That happened to be a public one with an experienced M-Psy on duty who’d begun work on Nikita right there in the parking lot that was the only location lock in the young Tk’s mental files. An hour later, Nikita was still in surgery.

“The bullet is the same type as that used by the assassin who tried to hit Aden,” Vasic told Krychek, who’d also arrived on the scene. Vasic had picked up the bullet only after recording the blood-splattered site so Aden could see the scene exactly as it had been.

“Is the assassin talking?” Krychek asked. “If not, I can intervene.”

The squad had telepaths of their own who could break shields, but it hadn’t been necessary in this case. “He’s talking. He knows nothing.” Vasic had asked Axl to confirm that with a telepathic scan—at 9.7 on the Gradient, there were few untrained individuals who could hide their secrets from Axl.

The shooter was lucky he was Psy; he’d been able to consciously lower his shields so Axl could do the scan without causing harm to his brain. Any other race and Axl may have had to force it, causing permanent damage. “He was hired to make the hit and paid an exorbitant deposit to offset the risk involved in targeting an Arrow.”

“A contract killer?” Krychek looked at the shattered glass streaked with Nikita’s blood. “An intelligent enemy.”

“Yes.” The fewer people in the inner circle, the fewer people who could leak data. “The more we learn, the more it confirms we’re not dealing with another fanatical group like Pure Psy—this is far more strategic.” Vasic knew Aden had shared his theory of a shadowy puppet master intent on fostering disorder, with all of the Ruling Coalition so that they could head off possible clashes between different groups. He’d also told the changeling alphas with whom he had contact, as well as informing Bo.

“Aden and Nikita,” Krychek said, “have only one common denominator.”

“The Ruling Coalition.”

“The sudden rumors about Aden’s competence have to be part of a fallback plan.”

Vasic shook his head as he hunkered down to examine the way the glass had shattered. “I think it was part of the assassination plot itself—what better way to prove Aden’s lack of power than by shooting him in broad daylight?” Everything about the attempts on Aden’s life indicated a motive beyond his death, and that motive was to demoralize and humiliate the squad.

Someone did not want the Arrows around to disturb or stop their future plans.

Krychek’s cardinal eyes scanned the blood on the walls. “Will Aden respond to the rumors?”

“The squad doesn’t publicly explain itself.” Vasic knew Aden would answer the allegations when the time was right, but not by stripping the shield of distance and dark secrecy that kept the squad’s vulnerable safe.

Rising to his feet, he looked to Max Shannon, Nikita’s security chief having just returned to the office. “News?”

Face set in brutally hard lines, Max said, “Shooter was in a room in the high-rise directly across, as I suspected. I found the actual tenant bound and gagged in the bathroom.” The human male, who’d been a cop before he agreed to work for Nikita, put his hands on his hips.

“The tenant said he woke from sleep to find a masked female holding a gun to his head; she told him he’d be fine if he didn’t fight.” His eyes took in both Vasic and Kaleb, and though Max was, on the surface, the least powerful individual in the room, Vasic knew it would be a mistake to treat him that way.

The former cop not only worked for Nikita, Vasic had cause to know that Max had challenged her decisions on more than one occasion and won. Not many people could make that claim when it came to one of the most ruthless women in the world. Oddly, that fact increased Vasic’s respect for both parties involved—Max, for remaining clear-eyed even in the face of Nikita’s immense power, and Nikita for being unafraid to give a position of trust to someone who wasn’t a yes-man.

Vasic’s instincts told him that Max’s wife, Sophia, was cut from the same cloth as her husband. Yet Nikita had made the ex-Justice Psy her most senior aide. Neither appointment made sense to those who saw Nikita only as a power-hungry bitch who’d eat her own young to get to the top and to stay there.

Those people seemed to have forgotten the child Nikita did have, the one she’d raised successfully to adulthood despite the fact that the child had been born into an environment hostile to her very existence. And according to Ivy, Nikita would coldly execute anyone who so much as lifted a finger against Sascha.

“I’ve ordered a forensic team to go over the apartment used by the shooter,” Max added. “I’m not expecting them to find anything—this shouts professional hit to me.” Folding his arms over his white shirt, he nodded at Kaleb. “If this is about targeting members of the Ruling Coalition, you should be the primary target.”

Vasic agreed with Max; Krychek was unquestionably the strongest Psy in the Net.

“Yet I haven’t been under threat.” Kaleb walked around the bloodied glass to meet Vasic and Max in the center of the room. “Anthony and Ivy?”

“Safe.” Vasic had made sure Ivy was always protected, while Anthony had been in the NightStar compound for the past three days to attend internal family meetings.

“Could Ming and Shoshanna be behind this?” Max asked with a raised eyebrow. “Those two suffered a serious demotion with the fall of Silence.”

“If we accept that today’s assassination attempts were part of the same large conspiracy,” Vasic said, “then Shoshanna appears to have been targeted by this group. Anthony’s said it’s possible Ming was, too, but it could be a smokescreen to hide his involvement. The same with Shoshanna.”




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