Little Hunter

Hitching a ride on a van was harder than a big truck.

Last time Nanku stabbed her blades into the vehicle and held on. She suspected the occupants would notice if she tried it at present. Unfortunately, the van's tires were smaller, and she had to hold herself up quite a bit to not scrape onto the road.

It was a workout.

But it kept her ear close to the small hole she'd made. That was useful.

"Go straight and take the next exit."

"Parallel roads?"

"For the next five miles. We can cross over behind them if we need to."

"On it."

She also couldn't see anything herself. Even the second van following the first—the snipers entered it as they packed up their gear—was hard to see from so low to the ground.

Dusk and Dawn's eyes swept back and forth from above as her only guides for where they were going.

Nanku couldn't tell what vehicle Tattletale's men were following. They had a five-mile range—according to them—and they were using it. The target vehicle was out of sight most of the time and amid all the cars, trucks, and vans Nanku had no idea which was which from above.

They were following it out of the city and into the forested hills to the north.

That worked. Nanku took the chance to grab every wasp, hornet, bee, and wolf spider. Anything big that stung or bit, and even smaller insects that might be useful. Dragonflies and fruit flies had decent eyes. Crickets and grasshoppers were easier to hear through than other bugs, though still a challenge. Nanku got them moving with the rest of the swarm through the woods. Occasionally she used Dusk or Dawn as carriers, but their weight and heat needed to be managed.

They'd need to eat again before the night was up.

If they ever stopped somewhere.

How far could the Pure be hiding out of the city? Nanku wasn't so good with miles but she knew Yautja measures of distance. Twelve qan was a long way even accounting for a vehicle. Were they trying to avoid detection by producing a wide radius?

They were still moving.

At least it was time to spend on other things.

Some of the men suspected of Danny Hebert's murder were dead. Nanku used the controls of her computer to operate her mask's visor. She'd recorded all of the pages from the file and taken additional images from computer monitors and phone screens. Unsurprisingly, criminals did not live long lives.

Jamal Ortiz was killed within a few months of her father's death.

Nathan Dryer a year later.

Cassidy Hudson—a man with a woman's name?—died in 2010. Killed in a gun battle over drugs.

If any of them did the deed, they were already dead. That wasn't Nanku's preference but it would be simple. If she could prove it somehow.

She wasn't sure how to go about that.

What was left to find that the local enforcers and her mother had not? She'd poured over the records every chance she could in search but hardly knew where to begin. This was a very different sort of trail.

Discounting the three dead men, there were still a dozen more 'persons of interest.' Dozens of witnesses beyond them. Individuals named in the reports, papers, and statements.

Maybe that was a start.

Perhaps after so many years, someone was willing to say something they hadn't before. Remember something. Perhaps Nanku could push a little harder. Would revealing herself as Taylor Hebert have an effect?

Maybe. Maybe not. Nanku was at a loss for how to proceed, and the threat to her mother and Rose was far more immediate.

"In here," the man above said. "Turn right."

Nanku had Dawn look back. The van had never gone that fast and it went slower after taking an exit from the highway. That gave Nanku plenty of time to sweep for useful bugs and fly the Twins ahead to search.

They were in a cluster of forested hills and roads dotted with houses. Nice and expensive looking. Few office buildings or businesses aside from gas stations. A few larger buildings looked like schools or sports centers. Very few cars on the road. Most were parked and inactive. The house lights were dimmed or off entirely. People inside were asleep. They paid the passing vans no mindl.

Both vans drove through the neighborhood's twisting streets. They split at a point and started weaving in and out of one another's paths. It struck Nanku as bizarre, but she realized the goal.

They were checking to see if they were being followed.

The other vehicle must be who the man managing the monitors was talking to. He kept tapping messages out on his phone. Nanku tried to get a fly on his hand more than once, but it never worked.

No matter.

Fenja and Menja knew something.

Pe'dte didn't kill at random. She didn't simply expose herself. If they'd seen her and lived, something happened. Given the women's ages, Nanku guessed they were only a few years older than her. They'd have been children when Pe'dte was chasing the eggs. Maybe that was how they survived.

But why were they in a position to see her?

That couldn't be a coincidence.

Medhall. The Nazis. The eggs.

There was a line connecting them together. Nanku needed only to find what it was. The aligning of her goals in part was a pleasant convenience, but unimportant.

Both vans lined up again once they were certain they weren't being followed. They drove to the very back of the neighborhood and turned down a dirty back road that dead-ended thirty feet down a hill. They stopped there, surrounded by trees on either side and shrouded.

"Alright. Let's gear up and dig in."

"Think they'd pick a less obvious hideout."

