spying on her?”
“Yeah. For a few years now.”
“What have you found?”
“Not much, but enough to keep her at the top of my list of possible secret society leaders.” He hesitated, scratching his chin. “The first thing I noticed was that she lies to you and your father. A lot. She’ll say that she’s going to get her nails done with ‘the girls’, or she’ll claim she’s going shopping, but it’s always bullshit. According to her phone’s GPS data, she ends up here every single time.” He pulled up Google Maps and entered in a series of coordinates. Then he pointed at the screen. “Does that name sound familiar to you? Lilith Hall?”
I frowned. “I don’t think so. What is it?”
“It’s a winery with a luxury resort on a massive piece of land your family owns in northwest Maryland. It’s about a two hour drive from D.C, but on a helicopter—something I assume your family has plenty of access to—it’s only twenty minutes away.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” I said, scratching my chin. “Are you sure we own it?”
“Yes. Your mom’s side of the family owns it. Her great uncle Enoch Hale bought the land a long time ago,” Rowan replied. “According to Google, it’s very popular, even though it’s quite far out of the way.”
I cocked my head slightly to one side. “So... my mom is constantly flying up to the middle of nowhere to hang out at a winery?”
“At least once a week, yes.”
“Hm. That’s not exactly the kind of behavior you’d expect from an evil secret society leader, is it?”
“No, it definitely wasn’t the kind of place I was picturing when I started suspecting her,” Rowan said, forehead wrinkling. “At first I thought it was nothing, even though she felt the need to lie about going there. I figured she could be having an affair. Or maybe she just loved getting blitzed at the family winery, and she was too embarrassed to let anyone else know how much she drinks.”
“But you ruled that out?”
“Yeah. I mean, why go all the way there just to have an affair? Or get drunk? There’s plenty of closer places.”
“True.”
“Once that occurred to me, I went deeper. I monitored her call logs—we can do that from here, obviously—for months. Then I made a list of the numbers she contacts the most frequently. There’s about thirty of them, and I started tracking the GPS data on them too. Guess what I found?”
“They all hang out at Lilith Hall too?”
Rowan smiled. “Yup. Every time your mom calls or texts them, they go straight there.”
“So it’s her favorite meeting place for some reason,” I said, rubbing my jaw. “I’m guessing the other people are her shadow council.”
“Maybe. I’ll show you the list later. It’s a mixture of her relatives, prominent people from the city, and unidentifiable burner numbers.”
“Have you ever listened to any of their calls?”
“I’ve listened to a few of your mom’s conversations, yeah, but I haven’t been able to pick up much. I can’t exactly sit around all day trying to monitor everything she does.”
