Driven (30 page)

The
only logical answer for what Geoffrey had seen inside of Jeete's mind
was that Puppeteer and the rest of the Coun'hij had sworn their
enforcers to secrecy where some of the more sensitive areas of their
operations were concerned. It helped explain how the Coun'hij had
managed to keep their base secret for so long.

The
true extent of their achievement hadn't become apparent to Jasmin
until Geoffrey had explained that the Coun'hij didn't have just one
base, they had several, possibly as many as five, although that was
pure speculation on Jeete's part. Jasmin told Geoffrey that there was
also a suspicion held by those on the outside that the Coun'hij was
more fractured than it appeared, but nobody had realized that each of
the major powers inside of the Coun'hij had their own base and by and
large had their own people as well.

For
the most part everything Geoffrey had learned, other than the actual
location of the base, had been nothing more than colorful background,
but the more he thought about it the more apparent it was to him that
finding Puppeteer wasn't going to be as easy as they'd hoped. Jeete
might have known for sure which Coun'hij member he was serving. In
fact it was likely that he did know, but Geoffrey hadn't known enough
to be looking for that particular piece of information.

"You
know it's possible that this camp we're headed to isn't even one that
works for Puppeteer directly."

Jasmin
nodded without taking her eyes off of the road. "I know. I
figured that out as soon as you told me that there was more than one
camp, I just figured that once we got to the camp we could nab
somebody who knew where to find Puppeteer and go from there."

"It's
still possible that we could do that, but given the sheer depth of
the care they've taken around the area of operational security it's
not very likely that they have very many people moving back and forth
between camps."

"Yeah,
I know. Unfortunately we don't have any better options."

They
made the rest of the drive in silence but for the occasional word of
warning when Geoffrey saw an unexpected rock in their way, and soon
enough they were all climbing out of the two vehicles. Jasmin pointed
off towards the sound of moving water, but Geoffrey already had his
tendrils out and he could feel minds out on the extreme edge of his
sensory range.

"I
can feel them, you're right, that's the direction we need to go."

"Is
there anyone else around?"

Geoffrey
shook his head. "I can't feel anyone, but my range isn't usually
very big, less than half a mile inside of a city. Out here where
there isn't so much in the way of background noise it's probably
better, but I don't think it's much better than a mile, maybe a mile
and a half."

Jasmin
frowned at him. "I can smell them. They are at least a couple
miles away from us right now, maybe three miles, it's hard to tell
exact distances just from smell."

"I'd
say that my range has increased, but vampires don't just undergo
sudden surges of power growth like that. Our growth is so slow as to
be imperceptible."

"And
thank goodness for that. I shudder to think of what the world would
be like if every hundred-year-old vampire was able to set me on fire
from a mile away."

"I
guess you're right there. Most of my kind aren't worth the blood they
steal to keep themselves alive."

Jasmin's
pack stripped out of their clothes and shifted with only a hint of
the tingling rush that Geoffrey had come to associate with shape
shifters. One second there was a cluster of pale, naked forms
standing only a few feet away from him in the darkness, and a
heartbeat later they'd all been replaced with wolves that were more
than half again as big as any natural wolf ever grew.

Geoffrey
looked over at Jasmin, but she hadn't transformed yet. She finished
stuffing her clothes into the jeep, smoothed her ha'bit down over her
thighs and then patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't
worry, we're going to find her."

"You
don't know that any more than I know it."

"I've
known Rachel for a long time; she wouldn't send us off on a wild
goose chase. There is still a chance for us to save Melody or Rachel
would have told me otherwise."

Geoffrey
managed a smile and then started towards the minds he could feel off
to the west. Jasmin shifted and caught up with him in just two steps.
They ranged through the forest, tall trees all around them and leaves
and other detritus crunching under their feet. After a few seconds
Jasmin let out a faint growl.

"I
can smell them a little better in this form, not as well as when I'm
a wolf, but they are definitely more than a mile and a half away."

Geoffrey
didn't bother with a response other than to speed up his pace to
something very nearly a jog. Jasmin snorted and then passed him, her
huge hybrid legs eating up as much ground in one bound as he managed
in three steps. Eight minutes later as Geoffrey was jumping over a
fallen tree, Jasmin slowed down and held up a hand. She whispered to
him, barely audible as he stopped next to her.

"We're
close. Sally and the others aren't ranging as far afield as they were
before and I can make out more in the way of individual scents now."

Geoffrey
pointed up ahead. "You probably can't make it out since it's not
living, but there is camouflage netting hung from the trees up
there."

"You're
right. It's hard to make out, but now that you've pointed it out I
can see it. From here on out we'll follow you in. Don't burn yourself
up trying to work from too far away, but don't get any closer than
you have to. The wolves will all collapse back into a half-circle
behind us. You're our eyes and ears out here, you've got to let us
know when we're about to get into trouble, if someone circles around
behind us we're all dead."

Geoffrey
patted Jasmin on the arm reassuringly in a conscious mimicry of her
gesture from a few minutes earlier and then started towards the
closest mind, a bright flare of thought only a hundred yards away.

Their
timing seemed to have been perfect. Shape shifters needed so little
in the way of sleep that it would have been impossible to ever catch
all of them slumbering at the same time, but more than half of them
seemed to be abed, either sleeping or headed that direction.

Geoffrey
tested the mind before him, weaving some threads of thought into it
and tasting the vibrancy of the images and feelings he was then able
to access. It had become second nature now to camouflage his probes
and once again he was able to sneak past the beast that otherwise
would have shredded the gossamer threads that connected him to the
hybrid.

