All Things Wicked by Karina Cooper

Author:Karina Cooper [Cooper, Karina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9780062046932
Publisher: Avon
Published: 2012-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Rain sluiced over the cracked glass windows. Director Adams reached over without looking up, turning up the lamp on her borrowed desk until the bright light washed away the storm-shrouded gloom infiltrating every inch of the city.

Summer storms were the worst. Sudden and violent.

And about as familiar as anything else in New Seattle.

Parker rested her chin in her hand, poring over the new Mission docket the bloody old bat had left her. Operation Wayward Rose. The call sign suited the woman’s name, Parker thought. Juliet.

She doubted anyone below topside education would get the reference, but that didn’t bother her.

Old books didn’t see much play in this world.

Parker tapped the end of her pen against the readout frame as thunder rattled the glass. No matter how many times she read the file, it didn’t change.

As director, she controlled every case that crossed her desk. Many at the same time. At least three main offices served as headquarters where Mission teams came and went, and there were at least eighty-six sanctioned safe houses at any given time. The men and women and monsters on the list were mass murderers, ritualists, and even worse.

Some unknown girl had single-handedly jumped the most dangerous witches known to the Mission, and Parker wanted to know why.

Juliet Carpenter.

It meant nothing. But because she didn’t like not knowing, Parker ran the name through the Mission database again.

Like the five different attempts before it, the search came up blank.

“And that,” she murmured, studying the error message on the computer monitor, “is the problem.”

Any name on the list should have had something.

She took a deep breath, checked her watch, and gave up all pretense of patience. Clipping the tiny comm earpiece to the shell of her ear, she punched in Jonas Stone’s comm number by memory.

Parker memorized everything. It was her thing.

The earpiece vibrated faintly as the signal searched for the frequency.

The line clicked over. “Yes, ma’am.”

Parker blinked at the clear, almost perfect tenor voice. “How did you know it was me?” she asked, curiosity getting the best of her. “I’ve never contacted you directly.”

Pleasant amusement filled his voice as he replied, “I’ve got nearly every frequency on the Mission database keyed in, ma’am. Including yours.”

“I assume that information is kept secure, Mr. Stone?”

“Unbreakable, ma’am.”

“Good.” She pulled the digital readout closer to her. “Operation Wayward Rose. What’s your status?”

Stone hesitated. Keys clattered in the background, wrapped in white noise. Electricity, maybe. Machines. “I realize that you gave me two hours, but . . .”

“But?”

“I’m looking for a very, very tiny needle in a really large city,” he said slowly. “The crawl is still compiling.”

“How long?”

“Soon, ma’am. It’d be sooner if I could dedicate every resource to the search. If you need me to drop everything else—”

“Unnecessary,” Parker cut in evenly. “Get me what you can when it’s time, but I’ve got something else I want you to look for in the interim.”

“Above Ghostwatch?”

Parker checked the delicate gold watch at her wrist. The filigree face ticked faithfully. “What’s the status

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