North Starr

53

A couple days after the whole thing at Lydia's house, Scott, Stiles and Melanie met at the station. Scott explained what had been found. "It's a deadpool. A hit list of supernatural creatures. This is only part of it. The rest still has to be decoded."

"Who found this list?" the sheriff asked.

"Lydia," Stiles and Melanie said.

"How?"

"She wrote it," Stiles replied. "Actually, transcribed it. Without realizing it."

"Banshee?"

Stiles nodded. "Banshee."

"Beautiful," the sheriff said sarcastically. "All right, what are these numbers next to the names?"

"We're getting to that. First, you need to know that the code was broken with a cypher key."

"Wait. You mean, like a... Like a keyword?"

Melanie nodded. "Sort of. It's actually a name."

"Allison," Scott said.

"Her name broke a third of the list," Stiles explained.

"And now we think there's two other cypher keys."

Sheriff Stilinski nodded slowly. "Which will give us the rest of the names. Okay. So how do we get the cypher keys?"

"Same way we got the code," Stiles told his father.

"Lydia," Scott clarified. "She's been out at the lake house all weekend trying to find the other two key words."

After a moment, Sheriff Stilinski continued. "You didn't know about Demarco or Carrie. Hmm? And what about these other two names on the list? Uh, Kayleen Bettcher and Elias Town. They were werewolves too?"

Scott shook his head. "I don't know. But Deaton said that the Nemeton would draw supernatural creatures here."

"Here being Beacon Hills? Or Beacon County? The population of Beacon Hills is just under 30,000."

"And dropping..." Stiles trailed.

"But if we're talking Beacon County, then you're looking at close to 500,000. Look, how many werewolves, banshees, kitsunes and whatever the hell else is out there are we talking about? And what if the next cypher key uncovers not 12 names but 100."

"We don't think there would be that many," Stiles stated. "There's a limit."

"Because of the numbers," Scott realized. "We think that once we decode the names, the numbers will add up to 117."

"117 what?"

"Million."

Melanie frowned, coming to a realization.

"117 million dollars, Dad. Stolen from the Hale vault and is being used by someone to finance all these murders."

"Someone who wants every supernatural in Beacon Hills dead," Scott clarified.

Sheriff Stilinski nodded slowly. "So the coded list goes out. And somehow these professional assassins get that list."

"And a cypher key," Stiles added.

"And then they go after the names on that list. They being killers with no mouths, tomahawks, thermo-cut wires that can take your head off."

"Let me see. What's this mark?"

Sheriff Stilinski shook his head. "We're not sure yet. We're still waiting on the ME's report. There's one other thing I don't get. How did this new assassin know that Demarco was going to be at the lake house?"