24. SPYING

"What exactly do you mean, 'out of the woods?'" Jasper asked, one eyebrow raised in suspicious concern. I wasn't surprised. I was never 'out of the woods.'

"I mean we should talk about this someplace a little more private," Edward replied under his breath. Coraline and I exchanged knowing glances, and the five of us took a stroll out into the woods so we could talk without unnecessarily alarming some of the more excitable members of the families. Once we had traveled a safe distance, Edward turned around and continued the conversation, speaking primarily to Jasper.

"Okay, you know how I kept saying that it felt like there was more going on here with the Volturi showing up than just face value? Well, listen to what Zane, here, has to say."

Zane took the floor. "Philippe DeChevalier, one of the senior Guard members, has known about half-breed children for a while now – at least six months. I've been working for him off-the-books for a quasi-terrorist group called the Sons of Alphaeus."

"Yeah, I'm familiar with them," Jasper interrupted. "You're telling me they're being organized by a member of the Volturi Guard?"

"They haven't always been, but yes, they are now. It's a long story. Anyway, the point is, this guy – Philippe – he's planning some kind of big event, and he's got plenty of power behind him."

"What kind of event are we talking about?" Jasper asked.

"I'm not quite sure yet, but I know it has to do with some radical realignment in Volturi policies, especially when it comes to specials like us. As in, we'll all be rounded up and forced to work for them... or be terminated."

"And that's not all," Edward added, visibly worked up about the situation. "He's got weapons – guns that fire bullets engineered like vampire teeth. Zane said he's mass producing them."

"Do they actually work?" Jasper questioned. I pulled up my shirt and showed him the bullet hole in my shoulder. Coraline shuddered – she hadn't seen it yet.

"Living proof," I said grimly. "Shot right through me like a hot knife through butter."

"Well, isn't that just grand?" Jasper said with a heavy sigh. "Are we ever gonna get a chance to rest?"

"Maybe for a while," Edward answered. "It'll take them all some time to regroup after their last attempt blew up in their faces. They'll try again, though. I saw it in Aro's mind. He's frustrated, but he hasn't given up. He still wants me and Alice... and I suspect quite a few of the rest of you," he said, looking at me and Zane.

"Do you think Aro and Philippe are working together on this?" I asked Edward.

"No. Aro was genuinely surprised to learn about Renesmee's true nature. He came here believing she was an immortal child."

"That doesn't make sense, though," Jasper interjected. "How would Aro not see something so obvious as one of his own Guard members working behind his back? Surely Marcus can see what's going on."

"Philippe is as cunning and crafty as they come," Zane answered. "I'm sure he's found some way to slip the defenses."

"So, what's our response to this?" I asked. "Obviously, we can't just sit around and do nothing."

"I'm not exactly sure what we can do," Edward replied. "If we had hard evidence that Philippe was working against the Volturi's wishes, we could always bring a formal accusation against him. The problem is, we need proof. Either way, that still won't solve the root problem Alice and I are facing."

"Maybe it will, though," Coraline said. "If Aro was at least partially motivated to grab you because of his paranoia, then bringing Philippe to justice would alleviate that part of the equation. He may still want you just because, but that wouldn't be enough to warrant just taking you."

"I'm not so sure he'll give up even then," Edward replied, "but I suppose it's worth a try."

"Then it's evidence we need, right?" I asked. "Coraline and I can do some investigating..."

"No, you two need to stay hidden for a while," Zane replied, speaking to me and Coraline. "Let me do the spying – I know where to look."

"I'll check with my contacts and have them keep their eyes open for anything fishy," Jasper said. "Edward's gonna have his hands full raising a little girl. I don't mind traveling a bit, though. I'll see what I can dig up."

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired of looking over my shoulder," Edward said with a tightened jaw. "We need to put an end to all of this, once and for all."

"Agreed," I replied. "Let's get to work, then."

