Chapter 33

The news hit San Francisco in the afternoon; barely two hours after the event had taken place. When Hawke called him to his office Judd was already on his way, having expected it.

"Can you tell me anything about what the hell is going on with your people?" That was all the greeting Judd got when he entered the room.

"They're no longer my people." Some time ago it wouldn't have mattered. Judd would have given the answer he knew Hawke expected at once.

But the other man understood, was even satisfied with the change. "Right. I'm sorry Judd. Of course you're one of us. It's just the surprise. Krychek has always been a wild card, but this was really unexpected. So far it's only media reports and I need to know what the consequences will be, especially for us. Do you have any idea what he's planning?" Judd had revealed his knowledge of the Ghost's identity to Hawke some time ago. The alpha had agreed to keep the knowledge between the two of them until it became necessary for the good of the pack to share it. For now it would only endanger anyone who knew.

"No, I was surprised myself. It is still in the middle of the night over there. So I guess we are reacting sooner than the local population since it's daytime here. I already tried to get to him, but I am still waiting for an answer."

"Well, this looks as if your contact might be very differently employed right now." He pointed at a couple of printouts of some news articles all of which showed pictures of Kaleb Krychek dancing very intimately with a woman Hawke had never seen before, although he'd been observing the Council superstructure for quite a while. And all of them had headlines of a varying degree of ridiculousness. One of the editors had even managed to put little pink hearts around the dancing couple. Obviously the tabloids were in raptures about the whole thing. "But that yellow press crap isn't going to get us very far. All we know to this point that for some reason a Councilor chose to give an unusual, public display of a rather emotional activity."

"The first conclusion might be that Kaleb finally chose sides concerning the fall of Silence and that the split in the Council is about to get officially announced to the public. But it might just be a clever distraction, while the real thing is played out somewhere else. In any case Kaleb just sped up the open outbreak of the war significantly," Judd replied calmly.

"Sounds much more plausible than this bullshit, that's already all over the internet. Why are those vultures always faster than the reputable media?" With that he threw the whole pile of tabloid prints in the wastebasket. "Any other insights in your side?"

"I think I know the woman." A short hesitation was all that was left of the conflict Judd had once fought over the loyalties from his past and the ones to the pack that was his future. "She's an Arrow, specialized on dealing with humans and changelings." He let that sink in for a moment before he continued. "She is probably very good at putting up any sort of show. And that might be exactly why Krychek chose her."

"What does specialized mean?" Hawke was not overly thrilled to learn that the Psy had people who knew how to 'deal' with them.

"I don't know exactly. It's what I've been told, when I met her. She was the only Arrow I ever met who worked undercover with changelings." Judd had never questioned the encounter before. It belonged to another life, one he didn't want to recall too often.

"Impossible, we'd smell her out from a mile." Changelings could distinguish Psy by their metallic smell, the scent of Silence. And all Arrows were Silent to the extreme.

"Yes, I've never thought about that…" Judd hadn't known about the smell back when he'd worked for the Squad. "Maybe it has something to do with her shields. You can't see it on the pics, because she's wearing contacts but she's a cardinal."

"Then she's probably good enough to break into a changeling mind to make them believe she's human." Until now Hawke had thought their shields were too strong to be broken other than by a lethal blow of telepathy. He decided he liked that woman just as much as the guy she'd danced with.

"No, I meant she is a cardinal shield. It's her designation. I don't think she has many offensive skills. I had to take over her mission twice, because she was not up to do the killing. – Come to think about it… she was rather unusual for an Arrow." But strangely she hadn't awakened the slightest interest when he'd worked with her. He'd contact Aden about her later.

"That is not very comforting." Frustrated Hawke ran a hand through his hair. Everything Judd knew just raised more questions. "If this had anything to do with the rebellion, wouldn't he have told you?"

"I don't know. For all that matters he still is a wild card, even for me."

At that moment the desk-phone chimed, announcing a video call.

"That was fast!" Hawke exclaimed when he saw the caller ID.

Judd stepped out of the camera range before the alpha took the call.

"Selenka. I already thought about calling you, but it must be late in Moscow."

"Yes, but this can't wait. If you were about to call, I assume you already heard what happened?"

"The pictures are spreading over the internet like –" Hawke broke off noticing something he hadn't before: Selenka sat at her usual desk, only he had never seen the other alpha dressed in green Satin and wearing make-up. She usually preferred practical clothing. The pieces clicked together fast. "Wait, you were there!?"

"Yes. I can tell you first-hand what happened, but honestly I haven't got a clue what is going on behind the stage. I was hoping on your Psy contacts may have some ideas." So that was why she had called first although the whole thing had taken place in her territory.

"Fair deal. Ok with you if you start?" It was most logical for Selenka to give her report first, but the other alpha was by many years Hawke's senior and he didn't want to make the mistake to seem disrespectful. And Selenka was intelligent enough to know it wasn't a sign of weakness or submission.

"Krychek is known for playing a show for the other races. That's why half of the human population is falling for him and – I'm ashamed to say – some of our females too. Tonight he brought that woman, who did basically the same but especially to the men." She paused and drew a breath, while her hand rubbed shortly over her forehead. Surprised Hawke realized it was a gesture to contain anger. "One of my senior soldiers obviously thought with his dick and found it appropriate to ask her to dance. – The idiot! I'll have him running for the novices for a month!"

That explained the anger, Hawke thought. "He endangered the business connection you're forming with Krychek."

"Yes, that and even if this was all part of a greater scheme, I'm not fond of getting in any way connected to being the catalyst for the escalation of their war. – Anyway that was how it started. I have no idea why she didn't flat out refuse to dance or why Krychek intervened by cutting in. Until tonight I didn't even know a Psy could dance at all."

"Some of them are full of surprises." Hawke allowed himself a short memory of the night before, when Sienna had proven once more, that dancing was by far not the end of a Psy's sensual arsenal.

The enigmatic statement accompanied by a smug smile on the younger wolf's face had Selenka speculating, if the rumors about Hawke's mate were true. But the relationship between their packs wasn't yet stable enough to ask openly. "Well, Krychek certainly is, but tonight – I'm not sure whether those two were acting more for the public or for each other."

"What do you mean?"

"It was hard to smell anything in that room full of perfumed people of all three races, but my soldier was pretty sure the woman didn't stink like they usually do. And from the looks of it… the air between them was practically burning!" The older woman shook her head, as if she couldn't believe her own words.

Neither could Hawke. "You realize what you're suggesting, right?" It was public knowledge that Kaleb Krychek was considered to be one of those on the very far end of the Silence continuum.

"Yeah, I know how it sounds. But you should have seen it. I'll eat my own tail if there's not something going on between them."

Hawke took a short glance at Judd, who equally shook his head. "That's probably exactly the reaction they were aiming for. My sources say that the woman is a very able actress and trained in deceiving non-Psy."

"You have interesting sources. Care to share?"

"Not yet. But if you ever get out of Russia for an alliance meeting we might discuss that too."

With the Psy war on the rise it was about time to build worldwide networks. But similar to their initial negotiations with BlackSea Selenka hadn't yet agreed to a meeting on neutral ground.