CARESSED BY ICE

“We think we’ve tracked down the assassins who hit DawnSky.”


All amusement faded from the air. Judd looked at Lucas. “Are you certain? I told you that uniform is worn by every member of the Psy force under Ming LeBon’s command.”

“That’s the problem,” Lucas conceded. “We’ve narrowed it down to a specific squad, but there are fifty of them. Six Psy were spotted during the attack.”

Dorian shrugged, no mercy in his face. “You know my opinion—gut them all.”

“We do that, it’s a declaration of war.” Lucas’s tone said he wouldn’t mind going head-to-head with the Psy. “But that’s what they want—it’ll give them an excuse to come down hard on all changeling groups in the area. A pinpoint hit will deliver our message far more accurately.”

Judd knew Lucas was right. “I may be able to get you the data.”

Everyone looked at him.

“I have contacts in the Net.” He let that sink in, let them judge his loyalties. “Not everyone is happy with how the Council is running things.”

Hawke glanced at him, then gave a small nod. A concession of trust. “Backup plan,” the alpha said to Lucas, “we take out the exact number of Psy who attacked the deer.”

“That’ll make the point with a little less finesse, but yeah, it could work.” Lucas tapped his finger on the dark wood of the table he sat at. “I’ve been thinking about their tactics—trying to turn the packs against each other.”

“So have I,” Hawke said. “They have to have used it before, and successfully, to try the game on us.”

Lucas’s facial markings went white against his skin. “Doesn’t say much about our intelligence if we can be worked so easily.”

“We weren’t. But weaker packs would be.”

“You’re too divided,” Judd broke in. “It’s the first lesson Psy soldiers learn. Don’t try to take out changelings—get them to take out each other.”

Someone growled and Judd wasn’t sure that that primal sound hadn’t come from one of the feminine throats. He remembered how Brenna growled at him when he got her mad. Her wolf side fascinated him—he liked seeing her claws.

“Let me guess,” Hawke said, “before, the Council kept their interference minimal in this region because SnowDancer and DarkRiver kept each other in check.”

Judd nodded. “Yes. And if the computer attack doesn’t succeed in warning them off, they’ll keep picking away at you and your nonpredatory allies—until your power base is eroded to the point of nonexistence. Then they’ll launch a quiet offensive to install Council-friendly packs in place of your former allies.”

His last words had the effect of a bomb. Questions came at him from every angle until he raised a palm for silence. “Yes,” he said. “There are packs that have made agreements with the Council for money, land, or simply immunity from Psy strikes.”

“So even if we set up some sort of chain of communication to prevent the Psy from starting another territorial war”—Hawke’s face was wolf-sharp—“we have no way of knowing who’s snitching to the Council?”

“I’d operate on the assumption that everything you say is being reported back.”

“That can be turned to our advantage,” Lucas pointed out.

Hawke nodded. “After we run this next op, we need to talk about how to fix our lines of communication—packs can’t remain isolated from each other anymore. Not if we’re going to survive the Psy Council.”

The meeting broke up soon afterward and Judd immediately contacted the Ghost. Because he didn’t want to leave the den, he took the chance of sending a coded message asking for a call on a secure line. The Ghost responded within seconds. “This call should be untraceable, but we can’t talk for long.”

“Understood.” Judd laid out the situation with the deer and the Psy without mentioning either DarkRiver or SnowDancer. Just as he didn’t know the Ghost’s identity, the Ghost had no knowledge of where Judd went after he left the church.

“You need the names of the exact officers?”

“Can you get them?”

“I’ll have to break into a secure PsyNet database, but that shouldn’t pose a problem unless the information has been highly classified. I assume you don’t want to talk to these men?”

Judd didn’t answer because no answer was needed.

“My goal is to help my people,” the Ghost said in the chill tone of a Psy fully enmeshed in Silence, “not sell them out. I may be a revolutionary, but I am not a traitor.”

“To fight an evil that butchers innocent women and children isn’t treason.”

“I agree—at least in this situation. Killing those deer was akin to taking out the most helpless civilians in a war no one knows is taking place.”

“Case by case? Fine. Your conscience will tell you where to go.”