We stayed with the Cullens for a few more days, before splitting up to our individual assignments. Jasper and Alice touched base with their contacts and tried to keep a watch on major decisions coming out of Volterra. Wesley and Harriet went back to work in Italy, watching closely for any suspicious behavior. Harvey and Lucy worked alongside Hawkins and his crew to see what they could learn from the assassin world. Zane disappeared into deep cover, working to gain insider information from the Sons of Alphaeus and their various cell groups.

The Cullens invited London to stay with them for a while, which kept her safe, and gave Renesmee another friend to play with. As for me and Coraline, we were fugitives on the run once again. Zane acquired a token for Coraline, which offered us relative invisibility in the mental realm. All the traditional methods of tracking still worked, though, so we had to be careful about everything we did. We kept mobile, flying our private jet around the globe, never staying in the same place for more than 2 or 3 days. It was fun, but mentally exhausting.

Six months passed without any luck finding incriminating evidence, but we finally got our first break, near the end of June 2007. In their process of watching Philippe's movements, Wes and Harriet found an anomaly. He had a regularly scheduled security meeting with regional representatives in Citta di Castello, Italy, once every other week. The curious part was that he always showed up to the city a full hour earlier than the rest of the people, while his itinerary showed him arriving just in time for the meeting. Also curious was the fact that the mysterious Elliot Pinter was always unavailable at the exact same time every two weeks, though no one seemed to know why.

Harriet first contacted Jasper with the news, who relayed it to Edward, who traveled to Italy to do some long-distance mental eavesdropping. Edward confirmed that Philippe was in fact meeting Elliot in Citta di Castello, but he was unable to read anything from Elliot's mind. According to Edward, he needed my help to get Elliot's mind in a "readable position." The next scheduled meeting was less than 3 days away, and we were already relatively close, so Coraline and I headed to Citta di Castello to meet up with Edward and see if we could get some of the hard facts we were looking for.

Since the weather was on the sunny side, we waited in a rental car a few miles out of town until dusk, and arrived at our rendezvous point fifteen minutes early. Edward was there one minute later.

"I like this guy," I muttered to Coraline under my breath as we saw him approaching. "Punctuality is courtesy. Wish he could teach my brother that concept."

"Wish he could teach my sister while he's at it," she replied with a mild eye roll.

The two of us had grown accustomed to making light of serious situations, but once Edward showed up, it was all business.

"Hello, Grant, Coraline," he said with a degree of formality, plopping his leather satchel on the hood of our car and pulling out a sleek new MacBook. "Ready to get to work?"

"Absolutely," Coraline replied for the both of us. "Show us what you've got."

He quickly pulled up a map of the marketplace a few blocks over, where we expected the meeting to take place.

"Okay... see this street here?" he said, pointing to the on-screen map. "That's where they should be coming from – both of them. Last time, it was Elliot who got there first, then Philippe showed up a couple minutes later. You'll want to make sure to avoid that whole side of the market at all times."

"Got it," I replied, nodding. He continued.

"This area here... this is where they like to drift around when they talk. They meet right in the middle of a crowd of people, probably to make it easier to blend in and harder to eavesdrop on, which obviously isn't helping them in our case."

He looked up briefly to wink. At least he still has a sense of humor in there under the business exterior.

"Now, the last time they were here," he continued, "I didn't really get much of what they were saying. Most of the problem was Elliot, and that's where I need your help, Grant."

"I'm all yours. What do you need?"

"When I tried to listen in on Elliot's thoughts, all I got was a bunch of gibberish. I didn't understand it at first – I kept trying to sort it out. And then it hit me. His thoughts are moving too fast. Not that he thinks so much faster than other people, but it's like they're moving around rapidly. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it to someone who doesn't, um... read minds..."

"That's okay, I think I understand enough. So, you want me to try and slow his entire mind down?"

"Yes. If you can."

"I should be able to do something like that, provided I can get close enough to him."

"How close do you think you need to be?"

"It depends... fifteen feet or less would be ideal."

"I don't think we can risk that much. Could you do it from fifty?"