"They're Nazis. No one ever said they were smart."

The doors opened and boots stepped out. Nanku held herself still and quiet. Waited for them to give her an opening.

It came surprisingly quickly.

All the men moved to the second van and gathered around one side. Some removed small white cartons from their clothes. Another drew a small silver box. The cap flipped and exposed a lighter. They were taking a smoke break.

Nanku took the chance and shimmied toward the front of her ride. She drew herself out slowly and quietly, standing at a speed that would produce the least shimmer and keep anyone from noticing her presence.

Then she waited just a few breaths to be sure no one was coming back for something.

When they didn't, she crept around to the back of the van and looked through the open doors.

The entire right wall was monitors. Screens and displays showing lots of things she didn't understand. The only one that seemed to matter was the right-most. That screen showed the familiar lines of a street map with a yellow dot at the center, another slightly behind it, and a single red dot to the northwest. Tucked tight in the back of the next neighborhood over what appeared to be a spacious patch of land much larger than the Bakeman's.

That would do.

Nanku turned away and sent the Twins ahead. Dusk and Dawn's eyes were already focused and could make out the lines. A large house—very large—that looked more like two houses stuck together than a single home. It was huge with three floors, multiple chimneys, and a driveway that was a circle with four different cars parked on its outer edge.

So multiple targets.

That would do too.

The air popped and Nanku looked over her shoulder.

Tattletale waved a hand and shook her head. "Fifty grand down the drain. So much for Fiji this year."

Nanku drew her knife.

The men were all gathered at the other van and looking away while they smoked.

Tattletale raised her hand. "Not stopping you. Complete waste of effort. Also, the Pure are targeting W and R IRL, so… Yeah. Kind of have to toss out the soft gloves and go brass knuckles anyway."

W and R?

"I've already got the Undersiders cleaning up and circling back to check on them," Tattletale continued. "Whatever plan the Pure had tonight was called off when you threw a wrench in the works so three cheers for happy miracles."

Weaver and Rose, Nanku realized.

…

"IRL?"

Tattletale frowned. "In real life. I.E. out of costume. They're going after who they really are. That's crossing a big damn line anyway. Unwritten rules are flimsy as hell, but capes still give a damn about them because we all have to sleep sometime. That's a fast way to set every city in the country on fire. Whole world goes to shit overnight. Everyone loses."

And the Pure were crossing it for revenge.

Nanku didn't really get the whole concept, but she also didn't care.

"So you do you." Tattletale shrugged. "I'll stand over here and watch for my own reasons, but I won't get in your way going forward. Waste of both our time and effort to try. Bright side, I get to tell the white hats the Pure are breaking the unwritten rules and that means they're going to care a bit less that someone is killing them off."

Nanku turned and proceeded into the woods.

She could have done all that quietly by simply shutting up. Whatever.

"I'm just here risking your wrath because I don't want your mom to bury you twice."

Nanku stopped and sighed.

"Last time the Undersiders went up against a thinker," Tattletale babbled. "I knew exactly what his power did, and I still got fucked unroyally. You don't fuck with thinkers out for blood. We find the most creative ways to get it."

How very good for her, Nanku thought. "Point."

"Point is I don't know what this thinker does. I've been trying to figure it out before anything big happens but they're smart and that's worse. For all I know you're walking into a trap right now. They could be a precog. A planner. And intrinsic. Any number of things. Be fucking careful."

She was really lucky Nanku didn't want to be spiteful. Even that wasn't enough to stop the temptation.

"Bitch is right."

"About what?"

"You talk too much."

"Yeah. That's fair."

Nanku wasn't sure if admitting it was better or more annoying.

Whatever.

If she came to deliver a 'helpful' warning, it was delivered and Nanku had business to attend to.

"Also I wasn't stringing you along," Tattletale called out as Nanku proceeded into the woods. "I've been looking into QC and the camp because fuck whoever did that. I haven't got them yet, but I do have a string of murders and blood baths stretching from Niamey to Lisbon and I think—"

She stopped and sighed.

"And you already know about that part somehow. Whatever. Point is I'm working on it."

Nanku kept walking.

The Twins fanned out through the air over the house with a swam of smaller bugs. Nanku found cameras. Alarms. A lot of security, but most of it was obvious except for the few parts that weren't.

Nothing she couldn't handle. All her planning for getting into the police station would be useful after all.

She hauled herself into a tree, set to approach from the rear of the estate and get over the wall without touching it.

And as much as she didn't want to care about what Tattletale said, she did.

Targeting Rose in addition to her mother?

Well, they were Nazis. Not like they had any real standards.

And it didn't change anything Nanku planned to do.