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tunes I say it they join the Pack."
". . .
a couple dozen can take the walk in the woods with the Pack, maybe one will
come back out changed, one of them
. . ."
Had the Pack somehow transformed the ATF agents? Made them inhuman? Made them
. . .
werewolves?
"What do you have on the Temple?" Ru changed the subject away from the Pack.
"Not much," Brukman admitted. "We were just starting to investigate them
earlier this year when they dropped off the face of the planet. Homeland
tracked them to Buffalo but they moved again; FBI
says that the Temple grabbed a Homeland agent and maimed him." Brukman made a
snick noise while chopping down on his left wrist. "They've reattached the
hand but you know it's never the same."
Perhaps the cult didn't understand Ukiah's nature if they routinely kidnapped
and brutalized people.
"Any idea where the cult is now that they're back in this area?" Ru got a
shake of Brukman's head. "What did you find out from Ascii?"
Brukman shook his head with a look of disgust. "So far she's clammed up tight
to everyone; no one has been able to get her to say anything past her name and
some Temple of New Reason rhetoric."
"Who all has talked to her?"
"Me, the state police, and an agent from the Pittsburgh FBI field office.
Special Agent Zheng.
Oh, there's a real number for you. Very cool. Very collected. You get the
impression ice wouldn't melt in her mouth."
"Ouch."
Brukman glanced over Atticus's shoulder and jerked his chin up to indicate
someone walking up behind him. "Speak of the devil."
Atticus turned to follow the gaze.
Agent Zheng wore FBI black with stylish perfection. She came only to his
shoulder, but there was nothing fragile about her; under the black silk of her
expensive pantsuit, she had a trim, athletic body.
Her hair was perfectly straight, glossy black of Asian stock, but her eyes
were gray and only vaguely
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Asian in shape. She looked at him with a gaze that gave nothing away about
what she was thinking.
"Agent Steele," Agent Zheng greeted him. "They told me I could find you here."
They must have given her a very good description of him, though he supposed
there weren't a lot of Native American federal agents in New England.
"Agent Zheng," he said to prove that she didn't have one up on him.
"The DEA wants a go at Ascii." Bitch though she might be, Brukman seemed eager
to please the
FBI agent.
"I heard." Agent Zheng kept her gray gaze on Atticus. "I need to speak to you
about that. Can we talk privately?"
"In regard to?" Atticus wondered how she had heard when they had told no one.
"To be quite frank, I believe you're the only one who has a chance of getting
anywhere with
Ascii, but perhaps only in the first minutes of your discussion. Considering
that you'll be able to ask only a handful of questions before she shuts down
again, I would like to see that advantage be utilized to the utmost."
"Meaning?"
Agent Zheng flicked her gaze to Brukman, who was listening to their
conversation. "I mean that in all probability, I can answer any question you
may have, and there are questions of vital importance regarding things you
know nothing about that need to be answered."
"While the FBI might think itself the fount of all knowledge, I doubt very
much you know the answers to my questions."
"You might be surprised."
Frankly he was getting sick of surprises. Certainly there was one piece of
information he knew that she didn't.
"The biker jacket in the truck of the cultist's car do you know what they did
to the Dog
Warrior who wore it?"
"Yes," Agent Zheng said.
He should learn not to play word games a case of going unarmed to battle.
Atticus waited for more information, but none was forthcoming. Prosecuting
attorneys must love her on the stand.
Ru took pity on him and asked, "What do you know about Pixie Dust?"
Agent Zheng flicked a look at Ru, and then returned her focus to Atticus.
"Invisible Red?"
That was what Ukiah had called the drug.
"Yes," Atticus said.
"I know that the cult is manufacturing it," Zheng said. "And selling it to the
Iron Horses, who are in turn redistributing it up and down the East Coast."
"How do you know that?" Atticus asked.
"I have my sources. If we're going to continue this conversation, I suggest we
move to a more private place. We could walk outside."
She leveled a cold look at Brukman.
The ATF agent took the clue and saved face by glancing at his watch. "Well,
I've got to run.
Have fun, kids." With a wink, he took off.
Just beyond the parking lot was a small pond with Canada geese and a fence to
keep out visitors. Zheng led Atticus and Ru around the prison to a country
road that ran behind the prison. Across the road were horse pastures and
well-kept barns. A sign identified the farm as the home of the National
Lancers, and a memory attached to the bright sound of marching bands told him
that they were a mounted honor guard.
"What do you know about Invisible Red?" Atticus asked Agent Zheng.
"The cultists raided a stash of bioweapons and stole four machines." Agent
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Zheng took out a pencil sketch and handed it to him. "This is a drawing of the
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