The contact came through an encrypted channel on a beast wire that was not registered to any of their names.
They had been given the channel three months ago, passed through a chain of intermediaries so long that none of them could have traced it back to the source. The message had been simple then: We know what you did. We are not your enemies. When the time comes, cooperation will be rewarded.
Faye's father had kept the channel active. He had not thought they would need it this soon.
He opened it now.
The response came within minutes, which told him that whoever was on the other end had been expecting them.
The voice was distorted — not enough to be unrecognizable as female, but enough to make identification impossible. Calm. Precise. The voice of someone who had thought several ste
