Page 27 of Guardian

“Apparently the council didn’t think so,” Manus griped.

“And Logan?” Hamish asked.

“When I called the asshole, he gave me this whole spiel about how useful she could be, that she has visions about the demons and could help us destroy them. Don’t you think the council didn’t discuss that before they took their vote? But no, Logan thinks he knows better. He said he has to save her. That he’ll prove to the council that she’s worth more to us alive than dead. Idiot! They’ll never change their vote!”

Enya shrugged. “Given the right evidence, they might.”

“Oh please!” Manus glared at her. “Are you going soft, or what?”

Enya narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t you—”

“Stop, both of you!” Hamish ordered. “Your bickering isn’t gonna help us find Logan.”

“Hamish is right,” Aiden said. “We have to find him. Quickly, before the council gets wind of this and figures out that he ran off with the psychic instead of killing her. That’s treason. And I’m not letting my friend go down for treason.”

“I’m not either,” Pearce confirmed.

“Same,” Enya said tightly.

Hamish only nodded.

Manus snorted. “Yeah, well, I’m not letting him do that either. But he’s still an asshole!” Asshole or not, Logan was his friend, and he couldn’t let his friend be tried for treason, an offense punishable by death.

He turned to Pearce. “Did you run Logan’s credit cards already to see if he used them at the bus station?”

Pearce nodded. “Yep. No hit. He wouldn’t be so stupid as to use his credit cards if he’s trying to evade us.”

“Then check the woman’s. Winter Collins. Maybe they used hers.”

“Give me a second to find her records.” Pearce started typing on his computer. Windows popped open, then closed again. It seemed to take an eternity, when in reality it probably took Pearce only several minutes to located the woman’s credit card and review her latest charges. He pointed to the screen. “Here. Purchase of two tickets on the Greyhound bus from Philadelphia to Chicago.”

Manus stared at the entry. “Why would he want to go to Chicago? It doesn’t make sense. Why travel by bus?”

Pearce met his look. “I get it. Why risk being exposed for so long, when he could just go to the next portal and travel anywhere without us being able to track him?”

“Exactly,” Manus said. “He meant for us to track him. But why?”

“Can we check if he even got on that bus to Chicago?” Hamish asked. “How about his cell phone? Can you ping it?”

Pearce turned back to the screen. “I did it earlier, but couldn’t get a good reading. He might have been in an area with bad reception. Let me try it again.”

A few moments later a map appeared on one of Pearce’s screens. A red dot flashed.

“He’s moving,” Pearce said. “Currently outside of Pittsburgh. That’s the route the bus would take from Philadelphia to Chicago. Looks like he’s on the bus.”

Manus shook his head. Something wasn’t right. He turned to his compound mates. “Tell me something, if you were on the run from us, would you leave your cell phone switched on, knowing that we can trace it with our software and find your location?”

All of them shook their heads.

“That’s what I thought.” Manus grumbled. “Fucking bastard. He’s laid out breadcrumbs for us to follow, leading us on the wrong trail. He’s nowhere near Chicago.”

“Then where?” Aiden asked.

“He’s making his way to a portal so he can disappear.” Manus turned back to Pearce. “Get me a list of all known lost portals within reach of the public transport system of Philadelphia. Because unless Logan stole a car, he couldn’t have gotten far. He would have had to use the rail system. And check reports about any stolen cars in the area, just in case.”

Pearce tapped away on his keyboard, then cursed. “Shit, there are too many portals. Their rail system is too extensive. There’s no way that between us we can have a man at every portal in the area to lay in wait for him. And we can’t ask another compound for help. Nobody can know about Logan going rogue. We need to narrow down the number of portals.”

“How?” Aiden asked.

“We have to put ourselves in his shoes,” Pearce said. “What would Logan do?”