Page 10 of Tempting the Tiger
“Even if they’re where their socials say they are, that many people on the same programme suddenly quitting and moving away before their time is up raises suspicions on its own,” I say. “Ican keep looking into it as I have been, but it might be time for Dhiren to get involved.”
Ayo frowns. “Who?”
Kit straightens in their chair, eyes sharpening. “Our undercover operative.”
Ayo gapes at Ethan. “Oh my goddess, you have another team member and didn’t tell me?”
Ethan puts his arm around his mate. “Calm down, you’ve already met him.”
Ayo scoffs. “I’d remember if I had.”
I loosen my tie and undo my top button, untuck my shirt, mess up my hair, then slouch in my chair and switch to the Cockney accent one of my ex-girlfriends had. “All right, mate, I’m Dhiren.”
Ayo’s mouth drops open. “No. Way.”
Jet wiggles his eyebrows. “Awesome, right? He’s our official linguist. Speaks a billion languages?—”
“Twenty-three,” I correct.
“—and can fit in anywhere.”
“But… he’s so posh,” Ayo whispers to Skye next to him.
Skye laughs. “Aye, but he’s a highly trained chameleon. He’ll have no trouble fitting in at a warehouse.”
I raise my eyebrows at Ethan, awaiting his verdict. If he wants me to treat this as a standard investigation I will, but I’m already getting the strong sense that I’ll just keep running into the same roadblocks.
Ethan rubs his beard, then drops his hand. “Kit, set it up. I don’t think we need full deep cover, perhaps just a suitable car, phone, and clothing, as well as the standard digital history. Raj, I assume you’d prefer to keep living in your flat?”
I nod. “Ideally, yes. I’ll make up a cover story that explains why I can afford it, but it’s not a particularly expensive place.”
I also don’t know any of my neighbours beyond polite smiles when we pass on the stairs—except Skye and Cal, whoshare a flat several floors below me—so there’s no danger of my real identity being exposed that way.
“Then that’s what we’ll do for now. Wrap up as much of your other work as you can and prepare to hand over anything you need to. That said, I want you to keep investigating this latest disappearance at a distance while Kit gets everything in place. The wolf Dante is worried about could have left some sort of clue behind that might make undercover work unnecessary.”
“Of course, Alpha.” I straighten in my chair then fix my shirt, tie, and hair.
“Use Jet for in-person interviews as needed,” Ethan says.
Jet… would not be my first choice, but I can’t risk meeting anyone who works at Far Out Freight. As it is, Kit will have to run multiple checks to ensure no one there knows me.
But no matter how I have to go about it, I’ll get to the bottom of whatever is going on over in that warehouse.
Chapter Three
BRYN
I heave the massive wooden box onto the pallet and use my scanner to confirm what I can already see—that the golden containment field is undamaged. The system is fairly idiot-proof: point the scanner at the box, press the ‘scan’ button, and when a green tick appears on the screen, press the ‘finish’ button to say this part is complete. The location of the next box then pops up for me to go play fetch.
It’s as exciting as it seems.
I step out of the way of a forklift so that the pallet I just finished loading can be moved onto the waiting lorry. I’m heading for aisle twelve, my eyes on the floor in an attempt to minimise the glare from the boxes, when a flashing light in my peripheral vision catches my eye. My supervisor, Aire, is using a torch to get my attention.
Although she’s glamoured to look like she has cropped ginger hair and is wearing a suit, in reality her long hair is a muted white, her fluttering wings are the grey of morningfog, and she’s wearing a long white dress which has slits for her wings. It’s not exactly practical attire for a warehouse, but that’s not my problem.
She pockets the small torch. ‘Follow me,’ she signs, her hand movements impatient.
I hold up my scanner, because we get docked pay if we take too long moving the freight and I’m not willing to traipse after her unless she does something about that.