"Probably not. The effect is just too weak when I'm that far away. I can inhibit my scent – that should allow me to get fairly close, as long as the crowd can block me from view."

"Well, we're going to have to try. Don't overdo it, though. We can always try again in two weeks. I don't want you to get caught."

"Trust me," I replied with a half-chuckle, "I don't want that either. I'll give you the best shot I can. And what about Philippe? Do I need to do anything for him?" Please tell me something that's horribly painful...

"No. I can read him just fine. I could've gotten more out of him the last time, if I hadn't been so caught up trying to figure out Elliot."

"And what about me?" Coraline asked. "What can I do?"

"Stay here and keep a lookout for trouble," Edward said with a smile. "Grant and I will do the heavy lifting."

She rolled her eyes. "You boys and your egos..."

We adjourned our planning meeting a few minutes later, and got into position. I set up on the roof of a 5-story church building about a quarter-mile from the meeting point, which gave me a near perfect view of all the entries and exits in the area. Edward and Coraline were holed up in a quiet alley about a half a mile away.

We didn't have cell phones or short-wave radios with us for communication, so we had to rely on one-way mental conversations via Edward's ability. I checked in with him to let him know I was in position, and then began to watch the busy street like a hawk. Hundreds of faces swarmed in and out of the narrow lanes, making my job more than a little challenging. To make matters worse, I had never actually seen Elliot Pinter in person. All I had were a few digital photographs Edward pulled up on his computer. I held the photos up in my mind, and began comparing his face to the ones I saw down below me, and then, before five minutes had passed, I found him.

We have contact, I told Edward mentally. I've got a visual on Elliot. He just arrived at the area via the northern entrance, just like we expected. He's standing in front of a bakery... just waiting there, it looks like. Hang on – there's someone in the way... I got up and moved to the other side of the roof, trying to get a better angle. Okay, that's better. I see him now, still in front of the bakery. No sign of Philippe yet, but it looks like they're using the same meeting location. I'm going to start making my way over there.

I slid down the steep side of the high-pitched roof, landing on the 2-story building next door and dropping into the narrow alley behind it. From there, I crept in the shadows, quickly making my way through damp walkways just wide enough for me to fit through, and ending up on the edge of the crowded marketplace, about 70 yards from Elliot. There were more warm bodies around me than I was used to, and it took some work to keep my focus, especially since I had to use my ability to inhibit my scent (rather than stifling my hunting urges). With my attention divided, I would have to get even closer to Elliot to get the desired effect. I ducked my head slightly and began trying to make a path through the crowd, but before I could push much closer, I saw the other face I was looking for.

Okay, Edward, I've got a visual on Philippe now, I thought, hiding behind a corner for a moment to focus on communicating clearly. I didn't catch which direction he came from, but he's making his way through the crowd now. I stepped back around the corner, and watched as he pushed his way to Elliot, speaking briefly, before Elliot placed his hands on Philippe's head. The gesture looked meaningful, though I had no idea what it was about. Afterwards, they began talking casually, and looking around, like they were suspicious of being watched. I made an effort to push through the crowd again, trying to get close enough to feel Elliot's mind. With no shortage of shoulder-bumping and quick dodging, I closed the distance to about 40 yards, before I saw another man approach my two targets. He was obviously a vampire, but he looked odd, as if his skin was somehow thinner than usual, almost to a translucent degree. He also looked a little older than the other two, with shoulder-length hair that was almost pure white. Elliot greeted this newcomer in the same fashion that he had welcomed Philippe, placing his hands on the older man's head.

Okay, Edward, if you can take a moment to look through my eyes, there's somebody you should see, I thought, risking a long period with my face in the open so I could get a better view. I don't recognize him, but he seems to be working with the other two. I'll have to get in closer if I'm going to have any chance of slowing down Elliot. Stand by...

