The tattooed Breedmate threaded her slender fingers through Mathias’s and gave him a sad smile.
As much as Lucan sympathized with the complicated emotional situation in front of them, first and foremost, the Order had a dangerous enemy to contend with.
“We need to get our hands on Riordan, and anyone who stands in the way of that mission will leave us no choice but to take them out. Anyone,” he said, casting a sober look at Mathias and Nova, and at Chase and Tavia. “We need Fineas Riordan alive for questioning. Between Tegan and Hunter, I have no doubt we’ll be able to wring out everything the bastard knows about Opus Nostrum and his comrades in that cabal.”
The pair of lethal Gen Ones inclined their heads in agreement. Tegan’s touch could siphon out the truth from even the most unwilling subject, and nothing could hide from Hunter’s ability to read blood memories.
Wolfish-looking Kade chuckled darkly on the other side of the table and nodded in the direction of the scarred warrior seated near him. “If Riordan doesn’t respond to those lines of questioning, let Rio here put his hands on him for a few seconds. Once Riordan feels his life leaking away, I’ll bet all of his Opus secrets will start spilling out.”
On one of the monitors, the Order’s German-born commander, Andreas Reichen, cleared his throat. “If the rumors in Europe are true, it sounds like Opus has been acquiring new chemical technology recently.”
Lucan wasn’t the only one to mutter a curse at that newsflash. “They already have access to liquid UV light weaponry. What other kind of chemical technology should we be looking for?”
“You won’t like it,” Andreas said. “There’s underground talk about a new, extremely powerful narcotic. Something that turns even the most docile Breed into a mindless, bloodthirsty savage.”
“We’ve been hearing the same thing in Rome the past few days,” Lazaro Archer said from his feed on another of the conference room monitors.
“Jesus Christ,” Dante hissed. “Sounds too much like Crimson.”
Twenty-odd years ago, a red, powder-based club drug had cropped up in Boston and elsewhere. It had spread like wildfire, and had cut a deep gash in the Breed communities, turning good sons into blood-addicted Rogues.
Sterling Chase had been one of the first to go after the drug and its creator. It was that quest that had brought him to the Order in the first place.
And if Opus had a similar narcotic now, they wouldn’t be the first to use it as a weapon against those who crossed them. More than one person seated around the table here tonight could attest to that firsthand.
Chase’s expression was stark and contemplative now, even after Tavia gently took his hand in hers in a show of affection and support.
“This news is all the more reason we can’t delay any longer,” Lucan said. “Riordan’s our best lead on the Opus brotherhood right now. We may have already tipped our hand by going after that lawyer in Dublin. We can’t give Riordan any more time to prepare for a strike.”
He glanced to Gideon. “We’re going to need all of your recon data on Riordan’s stronghold. Start monitoring who’s coming and going, how many men he has. We need assessments of his security setup, possible arms, all of it.”
Gideon nodded. “I can be ready to brief everyone within the hour.”
“Good. I want us mobilized and ready to crash his fucking gates tomorrow night.”
Mathias met Lucan’s gaze. “I can have my team on the ground in Dublin and ready to meet us with vehicles and any other arms and equipment we’ll need. Just tell me what you want, and it’ll be there waiting.”
“Excellent,” Lucan said.
On the third video monitor, Nikolai, the Order’s commander of the Montreal team, started to chuckle beside his very pregnant Breedmate, Renata, a formidable warrior in her own right. “It’s been a while since we all went out on a mission together. Gotta tell ya, I’m feeling kind of left out over here.”
Renata pinned him with a widened stare. “Oh, no, you don’t. If I’m grounded from this mission because of your son’s pending arrival, so are you, vampire. You’re the one who put us in this position, after all.”
Niko grinned. “And once he’s finally here, I can’t wait to get us in a whole bunch of other positions.”
Amid the laughter circling the room, Chase turned a serious look on Lucan. “Getting our hands on Riordan is key, but we also need to consider the lead Brynne’s given us on the GNC member in London, Neville Fielding. If the human is connected to Opus, then as soon as Riordan is compromised, Fielding and the rest of the organization is going to batten down their hatches. We could drive them all to ground, and lose a prime advantage.”
Lucan agreed. “Ideally, we should go after both men at the same time. Our investigation into Fielding will need to be totally covert. He can’t know we’re on to him.”
“He’s going to be preoccupied with other things for the next couple of days,” Tavia said. “Brynne mentioned that his daughter is engaged. Fielding is hosting a reception for her at his home tomorrow night.”
Lucan grunted. “As much as I’d like to, we can’t storm the party with a team of heavily armed warriors.”
“No,” Chase said. “But Brynne will be there.”
Tavia eyed him cautiously. “She’s JUSTIS, Sterling. We can’t ask her to do the Order’s work, even if she would be willing to defy her own organization to help us. She’d be risking her entire career.”