Page 123 of Tin God

Summer belonged to an immortal clan in the Carolinas consisting of human and vampire family members, some of whom were related to Carwyn by marriage. She was a young cousin, in his way of thinking, and he’d been keeping track of her.

“Katya says you’re thriving here,” he said. “Do you know the area the boys were talking about?”

“I do.” Her Southern accent was just a hint after years in the Pacific Northwest. “I know the area anyway. We have the time and the location now. We’ll be able to find out where they went and who they talked to as long as there are security cameras.”

“Is that likely?” Brigid asked.

Summer nodded. “In that area? Definitely. There are a lot of businesses around there. Lang should be able to hack his way in. As long as they still have footage from last week, he’ll find it.”

Brigid stoodover the shoulder of a young man with curly dark hair that fell into his eyes and tattoos all over his neck. He was sitting in a dark office with no windows even though he was human. The strange cave looked like it belonged to a wizard in a fantasy novel, and the walls were lined with shelves filled with books, small figures of dragons and soldiers, and several reproduction swords.

Over the long counter that served as the young man’s desk were three large posters, one of a popular sci-fi movie character, another with the slogan Can’tStoptheSignal, and the last emblazoned with the words: ISmoke andIKnow Things.

The young man’s name was Lang, and Brigid guessed he was Katya’s version of their Lee.

“So there’s a bunch of fishing charters going in and out of those docks all year round.” He typed as he talked. “All I had to do was hack into their security systems, so” —he rolled his eyes— “opposite of hard.” He did something on the computer, and color footage jumped onto the screen. “No cap, Ravi and Cal are good guys. They wouldn’t mess with a chaos vamp, so whoever this was must have seemed legit.”

She was mostly keeping up. “You think Ravi and Callum didn’t know who they were meeting?”

“Bet,” Lang said. “I don’t recognize this guy, but the boat?” He whistled. “Whatever vamp is bankrolling all this has money, and lots of it.”

It was Ravi on the screen, and he was carrying a duffel bag and looked like any average Vancouverite coming from the gym and heading home. He walked over to a large yacht with a back deck, spoke to a man in a raincoat, and the man showed him something on his phone.

Ravi scanned the screen with his own phone, nodded, and handed over the bag.

“Most of the gig day workers use security codes to verify,” Lang said. “Keeps everyone safe from influence, you know?”

“Brilliant,” Brigid muttered. “A human under vampire influence would still have to verify a code, like a digital receipt. And if they couldn’t, you’d know somethin’ had gone wrong even if you couldn’t remember.”

“Exactly,” Lang said. “Code doesn’t verify, you know someone got scammed. You may still be up shit creek and out of money, but it helps keep people honest.”

Summer said, “Now this is during the day, but Lang already sent the boat’s registration number.” She pointed at the screen. “See there? We’ve already looked it up, and it’s registered to a shell corporation in the Cayman Islands.”

“What’s the next step?” Brigid asked. “How do ya track a boat?”

“For sure, for sure, my lady vampire.” Lang started typing again. “Every boat—even ones owned by shell companies—should be hooked into the automatic identification system run by the International Maritime Organization, especially if they’re docking all legit-like in the city.”

“An automatic ID system?” Carwyn asked.

“Kind of like flight control for maritime vessels, my dude.” Lang clicked on a few more buttons. “So I don’t know exactly who owns this ship, but I can tell you where it was last week.” He brought up a map with tiny arrows all over it. His cursor hovered over a purple arrow. “And I can tell you it left Vancouver and two days later it was docked in Petersburg, Alaska.”

“Where?” Brigid leaned in to see a narrow strait of water north of Ketchikan and south of Juneau with glaciers on one side and a narrow network of sea and islands on the other. “Has it been there before? Can ya tell?”

“I can get historical data with the IMO number.” He tapped more keys quickly. “It docked in Wrangell one time and Port Protection another time, but it looks like Petersburg was the place he kept going back to.” Lang tapped the map. “So I’d say whatever deliveries he was making, it’s in this area.”

Brigid murmured, “There’re so many places a large ship could hide. Even with wind vampires lookin’, it could take weeks.”

“Maybe not as many as you’d think.” Summer leaned on her back leg and hooked her hands in her pockets. “Check with a local to be sure, but this area is known as the Wrangell Narrows, and it’s not very deep. You’re looking for a larger vessel, right? Sounded like a small cruise ship or a large yacht?” She nodded at the surveillance video. “Something a lot bigger than this fishing boat, I’m thinking.”

Carwyn nodded. “That’s our guess.”

“Petersburg isn’t a deepwater port. Nothing in the Wrangell Narrows is going to be deep enough for a ship like you’re thinking.” She moved her finger up the map. “Now above that, Frederick Sound is a better bet. I think you’d have more luck looking in that area.”

“Either way.” Carwyn nodded at Lang. “We’ve got someplace to start, and that’s an improvement over before. Thank you, lad.”

“Straight facts, my lord and my lady.” Lang reached over and held up his fist.

He was odd but friendly. Brigid bumped her knuckles with the young man. “We owe ya one. Good work.”

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