I bent down, pretending to tie my shoe, and quickly crept in closer, staying as low to the ground as possible without drawing too much attention to myself. Fortunately, everyone around me was so caught up in their own business that they paid me little attention. When I popped up to take a look next, the three conspirators were beginning to look as if their conversation was serious. I was still 25 yards away, but I tried to exert my influence anyway. It was no use. With the crowd in the way, filling my nostrils with the smell of blood, I couldn't concentrate. I had to find another way to get closer, and it had to happen quickly. I glanced around me, looking for another solution, and wound up heading for a row of glass-paneled storefronts to my right. The thought occurred to me that while the presence of a wall would insulate me somewhat from the smell of blood, it wouldn't impede my abilities. Philippe and his associates were within 8 feet of the row of buildings – if I could make my way inside, I would have the positioning I needed to get the job done.

I took a few steps back, finding an alley between two of the buildings, and started planning my way inside. There was no easy access to the buildings from the front or back, but I did notice a 2nd-floor window that looked easy enough to break into – I just had to do it quietly. After a quick glance to make sure no one was watching, I bounded off the opposing wall and caught onto the ledge of the window, applying enough upward pressure on the antique wooden frame to break off the metal latch and open it up. The rickety window made more than enough sound to cause me concern as I slid it all the way up, but the noise and business of the street below drowned it out sufficiently. The room I snuck into was a kitchen, apparently someone's living quarters, positioned above the storefront on the ground level. A quick sniff confirmed the presence of at least one human in the building, but I heard no sounds of motion, which meant that he or she was most likely asleep. I didn't have time to check – I had to get down to the first floor and do my job.

I rushed through the narrow hallway, coming to the staircase and descending in one silent jump. The door to the business was locked, but with a little effort, I broke the knob and gained access. Once inside the store, which happened to be some sort of watch repair shop, I moved to the far wall and peeked out the large window. The trio had apparently moved in my direction while I was positioning myself, and was now less than 15 feet away. I crouched down in the corner, reaching out with my mind, and started to work on slowing down Elliot.

In all my experience with slowing down or speeding up processes, I always had the most success with very specific locations and operations. This was a huge task – slowing down an entire mind. I saw inside Elliot's brain, and immediately, I recognized what Edward was talking about. The various areas of his brain were operating at extraordinarily high speeds, especially the prefrontal lobe and hippocampus, both of which are associated with memory formation and processing. I took a moment to study the flow of impulses in each area – they were markedly different from the usual process in humans and vampires. I wasn't exactly sure where to begin, but I started pushing, trying to cause things to slow down, at least a little.

After trying a few different mental approaches, I found one that seemed to work, and pushed on it with all my focus, letting everything around me fade in the periphery. I was vaguely aware of their speech, which was just above a whisper, and caught a few random phrases in the lulls between crowd noises.

"...schedule can't be concrete yet, otherwise..." one would say.

"...diversions, just in case. And if that doesn't work, we should at least consider overpowering them with brute force..." another responded. Then quiet for a while.

"...-ong until the weapons are in place?" the first one asked.

"We're talking two to three months, at most," a third voice replied. Weapons, huh? Yeah, I already know about that part.

Once I had been successfully inhibiting Elliot for 4 minutes or so, I felt his mind began to push back, rerouting information around my mental roadblocks to regain speed. It was an intimidating, impressive response, especially considering the fact that it was most likely subconscious. I fought back with another approach, pushing even harder, to the point that absolutely everything in my peripheral senses went half-numb. Things were so inhibited, in fact, that it took me 15 seconds or so to notice the wooden object striking me on the shoulder. I came to my senses momentarily, whipping my head around to see an elderly Italian man swinging a cane at me, and yelling at me to get out of his store.

Great. So he wasn't sleeping after all.

