Courageous

53

The teens met at the sheriff's station to tell the sheriff what they'd found.

"It's a deadpool," Scott informed. "A hit list of supernatural creatures. This is only part of it. The rest still has to be decoded."

"Who found the list?" the sheriff wondered.

"Lydia and Kinsey," Carter replied.

"How?"

"Lydia wrote it. Or actually, she transcribed it without knowing. Kinsey foresaw it."

"Banshee? Seer?

"Banshee and Seer," Stiles and Carter confirmed.

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

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

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

"Actually, a name," Carter answered.

"Allison," Scott confirmed.

Stiles licked his lips. "Her name broke a third of the list."

Carter let out a long sigh. "Which means there are two more cipher keys. And they could be any name in town."

The sheriff gave a slow nod. "Which will give us the rest of the names. Okay. So how do we get the cipher keys?"

"Same way we got the code," Stiles replied.

Carter looked at the sheriff as he said, "Lydia and Kinsey have been at the lake house all weekend. They've been trying to find the other two keys."

Sheriff Stilinski frowned and looked at the list. "You guys didn't know about Demarco or Carrie?" They shook their heads. "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 in Beacon Hills? Or Beacon County? The population of Beacon Hills is just under 30,000."

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

Stiles shook his head. "We don't think there would be that many. There's a limit."

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

"117 what?" the sheriff questioned.

"Million," Carter replied.

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

The sheriff attempted to understand the situation at hand. "So the coded list goes out. And somehow these professional assassins get that list."

"And a cipher key," Stiles added.

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

Stiles sighed and studied the list. "Let me see. Carrie was also stabbed. 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?"