“We’ve got bodies.”

The call came bright and early Saturday morning. Really, a call that starts with, “We’ve got bodies,” should come in the dark of the night, in Jake’s opinion. Not with the accompaniment of birdsong and fresh sunlight.

“Bodies?” Jake repeated, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and flailing around for his glasses.

“Yes. Multiple victims, Four Pines Mall. The scene is currently inactive, the cleaners Dakota and Jordan have it locked down.”

Jake shot upright, all morning fatigue forgotten in sheer panic. Four Pines was the location Jake had assigned Agent Reaper. There was a Slasher loose. Well, there had been. The agent on the phone said it was inactive, now. So whatever had happened was over.

“I’ll be right down. Keep a lid on things until we know what happened.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jake dressed hurriedly and rushed out the door to his car. Multiple bodies.

Was one of those bodies a tiny, blonde waif with ancient eyes and too many fresh scars?

Or was the waif the one who’d killed them?

With Agent Reaper, the odds were about even either way.

The site was eerily quiet when he arrived. The cleaners worked with eerie precision under Jordan’s silent direction. His partner, Dakota, met Jake at the door with a clipboard full of notes. Over her shoulder, Jake saw a line of half a dozen bodies. A plain white sheet obscured each one from view. None of them was small enough to be Skye. Jake let himself slump internally in relief, although he kept the emotion off of his features.

“Report, please,” Jake asked.

“The Slasher has returned to dormancy, and is currently filed as missing,” Dakota said.

“Damn it,” Jake swore. A dormant slasher could turn up anywhere, anytime. “What about our agent?”

“Agent Reaper called for pickup at roughly 5:30 this morning. She had a civilian Hidden with her, presumably a survivor.”

“A Hidden?” Jake frowned. “In a Hunt Initiative base?”

Dakota lifted and dropped one shoulder in a minimal shrug. “The driver reported his status as injured and said he thought he might be an elf. Rowan refused to give any details, and the civilian was in no state to answer any questions. He spent most of the ride asleep, or possibly unconscious.”

“Okay. And our driver just left an unconscious, unknown civilian in the custody of a 14-year-old grim reaper?”

“Yes,” Dakota answered, as though that were perfectly reasonable.

“Where did she take him?”

“Murgatroyd, that is the driver who answered the call, would not report.”

Because Murgatroyd was, logically enough, much more afraid of Rowan than he was loyal to Jake or Labyrinth at large. And if Rowan said not to tell where she’d gone to ground, Murg wouldn’t.

Fine. If Rowan cared enough to drag the civilian off site, she probably wouldn’t let him die. Jake could figure out which bolt hole she’d run to later and make sure both of them received proper medical attention. Then he could find out what a Hidden was doing among the Initiative. He somehow doubted he was a member.

“What about the other survivors? Reports had a dozen Initiative men here. I see six bodies.”

“We have no information at this time.”

“Great. We’ll have to wait for Rowan to report.” Which would happen when she felt good and ready and not a moment before.

Jake just hoped the report wouldn’t end with, “and then I hunted down the last survivors and killed them.”

“Okay. Tell me about the scene. What do we know?”

Dakota started with the bodies. “We found this woman’s body in a makeshift laboratory, in what was previously a retail clothing store.” Dakota pointed off into the darkness of the abandoned mall. “Several sharp implements pinned her to the wall and her body shows signs of extended torture. Forensic evidence suggests she was the first victim; likely she was dead before Agent Reaper arrived on site.”

Jake winced. “You said they had a laboratory?”

“Yes.” Dakota scowled. “They were studying the Hidden. We found vials of blood, silver, so most likely Elvin or fey. There was an examination table with steel cable straps. It is most likely that the civilian Reaper took was held in that lab.”

“Damn,” Jake breathed. It was a wonder any of the Initiative men had survived, if Skye had seen that.

He looked at the other bodies. “The rest?”

“This one,” Dakota waved to the largest body, “died from a fall into a decorative water fountain. A broken pipe impaled him; death was likely instantaneous.”

Jake could see the fountain nearby. “An instantaneous kill is out of character for a Slasher.”

“Yes,” Dakota agreed, but because she didn’t have any concrete evidence, she offered no theories.

Jake asked because he had to know, “Is it likely that the Slasher killed all of these people?”

“Five of them, yes. Falling debris crushed these three. We found all three in the movie theater, in a collapsed room. There is evidence of a mage shield circle. If the Slasher couldn’t reach them, it stands to reason it would collapse the roof onto them.”

“Yikes.” He frowned and pointed to the last body. “What about them?”

“This one,” Dakota pulled the sheet back to reveal a man of late middle years, “we found in the bank’s vault at the far end of the mall. He was shot with a gun matching the caliber of the sidearm issued to Agent Reaper.” Dakota let Jake feel that horror for a moment before adding, “He showed signs of prior torture. There is a seventy-five percent probability his death was Reaper’s idea of a mercy.”

Jake sighed. She might have meant well. Or she might have decided saving the man was a waste of energy. No way to know.

“And we have no sign of the Slasher, or the other survivors, or of Agent Reaper, or the civilian?” Jake asked.

“Not at this point, no.”

“Great. What do we know about the civilian, and the other survivors?” Jake asked.

Jordan walked over. “We were able to correlate messages found on the deceased Initiative members’ phones to identify the survivors.” He handed Jake a list. “As for the civilian, we are only certain that he is one of the Hidden, presumably an elf. The injuries noted by Murgatroyd and forensic evidence from the lab suggest he was a prisoner of the Initiative.”

Jake paced for a few minutes. Skye had successfully kept a half dozen Initiative members alive, which was a genuine surprise to Jake. Sending her in had been a last ditch desperation move on his part. Truth be told, it shocked him that she hadn’t killed them herself. He’d taken that risk because the only alternative was to leave a Slasher loose and active in a populated area.

“Locate the survivors and place them under loose surveillance,” Jake said. “We need to know if they are called on by the Initiative again. It’s unlikely she would’ve just let them go if they had any real power in the organization, though. Our priority right now is containment. Is there anything nearby to the mall that will be damaged in a fire?”

“No. Only further abandoned retail locations,” Jordan reported.

“Yay for economic depression,” Jake muttered, “Fine then. Torch this place, destroy all evidence or our agent’s presence and the events of last night.”

“And the bodies?” Dakota asked.

“There is no logical reason for these people to be in an abandoned mall," Jake said. "We don’t want questions. Have them removed and stage a large traffic accident, multiple vehicles and lots of fire. The bodies need to be identifiable, but not the cause of death.”

Dakota nodded and opened her phone, searching for the most appropriate agents to get the job done.

“Well, that’s that,” Jake sighed. “I guess the only thing to do now is clean up and wait for Reaper to call.”

“Will she?” Jordan asked.

Jake could only shrug.