Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 525

Chapter 525

ARIA

"They're not connected," Kael said.

"My lab," Ivory said, "which was destroyed on Saturday, contained research that I've been conducting for four years. Some of that research is recoverable. Some of it is gone." She looked at him steadily. "The research that's gone was the most recent. The part that was getting close."

"I know," Kael said, and this version of those two words had the weight.

"We need to rebuild the research," Ivory said. "What I remember, plus what I had documented elsewhere, plus what we can reconstruct from Killian's information and Vela's information and everything Vesper told us before—" she glanced at Kael's hands, "—before the conversation ended."

"The information is in the intelligence files," Jordan said. "Everything we got from Vesper. I organized it while we were on the break."

"Recreationally," Kael said.

"I enjoy organizing," Jordan said. "It's meditative."

"Killian," Ivory said, turning to the corner.

Killian straightened slightly. The awareness of being addressed directly in this room, by Ivory specifically, carrying its own weight.

"What do you know about the original caster," Ivory said.

"Less than you'd think," Killian said. "The network doesn't talk about the origin openly. I know there's someone at the top. I know the network reports to that person through several layers. I know the caster is still alive because the root wouldn't be usable otherwise — it's tied to the caster's continued existence."

"The root deactivates when the caster dies, all of them" Ivory said.

"That's consistent with everything I found," Ivory said, to Jordan and Nina. "Which means—"

"Find the casters or the original one who did it," Jordan said.

"Find the caster," Ivory confirmed. "And the root is resolved."

The room processed this.

"We need to find a specific person," Nina said, "who has been hidden for at least four years, who we've been unable to identify despite four years of research, and who is actively protected by a network that we've been dismantling from the outside but haven't reached the center of."

"Yes," Ivory said.

"That's the Monday agenda," Nina said.

"That's the Monday agenda," Ivory confirmed.

"Also the budget discussion," Jordan said.

"ALSO the budget discussion," Ivory said.

Kael was looking at the books on his desk with the expression of someone who'd had a very full morning already and could see that the afternoon was going to be equally full.

"The book club," he said, very quietly.

"What," Ivory said.

"If I agree," he said, "to the book club—"

"You don't get to negotiate with the book club," Ivory said. "The book club is not a concession. The book club is a right."

"I bought the books," he said.

"With pack's money," Ivory said. "Effectively."

"The discretionary—"

"Kael," Ivory said.

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