They
were still too far away, but Geoffrey had expected that. What he
hadn't expected was how much easier the contact was to sustain than
it should have been. The evidence was starting to pile up in support
of Jasmin's assertion that his abilities had strengthened
dramatically sometime over the last couple of days. If that was
indeed the case then he was going to be able to get a lot more out of
the enforcers than he'd expected to be able to.

Geoffrey
severed contact with the hybrid and then started moving forward
again. His progress was painfully slow, but that was what was
required for him to move with the same kind of silence that seemed so
natural to Jasmin and the others. It took him another fifteen minutes
to move twenty more yards, at which point he decided that he'd gotten
as close as he could without risking exposure.

Geoffrey
knelt down behind a fallen tree that he figured would serve to
conceal him from anyone in either of the two closest houses, and then
reached out with his mind again. There were three minds close enough
for him to work with. He picked the one who was in the deepest sleep,
and started subtly manipulating the fabric of the dream around him.

It
wasn't something he'd done before, but he knew he wasn't going to get
much information out of the hybrid's dreams otherwise—they were
nothing more than a long series of bloody fights, none of which meant
anything to Geoffrey.

Geoffrey
inserted one of the hybrids from Duluth into the dream. Not Jeete,
but the one Jorge had called, the one who seemed to have been in
charge of the trio. The emotions that came flooding through the link
were revealing.

This
hybrid, Brad, and Jeete's companion, Stan, were rivals. Brad tried to
push Stan out of his dream, but it wasn't a conscious decision, he
didn't realize that the dream Stan was an artificial construct, he
just preferred a world in which Stan wasn't around to cause him
problems.

"We've
been ordered to report to the boss."

The
words were easy, Geoffrey's Stan construct spoke them easily because
Geoffrey remembered what Stan had sounded like from the phone
conversation with Jorge. Mannerisms were more difficult. Geoffrey
hadn't ever observed Stan outside of combat. There wasn't anything to
do but let his construct stand at ease and hope that Brad didn't
notice the absence of Stan's usual mannerisms.

"Why
did he call you instead of calling me himself?"

Geoffrey
made Stan shrug. "I don't know. He sounded rushed though, like
maybe he had a lot to do before he left. I can always head over there
by myself and tell him that you want a personal invitation once I get
there."

"Go
to hell."

Brad
stood up from the chair where he'd been sitting and opened his door.
Geoffrey, positioned just behind Stan's eyes, followed Brad outside
just in time to see Brad drop down to all fours and race off as a
wolf.

Geoffrey
had never run as a wolf, it was all he could do to keep up and he
knew the movements of Stan's body weren't right. Luckily Brad didn't
look back at him, and Geoffrey was still able to pay enough attention
to their surroundings that he was confident of being able to retrace
his steps later.

The
'boss' apparently didn't live in a house, he lived in a cave located
more than five miles northeast of the town, but it wasn't just any
cave. As Brad led him into the darkness and around a corner, Geoffrey
nearly stumbled at the sight of not one, but two massive werewolves
standing guard before a heavy metal door that had been set into the
rock of the cave.

The
urge to pull out of Brad's mind was intense. Geoffrey knew that
Puppeteer was nearby and knew the route to his hideout, but it wasn't
enough. Jasmin had said that none of Alec's people had any idea what
Puppeteer looked like and Geoffrey finally had a chance to see the
man who was one of the main lynchpins behind the Coun'hij.

Geoffrey
forced himself to stay inside of Brad's dream, following now in human
shape so that the two of them could open the doors set at intervals
into the system of caves that Puppeteer had made his home. Passing
within two or three feet of the massive werewolves posted throughout
the cave was terrifying, even inside of a dream.

It
took several minutes to make it to a lavishly furnished study where
Puppeteer waited for them. Geoffrey reminded himself that individuals
tended to dream in a kind of stylized shorthand. The face looking up
at him from behind the massive oak desk was probably not a perfect
match for Puppeteer's actual face, but it would be close.

Geoffrey
studied Puppeteer as he stood and walked towards the two of them.
Puppeteer was an old man. He looked like he was in his nineties,
which probably meant that he was more than three hundred years old.
He was small, so short and slender that it was hard to believe that
he was capable of wielding the terrible power that Jasmin had
attributed to him.

As
Puppeteer opened his mouth to give whatever orders Brad was about to
subconsciously put into his mouth, Jasmin started shaking Geoffrey.

"You
need to disengage, something's happening."

Jasmin Bianchi
Fort Loudon State Park
Tennessee

I
had to shake Geoffrey three times, whispering into his ear each time,
before he finally opened his eyes.

"What's
going on?"

"There's
a new smell. It's hard to describe, but it's the kind of scent we
sometimes find associated with really old werewolves."

"No
surprise there, I was able to confirm that Puppeteer is the one in
charge of this particular camp. He's probably got at least a few
dozen werewolves roaming around here. I know where we can find him
though."

My
hopes soared. This was the chance that we needed. There was no
guarantee that Melody was in the same place as Puppeteer, but if we
could break into his house and capture him then Geoffrey could invade
his mind and find out where she was.

"Let's
go, you lead the way."

"It's
no use. He lives inside a series of natural caves and he had
werewolves stationed inside, at least six that I saw in the dream.
We'll never manage to fight our way in, not without more people, and
even then it would be a difficult battle. There isn't enough room
inside there to surround them."

I
could taste the edge of despair to his words, but we'd come too far
to give up now. I knew that even if he'd momentarily forgotten it.

"Come
on, we need to at least go check it out. Maybe those are the ones
that we smell coming this direction. Maybe he sent them here and his
lair is undefended."

I
could see that Geoffrey wasn't convinced, but he started moving,
which was all the victory that I needed just then. We started back
working our way to the northeast, skirting around the edge of the
town.

We'd
been walking through the forest for no more than five minutes before
the faint lights inside of the houses started flickering. A few
seconds after that the screaming started.