A Shade of Vampire 31: A Twist of Fates Read Free Page B

I’m going to lose her.”
    She swallowed and nodded weakly. “Okay. J-Just please, don’t let anybody know I’ve told you anything or that you came here at all.”
    “Of course not!” Ben reassured her.
    “Okay,” she said again, still appearing nervous. “The last I knew, Dr. Finnegan was living on the outskirts of Chicago with her family. There is a high-security housing compound there, which is home to the Chicago base’s most highly paid scientists… I don’t see why she would’ve moved.”
    “Do you have the address?” Ben asked.
    She fetched a notebook and a pen from a cupboard and scribbled down an address. A clearly incomplete address. “I don’t know the door number,” she said, “or the block number. I’m sorry. You’ll have to figure those out. I’ve never visited her, I’m just aware of the site’s location.”
    “Thank you,” Ben said, his eyes positively glistening with gratitude.
    The three of us rose to our feet, and, after bidding each other good luck, Ibrahim vanished us away from New Zealand.

    * * *
    W e reappeared in the sky , hovering several feet above the roof of a six-story building. It was a swanky apartment block, with shiny tinted glass windows and steel-paneled balconies.
    There were seven such blocks in total scattered beneath us, enclosed by a high wall spiked with barbed—and probably electrified—wire. It made me wonder just how many scientists worked in the IBSI’s Chicago base, and how many for the organization as a whole.
    We had never gotten wind of this compound in all the years of the League’s operation. I guessed the IBSI had kept it a secret—so many important people in one place wasn’t something you would want to broadcast. In fact, I was surprised the IBSI allowed them to reside so close to each other. It seemed that practicality had trumped security in this particular decision… although the compound itself appeared exceedingly well protected. Aside from the walls, I was sure there were alarms stationed around the place. And there were guards positioned outside the main entrances, along with a dozen or so mutants patrolling the borders. In the center was a helicopter pad.
    Beyond the high walls was nothing but miles of dry wasteland, populated by the occasional group of scrounging Bloodless. In the far distance I could make out the outline of the city.
    Ibrahim had not dared descend too close to any of the buildings, due to the potential alarm system—which we knew could pick up on vampires and witches, but luckily, to our knowledge, they could not detect fae.
    Ben would have to go searching for the doctor alone, just to be safe. If either Ibrahim or I set off an alarm, it would be disastrous. Everybody would be put on guard, and it would become a hundred times more difficult to access the scientist as everyone went into emergency mode.
    So I remained in the air with Ibrahim, watching the compound from a bird’s eye view while Ben soared downward.

Ben
    D r. Finnegan .
    Please, be here.
    Jennifer Thornton apparently hadn’t had contact with the scientist for years. Dr. Finnegan had better not have relocated during that time.
    I tried to move through the buildings logically to make sure that I left no apartment unsearched. I started with the block closest to the main entrance and worked my way through from bottom to top. I had been worried about how I would even find the doctor when I had no idea what she looked like. But outside each apartment, next to the number, was a helpful surname. Most of the apartments were inhabited by families, who were asleep in their beds. It was strange to think what kind of life a child would lead in this compound, growing up with this desolate landscape surrounding them. In the compound itself, efforts had been made to keep it green and pretty—there was a small park in the center with an artificial pond and fish, though it was a false oasis. But soon as they returned to their apartments, the real world shattered