Brand shook his head. "If those two are going to spend all their time fighting, why are you teaming them together?" he asked Antton. When Antton gave him a scathing look, Brand seemed to shrink down into the sofa, whispering, "Sorry."
Ulrik, who had been fairly quiet up until then, said, "It's a legitimate question."
"And you know the answer," Antton snapped out. "Randulf's one of the best back-up men we have."
"You and I are almost as good and we don't really want to kill Lew, if we can help it," Ulrik replied.
Randulf looked up. "I don't want to kill him. If I did, he'd be dead. I'm quite capable of watching his back in order to stop Alanna, once he makes contact with her."
From the sour look on his face, it seemed as if Lew was going to say something before thinking better of it. Instead, he just nodded. "He is good."
"As much as you hate to admit it," Randulf retorted.
"Not at all. When it comes down to doing the job, you're fantastic. Despite what Ulrik said—and he's right, he and Antton are also good—I'd rather have you as my backup."
Mag turned to Randulf. "If she knows you, how can you be there too? Besides which, you're a werewolf so she'd sense you."
"Remember I told you I can physically change my appearance? Obviously I'd do that if necessary. As for the other, true she would sense what I am, so I won't be 'with' Lew—except mentally—until the time is right. Despite what he may think—" Randulf sent a scathing look at Lew "—it will probably take both of us to control her and get her away from whatever club he finds her."
Lew frowned. "You really think she's strong enough I couldn't overpower her on my own?"
"Not without possible collateral damage to anyone in the vicinity," Antton said. "She truly has no morals now. She's an alpha so, as you're well aware, even in her human form she has all the alpha attributes. She was almost captured in New York, by Theodule. He felt the same way you do, that he could handle her on his own. Not only did she kill him, she took out three humans as well before setting fire to the house he'd lured her to. At least," Antton added wryly, "she had sense enough to do that to cover her tracks. But it happened two years ago. Who knows if she cares anymore that people might learn of our existence?"
"So that's what happened to him." Lew shook his head. "He was a good man. I thought he'd retired, since I haven't heard anything about him recently."
Mag was surprised that Lew actually looked upset. Not that I should be, I suppose. He has to have more going on than just an inflated sense of his own self-worth or he wouldn't be an Enforcer in the first place.
"How often does she strike?" Brand asked.
"There doesn't seem to be a pattern," Antton told him. "In Rio, it was almost nightly for two weeks before she moved on. In Exeter, she killed twice in the space of a month. But…" He paused for emphasis. "She always shows up not too long after there's been a natural disaster. One could presume her thinking is that dogs who lose their homes because of that will form into feral packs, thus giving her a cover for her own activities."
Brand nodded. "Here, it was the rainstorms just north of us that caused such devastation."
"Yes. As I said earlier, the club where the body was found is on the north side of the city."
"At least that should narrow our search," Randulf stated.
"Hopefully. Ulrik, see if the list of clubs has arrived."
Ulrik went to the computer, opening his email to check. "It has." He printed it out then handed it to Antton.
"This city has too damned many clubs, but at least there are only fifteen in the northern suburbs. It could be worse, I suppose," Antton muttered after reading through the list.
"Can you narrow it down to ones close to open space?" Brand asked. "The way we did when we were looking for Fedor's house?"
"Excellent idea." Antton sat down at the computer, logging into a map site. Soon he told them, "Two are relatively close to the Standley Lake, and three are within walking distance of open space tracts."
"Five clubs, five of us, how fortuitous. We'll start with them," Lew said, all business now. "I suggest we each take one and stick with it. That way we'll know the clientele and it will be easier to spot her when she shows up… if she does. We give it—" he glanced at Antton, "—a week? And then widen the field if none of us finds her?"
Antton nodded. "That should work. With the exception of you, Lew, we'll have to keep very low profiles so she doesn't sense we're there."
Mag frowned in thought. "Why go into the clubs where she could be aware you're there? Just stake them out then let Lew know if she shows up."
"He has a point," Randulf said. "For Lew it's no problem to go in, but… yes, that would work better." He smiled at Mag. "I have a feeling you're a good strategist and since you're new to this, you can see things we don't because you're not set in your ways the way we are."
Mag beamed at his praise, murmuring, "Maybe."
"Definitely," Brand told him, giving him a hug.
"All right, we'll go with that," Antton said. He read through the list, assigning a club to each of the werewolves, including Brand. "We'll start this evening."
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