I instantly recognized her. I’d seen her in another photo less than an hour ago; only in this picture she was wearing a cocktail dress instead of a wedding gown.
“Jonathan Tarbert’s wife was the head of the task force?” I shook my head. “Well, that certainly explains a lot.”
Vivienne Sagadraco raised a silvery eyebrow. “Tarbert’s wife?”
“I found their wedding photo earlier.”
When the boss spoke, it was almost to herself. “My, she did go to extraordinary lengths, didn’t she?”
I looked closer at the ex-wife and ex-CIA agent and my mouth fell open. “Is that what I think it is?”
The woman wore a multi-strand pearl choker with a carved, pale blue oval stone in the center, carved in an all-too-familiar shape.
“It is,” the boss said, “if you think it’s a scarab identical to the one used to seal the letter to me, and the tattoo on the palm of Adam Falke.”
I slowly sat back. “She’s the adversary.”
“Correction, Agent Fraser,” Vivienne Sagadraco said, her eyes hard and locked on the woman’s face. “This woman is my adversary, and the adversary of every principle I founded SPI upon.”
“You know her.” I didn’t ask it as a question.
“Only too well. It was my misfortune to share a nest with this creature, and not very amiably.”
I was stunned. “Your sister?”
Sagadraco nodded once. “I have not seen her since 1914. We had . . . a disagreement; it was but the latest of the many we have had. The scarab adaptation is new. However, she always did have a fondness for ancient cultures similar to our own—and for her given name. Tia is a shortened form of Tiamat.”
I went very still. “As in the dragon goddess Tiamat?” I saw Ian’s surprised expression. “I’ve flipped through Kenji’s D&D books.”
“Though in Babylonian mythology and in actuality, Tiamat does not have five heads,” Vivienne Sagadraco told us. “Which is fortunate, because it has always been sufficiently challenging for me to deal with the single head that Tia does have.”
My mind boggled at how old that made my boss. “That makes you . . .”
Vivienne Sagadraco smiled, though it was tinged with sadness. “A woman who is well aware of her age.”
“Excuse me, ma’am. I didn’t mean to—”
The boss—the dragon lady—waved a dismissive hand. “I take no offense, Agent Fraser.”
“Do you believe that Jonathan Tarbert was involved?” Ian asked.
“Unknown. The task force was strictly CIA. Dr. Tarbert’s research was for military applications—human military. And I cannot see Tia taking a human into her confidence. Her arrogance would prevent such a partnership. However, I can easily see Tia obtaining and exploiting the results of his research.”
I started running over the facts; trying to put the whole picture together in my head. “Tarbert’s lab burns down with him in it, and the flash drive with the plans turns up in the hands of his dead brother. Kenji said that the plans were four to six months old, and that from the notes, the device had been built, tested, and perfected.”
“Given that we have ample evidence of invisible and inaudible grendels, that conclusion is correct.”
“Your sister has the device,” Ian said. “We have the plans. Plans that ex-CIA agent Fitzpatrick was willing to kill Mac to get for his boss/your sister. At least she can’t make more devices.”
Vivienne Sagadraco nodded once. “At least not easily. Though given time, she could reproduce them by disassembling the one that is in her possession. However, we would be foolhardy not to proceed under the assumption that Tia has more than one device at her disposal.”
“What does she want to get out of this?” I asked.
“Tia has always resented having to hide her nature from the world. The hazard with having a civilization worship you as a goddess is that you begin to believe as they do. The Babylonians were correct in naming her the goddess of chaos. Chaos and power are all that my sister is capable of loving. She employs manipulation as a means to an end, and does absolutely nothing without a reason. I believe she has found a new game that not only offers her entertainment and power; it will also enable her to destroy what I have done here at SPI. While far from her main goal, it no doubt would bring her great satisfaction. We protect humans and supernaturals alike. Tia would tear away the illusions, exposing humans to the reality of the supernatural world. In order to be out in the world in this present age, she has been forced to exist in a human body, and to live within its limitations. I am quite content; but make no mistake, my sister is not. She has told me that for a dragon to endure life as a human was the same as a human forced to suffer as the lowest worm.”
I let out a low whistle. “Your sister doesn’t have much use for us, does she?”