I tried briefly to reason with the man, standing up slowly and speaking in a low, calm tone, but it didn't seem to have any effect on him. At the same time, I was losing my hold on Elliot's mind – I could feel it adapting to my latest blockade and developing another work-around. I simply didn't have time to bother with the old man. I grabbed the cane the next time he swung it at me, and tossed it across the room, explaining to him slowly that I had no intention of harming or robbing him, but he wouldn't calm down. I couldn't really blame him – anyone in their right mind would be upset if a stranger broke into their home and business. I didn't want to hurt him, but I had to think of something quickly. His shouting wasn't especially loud, but it was bound to draw attention before long, and with Philippe and his associates on the other side of the wall, I couldn't afford any attention coming my way. I was nearly at my wits end when a most welcome relief showed up. Coraline came darting through the room, taking hold of the man from behind before he ever realized she was there. I watched in shock as she wrapped her arms around his neck, cringing at the thought of his brittle spine snapping like a twig in her grasp, but the snap never came. Instead, she held him tightly, inhibiting the blood flow to his head slightly in order to render him unconscious. He struggled for a few seconds before giving in and slumping slowly to the ground. She winked at me with a smile, and I breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing I wanted was another mortal life on my conscience.

With the threat of the shopkeeper neutralized temporarily, I returned my efforts to Elliot's mind. As much as I appreciated Coraline's help, her presence in such close proximity to the others meant I had to inhibit not only my own scent production, but hers as well, all while trying to keep a handle on Elliot's resourceful brain. Juggling the new list of tasks was just too much for my mind to keep up with, and after a few moments, I felt all three tasks slipping. Afraid of being detected, I released Elliot's brain, turning my focus to blocking scent production. In doing so, I regained a degree of my peripheral senses, and was able to overhear a few more bits of conversation from the group. They were saying something about needing to find a new place to meet, not wanting to take any chances this close to the 'finish line.' I knew there was a chance that they had been spooked by the noise the shopkeeper made, but if Edward was able to successfully listen in on their conversation, it would be worth it. We just had to get back out of the city without being spotted.

The three men outside talked for another minute or two before beginning to wrap up their discussion. I risked another peek out the window, and saw Elliot say a few phrases to the older man before putting his hands on his head again. This time, I experienced something very strange as he did it. For about two seconds, I felt everything around me get dull, almost like the effect on the lights in a building when it's being affected by a large power-draining appliance. In that moment, I felt almost like I was floating in a half-dreaming, half-waking state, unsure of where I was or what I was doing. Then, just as suddenly as the feeling came, it lifted, and I was back to normal. I peeked back out the window, and watched, as the older man walked off into the crowd, leaving just Philippe and Elliot outside. The two of them were talking a few other things over, so I knelt back down in my corner to try and slow Elliot's mind again. As soon as I turned around, my plan was derailed by Coraline's odd expression.

"What is it?" I whispered to her, reading her face with concern.

"I don't know," she replied, rubbing the back of her neck gently. "I just had the strongest feeling of deja vu..."

That worried me. Vampires don't have deja vu.

"When did it happen? Just now?" I asked, peering into her mind. I had a troubling feeling that the numb sensation I felt earlier was the same thing causing her deja vu.

"Yeah, just a second ago. It was so strong, I was absolutely sure I had been here before. Did it happen to you, too?"

"Not exactly," I half-answered, focusing too much on her brain to fully respond to her question. At first glance, everything inside seemed to be in normal condition. Then, without warning, the numbing sensation came again, a little stronger this time. I fought the sudden drowsiness, and kept my mental focus on the workings of Coraline's brain. What I saw was bizarre – it was like an outside force was pushing around on the memory centers of her mind, causing a little jolt, like a dining room table when someone bumps it with their knee. After the 2 seconds or so were up, things settled back to their usual routine, with no discernible displacement occurring.

As soon as I released my mental focus, I noticed that Coraline was laying on the floor, unconscious. In a flash, she was in my arms, as I desperately searched her body for any signs of trauma. She regained consciousness in about 5 seconds, with no awareness that anything odd had happened, which was, in itself, very odd. She swore that she was alright, so I ventured one last peek through the repair shop window. Philippe was now gone, only Elliot remained, jotting something down on a handheld mobile device of some kind. I watched him finish what he was doing and walk off heading north. As soon as he was out of sight, Coraline and I rushed out of the building, laying the unconscious shopkeeper back in his bed, and began making our way back to our rendezvous point.

