THE HUNT

CHAPTER-TWENTY TWO

The intercom light flashed, and Lara Lynn gratefully removed her headphones. She'd spent the last few hours listening to the chatter flagged by the computer, slowly, going through it, to determine if the cellphone conversations about bombs, and explosives, were kids, talking about video games, couples talking about the latest action movie, or terrorists, planning their next big attack.

So far, she'd run across nothing alarming. Good for the world, but it made her job considerably less exciting. Her finger pressed the red flashing button to the com.

"Lara here, what, can I do for you?"

"There's a man here to see you. Says he's with the PSI."

"Is he now? That was strange. A lot of agents passed through her doors, but the PSI agents tended to stay back. "What's the name?"

"Clint Shawl."

Lara grinned. Maybe her job was about to take a turn toward interesting after all. Because while Lara might officially work for the CIA, she had an unofficial job, too. One that only the director and the president of the United States, knew about.

Lara Lynn worked with vampires and werewolves and all sorts of strange creatures that she used to believe, didn't exist. They did. She'd met a multitude of them. And it was wholly ironic, that's what had landed her this particular job in the first place, was her bad-ass skillset as a hacker. The CIA had learned about her abilities and recruited her.

"Send him in," she said, hoping she didn't sound too eager.

He was through the door in a minute. An eye-catching vampire, with a stocky but lean physique, as if he could be a running back for an NFL football team, and eyes that could convince any woman to take off her clothes, even without using his vampire psyche tricks.

His grin was dangerous, and the slight tilt of his head was her invitation to slide into his arms for a kiss. She pulled back with a sigh. "Tell me you're here for pleasure and not for business."

He flashed a gentle grin. "Business, I'm sorry to say."

"Just my luck. What can I do for you?"

"I'm trying to track someone down."

She nodded. "Since you're here, I'm assuming, he used a cell phone?"

"Yes, the phone belongs to Tony Mills. I need to know who he's been conversing with."

"Is that all?"

"Pretty much."

"Jesus, Shawl. My system doesn't work that way, it only flags possible threats.

"Tony Mills was hired to kill Kirkland and he's linked to the human murders. I would classify that as a possible threat."

She'd inserted a subprogram to pull all chatter related to the paranormal world.

"Tell me that's enough to do a search?" He said.

"I need to know the night, he was murdered, it'll be slow, but I think I can do it."

"Monday, the twenty-second."

"That'll help." Her fingers typed quickly across the keyboard. "We can narrow down the parameter."

"And once we find the call, you can search the voiceprints of who was at the other end of that call?"

"Yes," she said. "But you'll only get a match if, the recipient is already in the system."

From his expression, it was obvious he'd already thought of that. "I answered a call on Kirkland's cellphone that night. After all, the man was highly placed."