“Actually she has expressed two uses for humans: as slaves and as food.” Vivienne Sagadraco’s expression darkened. “In this century and the last, humans have developed technology that surpasses what was previously considered to be magic. They can defend themselves, even from a creature as formidable as my sister in her dragon form and at her full power. Her most earnest desire is to change this. Her letter to me said that humans weren’t at the top of the food chain and would soon know it. She also said that New Year’s Eve would mark the beginning of an enlightened new age.”
“That’s one thing I don’t get,” I said. “Okay, there’s a lot that I don’t get, but why would your sister send you a letter essentially telling you what she’s going to do?”
“Pride and arrogance. She will use the devices and the grendels in the most public way possible. Tia knows that I won’t sit by while monsters savage untold numbers of people. Knowing my sister as I do, I can surmise that she acted within the limitations of her human form, gained employment at the human agency that would give her the best access to what she needed to accomplish her ultimate goal—to put into motion events that would reduce the human race to what they once were, and what Tia believes they should be again—slaves and food.”
“Why not do it herself?” Ian asked. “Turning dragon and dive-bombing Times Square on New Year’s Eve would certainly make a statement, cause chaos, and it’d be a hell of a lot easier than wrangling grendels.”
“My sister would only appear and risk herself in such a way under the direst of circumstances. Simply put, grendels are vicious killers of humans, are visually terrifying and virtually indestructible. Times Square on New Year’s Eve is one of the most heavily policed events in the world. Thousands of what are essentially soldiers, heavily armed and well trained to react instantly to any type of attack scenario that they can imagine.”
“I bet they haven’t trained for grendels,” I said.
“Precisely. Which would cause a level of panic that has never been seen by so many at the same time. It would be broadcast live around the world.”
“Spooking the entire human herd,” I murmured.
“An apt analogy, Agent Fraser,” Sagadraco said. “No one would feel safe. Armed with the devices, Tia and her allies could launch attacks from anywhere at any time. Fear would turn to paranoia. People’s confidence in their law enforcement, military, and governments to protect them would falter and quickly fail. Those with her on that CIA task force represent my sister’s longtime allies. Creatures who resent hiding themselves from humans; who want to hunt and feed openly and as often as they wish. Humans with extraordinary magical gifts twisted by greed and evil, who resent hiding their dark powers.”
“There are certain vampire covens around the world that would gladly ally themselves with Tiamat,” Moreau said. “As would virtually all of the ghoul swarms and demon hordes. If Tiamat is successful tomorrow night, they would acknowledge her leadership and pledge their allegiance to her and her cause. Armed with the devices, they would be capable of appearing and vanishing at will. Humans would live in constant fear, banding together, never sure when or where the next attack would come from. Life on Earth would become a living nightmare.”
“My sister would consider it heaven on Earth,” Vivienne Sagadraco told us. “Tiamat fights to win. It is a fight that humans and supernaturals alike cannot afford to lose. I have failed to stop her before. We cannot fail to stop her now.”
15
POLITICIANS are right about one thing: budget cuts can be dangerous. Slash the funding to the wrong people, and you get a bunch of disgruntled, supernatural ex-CIA spooks going into business for themselves.
Combine that with my doppelganger having hidden a bowling bag full of unknown and potentially deadly contents somewhere in headquarters, and I had enough nerves to qualify for a nervous breakdown.
Vivienne Sagadraco had ordered headquarters emptied of all nonessential personnel. Which in SPI parlance meant the only agents who stayed were either experts in all forms of combat should the doppelganger still be here, those with the nasal talent needed to sniff out potential bombs, or the lab people and engineers still unraveling the workings of Dr. Tarbert’s “cloaking device” as they’d taken to calling it.
And then there was me.
One, the boss deemed it too risky—even with a bomb possibly in the house—to send me home. Two, if my doppelganger was still here and using one of Tarbert’s devices, I’d be the only one able to see her—if I could see her at all. My seer ability enabled me to detect veils, wards, etc., produced either by natural or magical means. I had absolutely zero experience with anything mechanical. Everyone still in headquarters—including me—hoped that I could. One way or another, we’d be finding out the answer soon enough.
I briefly squeezed my eyes shut against an incoming headache. There were just too many unanswered questions. And the longer they stayed unanswered, the longer we stayed screwed.
Vivienne Sagadraco very much wanted to have a chat with my doppelganger. So much so that when she ordered the nonessential folks out, everyone had to scan their palms before any exit would open for them and them only. The boss wasn’t taking any chances that my doppelganger would activate her cloaking device and try to sneak out on somebody’s coattails.