Edward was waiting in the alley when we got back to him, making notes of his own on a small pad of paper. He finished what he was writing and tore the page out as we walked up.

"Hey Edward," I said as we approached. "I'm sorry about the drop in performance there. I was having a bit of trouble with the shopkeeper."

"That's alright," he replied solemnly, never even looking in my direction. "I got all the information I needed."

His expression was a mixture of woe, disgust and anger as he continued staring off into space. Whatever he knew, it wasn't good.

"So, what did you hear?" Coraline asked him. "Do you have any evidence we could use?"

"It's a coup," he replied, still staring blankly. "They're planning to overturn the entire government and set themselves up as the new rulers."

"What? Philippe's out of his mind!" She replied, echoing my thoughts. "How on earth does he plan to pull that off?"

"With a lot of help," Edward replied. "He's got his hooks into a lot of people already. I knew he was working with Elliot, but I didn't expect to see Caius here. Not that I should be surprised..."

"Caius, as in, one of the Volturi?" I asked.

"He was the older one you didn't recognize," Edward replied flatly. "I knew he was upset about the trial and Renesmee, but this..."

"How on earth is that possible?" Coraline asked. "Surely Aro will read his thoughts and see that he was here."

"I don't think so," Edward answered, finally looking up. "As soon as they were finished talking, everything in Caius' head went crazy for a few seconds, and then he walked away, not remembering anything he just talked about. He didn't even remember why he was in town, or how he got there. All he knew was that he was supposed to meet with Philippe again about something in a few weeks."

"That doesn't add up," I said, trying to work through the facts. "What's the point of having a meeting if he's just going to have his memory wiped when it's over?"

"That's just it – I don't think it was wiped," Edward replied. "I think it was scrambled."

"Scrambled?"

"Once you got Elliot's mind to slow down enough, I had a good look inside. I've never seen anything like it. He would be carrying on a normal conversation with his conscious thought, and at the same time, his mind would be cycling through different random memory segments constantly, so fast that they were almost a blur."

"You know, that sort of makes sense," I said, thinking back to the curious exchanges of impulses I witnessed earlier in his brain. "His mind kept firing back and forth between short-term and long-term memories in an unusual pattern... it almost seemed like he was connecting and reconnecting different memories to one another, but not in the normal linear movement like everyone else..."

"Like he was just shuffling them around," Edward added.

"Exactly. Like he was playing a game of cups and balls. He keeps passing the memories around in different locations, until only he knows where they are at a given moment."

"I think it's deeper than that, though," Edward said, stroking his chin. "He's not moving entire memories. It's more like flashes of memories, like bits and pieces. I felt like I was seeing one or two frames of a movie at once, and then it would change to another movie altogether. It's really hard to follow."

"Well, what good would an assortment of memory bits be if they don't fit together?" I asked. We both stood quietly and pondered for a minute.

"They're probably a diversion," he suggested. "Like radio chatter – if you're going to send an important message, you send lots of other dummy messages to make someone have to sort through an impossible amount of data before they can decode it."

"Maybe..." Coraline said after a moment. "But maybe not. Maybe he's using them like a BitTorrent."

"A what?" Edward asked. I didn't know what it was either.

"A BitTorrent. As in, internet downloads. Okay, basically, it's a system where you use multiple sources to transfer a single file. A handful of computers on the network have the file. When you go to download it, you get one piece from one computer, the next piece from another, and so on. Then, the software on your computer takes the pieces and reassembles them into one file. Seriously – you two have never heard of that?"

"No... but that makes perfect sense," I replied. "If he can do that to his own mind – scramble memories and put them back together at a later time – then maybe he can do it to others. I watched him put his hands on Philippe's head before they talked – and after. Thumbs right on his temples. I'll bet he was messing around with his memory."

