Page 71 of Scarred Resolve

“I got it!”

“Oh, thank the gods,” Davor said from the door, sagging a bit.

“Yeah, they were trying to escape with it, but Niko gave the signal in time for me to deal with her,” I said, pointing a thumb over my shoulder at her body. “I think that guy said that was his sister. If he’s one of the ones in charge, then she was probably one of the leaders, too. They would have known this was important. We got here just in time. I tried to go after the plane, but they got it into the air before I could jump on it and go for the pilot or anything.” I held out the case as I stopped in front of Davor, and he took it. After giving it a quick inspection, he put it down at his feet.

Then he hugged me tightly. Without hesitation, I wrapped my arms around him in return.

“Don’t take risks like that, please,” he whispered as we hugged. “We can’t survive plane crashes with any real confidence.”

“Yeah, I know. I figured it wouldn’t get that high, or I would keep it from getting off the ground, but…”

“It’s fine,” Niko said. “We did it. The werecat is dead. The witches are… mostly dead. Only a handful escaped, and they’ll probably pop back up, eventually. Davor, contact our family. Jacky, let’s go look through their stuff.”

“The Tribunal is going to want all of this,” Davor said as I stepped around him to follow Niko. “Especially if we can prove it has a connection to Dallas and how these witches have been hiding the scent of magic.”

“We can read it first,” Niko said with a shrug. We headed for the box we saw the witches trying to leave with. There was even more in the house. We had a lot to go through.

“Well, of course. I’m saying something different. We’re probably going to be joined,” Davor countered.

That made Niko and me stop, looking back at Davor as we realized what he meant.

“He can find us anywhere,” Davor said softly as he sat down and opened his case. “So long as there’s a door that can be opened close enough to us, he can get here.”

“And you think he’ll show up,” I said, trying to keep my anxiety at the prospect down.

“I think it won’t only be him.” Davor made a face, displeased for a moment, but he couldn’t deny the reality. “There were werewolves, so he’ll tell Callahan and Corissa, and they’ll want to come and retrieve those bodies at the very least. If this is connected to Dallas, they’ll have to all work together still, and this might be our first real break on that, not just for our family but for the werewolves and witches also working on what’s going on here.”

“The witches won’t show up. They’ll continue to hide behind the fact that their people are so spread out and vast they can’t possibly know everything about every witch,” Niko said with a snort of derision. “I bet their investigation has been half-assed, too.”

“You know that it’s not particularly feasible for them,” Davor said, somewhat chiding. “It’s frustrating, but it’s reality. There are millions of witches. Sure, they could do better, but the reason they can even remain on the Tribunal is because they don’t do too much. It’s the most effective way they’ve found to survive, being who they are and what they can do.”

“Meaning?” I asked, frowning as he started checking all of his equipment in the case. I wasn’t sure if I had heard this explanation before, but if I had, I certainly didn’t remember it at that moment. There had been so much going on for a while, and I hadn’t even seen those witches in over a year.

“Matilda and Johann have some way that they’ve extended their lives through magic. Witches kill for that sort of information, yet no one has ever made a well-executed attempt on their lives since the Tribunal was founded,” Niko answered instead. “Davor is saying that they remain so hands-off because if they push too hard, they’re inviting more reasons for their own kind to kill them for their power and not only political power.”

“Ah. So, how do they work?” I asked, crossing my arms, a little curious.

“Truthfully? The same way human society works. Not many citizens of a country have met their ruler, and the ruler certainly doesn’t know all the needs and wants of each citizen. They make laws, they have forces in different areas of the world, and they enforce those laws. They meet with prominent figures of different communities, but they are also above those figures.” Davor shrugged. “They aren’t voted for, they can’t be overthrown, and they won’t be assassinated so long as they don’t push too hard.”

“They do have the largest force within the Tribunal, though. I would guess that nearly eighty percent of the Tribunal’s forces are witches,” Niko said, shaking his head a bit. “And yet, they’re the laziest of all the members. It’s a shame. We could use themsince they would be able to figure out what sort of magic we saw here.”

“Or Subira could,” I pointed out.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Davor said, actually smiling as he looked up from his computer. “I’ll see if Father can get permission for Subira to move through the Tribunal to get here as well.”

“Let’s go collect everything together and start reading,” Niko said, patting my shoulder as he started walking. “We’ll leave the bodies as undisturbed as possible.”

I nodded, heading into the cabin behind him. Every time I entered the cabin, I had a different goal, and it led me to see new things each time. Starting in the kitchen, I really got an idea of the operation we were dealing with. They had a massive supply of food, and I figured it was only a fraction of what they originally came with. I picked up every shred of paper, no matter what it was. If there was a piece of technology, I grabbed it as well, eventually using a large pot to carry everything I collected from the kitchen and dining area. I had recipes, phones, and more. I took it back out to Davor, where Niko had moved the large box of documents, which, on closer inspection, I saw were only on the top. The heavy part of the box was a large computer tower, something well-built and powerful.

Heading back in, I went upstairs with Niko. Dressers were left mostly empty, and everyone was living out of suitcases. There were more witches than there were beds, which explained the sleeping bags tucked in the closets with those suitcases. I found two boxes of documents and two tablets. Niko’s last haul outside was one box of documents and another tablet.

“They brought a lot of technology to a section of the world with no service at all,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief. Davor pointed up, almost comically, as he didn’t look up from his computer, the satellite phone held by his head and shoulderas he typed with one hand until he was done pointing. I followed the direction and saw a satellite on the roof above one of the second-story windows, well within reach of someone if they reached out.

“They illegally set that up,” he said, a simple explanation that didn’t warrant any other discussion.

“Have you been able to reach anyone?” I asked, sitting beside him with one of the boxes of documents.

“Jabari replied quickly. He’s spreading the news. He asked for a lot of details and said something along the lines of ‘I can’t believe they were right,’ which wasn’t for me, then left the line open as he ran off to get Zuri and Mother.”

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