"That's gotta be it," Coraline agreed. "Or at least, something like it. They meet, talk about what they're going to do, then Elliot scrambles their memory of the meeting. They can't recall the memory, and neither can Aro. All he would find would be sporadic, random bits of memory spread out through who knows how far in their mind. It would be almost impossible to detect, especially if you're not looking for it. Then, next time the three of them get together, Elliot puts the pieces back in place, and they pick up where they left off."

"That's a good workable theory," I replied. "We can test it the next time they meet – that is, if they meet here again."

"I don't think we have time to find out," Edward said, with a hint of anger in his voice. "They've already started carrying out their plan."

"Okay, so what does that mean?" Coraline asked.

"They have a lot of allies, but first, they're going to remove any legitimate threats to make it an easier transition."

"And by 'legitimate threats,' you mean..."

Edward handed Coraline the slip of paper he had been writing on earlier. I looked over it with her.

"This is a kill-list," he said bitterly. "The ones crossed-out are already dead. They're going to move down the list until all the threats are neutralized, and then they'll stage the coup."

I looked over the names on the list, and my heart sank.

- Daniel Potts

- Havier Renault

- Kurtfielt

- Grayson Tennenbaum

- Pearl Whitley

- Hermes

- Garrett Wythe

- Zane Thatcher

- Nahuel

- Harvey Willoughby

- Lucy Willoughby

- Ronan Hawkins

- Zafrina

- Kebi

- Amun

- Coraline Gray

- Wesley Pemberton

- Jasper Whitlock

- Rosalie Cullen

- Emmet Cullen

- Carlisle Cullen

- Esme Cullen

- Bella Cullen

I didn't know if the list ended with Bella, or if Edward was simply unable to write any other names after hers. Either way, it was an intimidating sight. Clearly, they knew who their resistance would be if they tried anything.

"I noticed you're not on there," I said, looking over the list again.

"Neither are you," he replied somberly. "We're on the 'recruiting' list, along with Alice and Renesmee, and a handful of others. They're prepared to move us to the kill-list if they can't persuade us to join."

"Terrific. Well, we obviously won't join... and we can't allow them to work down the list, either."

"No. We have to try to warn everybody. Of course, as soon as we do, they'll know we're onto them..."

"If they don't suspect it already," Coraline added. "I didn't see Felix or the twins on the list – do you think they're working with Philippe?"

"There's no sure way of knowing, if we're right about Elliot's ability," Edward answered. He chuckled bitterly. "They may not even be aware that they're in on it. It's hard to know who we can really trust – anyone who's had contact with Elliot in the past... what, at least a year? Any of them could be a willing associate just waiting to have their memory pieced back together."

"Oh god..." Coraline said, before he even finished his sentence.

"What?" Edward and I asked in almost perfect unison.

"I've been around him... a lot. I worked for Elliot. I remember something changing, something seeming weird about him. Right after that, he and Philippe both got really distant... do you think..."

"What – you think he's brainwashed you?" I asked.

"I don't know, but that deja vu I felt when he did the memory-arranging... you didn't feel that, but you were just as close as I was. Maybe it was because he's already been messing around in there."

She had a point. The way her mind responded to the memory-rearranging that Elliot did fit the theory of having previously dislodged thoughts. What it didn't explain was why they would try to use her as an associate. There was no way Coraline would ever willingly go along with anything Philippe thought up. Unless, that is, they had a thought-pusher powerful enough to change her mind... The idea both intrigued and terrified me.

"Think carefully," Edward said, taking a calm, even tone. "Around the time when things changed, did you notice anything unusual about your daily routine? Did you have any days when you felt like you lost track of time?"

"I don't know," she replied, becoming upset. "It was a long time ago. I don't... I don't know."

"If they did try to recruit you, and we could piece back together that memory – even a little of it – that would give us a lot more information. Good, usable information that could save lives. Between Grant's abilities and mine, I'll bet we could find the pieces, if they're actually in there. Would you be willing to let us try?"

Coraline sighed heavily. "Be my guest," she said with shrugged shoulders. "My mind's an open book."