“But you don’t know for sure?”
Laura started to argue, then realized even if Gordon was wrong, calling Palmer could put him in someone’s crosshairs.
The less who knew what Laura did, the better.
“In the least, I need to warn Dr. Dante. He might even have an idea on how to stop these things. If not him, the Mah.”
“You know where he is?” Gordon opened a sterile wipe.
The first touch made Laura wince. “Richmond West is a shell company Dekker has his planes and vehicles registered with. About two weeks ago, one of his jets landed at a small airport in North Georgia. When Dr. Dante disappeared, we recovered footage from traffic cams showing a company vehicle less than a mile from the operations site he’d been taken to in South Carolina. Then a few days ago, those vehicles showed up again heading back to that private airport. The plane left less than an hour later.”
“Where is it now?”
“Last time I checked, satellite imagery said Washington State.”
“What’s in Washington?”
“Isaiah.”
Gordon scrunched up his face, then widened his eyes. “What would Mah want with Isaiah?”
“Not Isaiah. Luca.”
“Mah don’t have no use for a Cana.”
“No, but the last time I spoke with Palmer, he expressed concern about rogue packs of Varu finding Luca and following him. And since Luca is with Nash Kelli…” They’d do whatever it took to appease Grey enough to give Luca to them.
The look on Gordon’s face made it clear she didn’t need to elaborate.
Gordon grunted. “The Varu are that desperate, huh?”
“Yeah, they are.”
“Considering the people who tried to kill that Cana were Mah, I wouldn’t think there’d be payment big enough to make it worthwhile for the Dekkers to get within miles of Nash.” Gordon opened another alcohol wipe and cleaned Laura’s chin. “Unless they’re desperate too.”
“Very possible. Dr. Dante is the only one left from the Utah Facility that knows anything about the ichor. While we don’t know how many vials of the VrK were distributed, we do know it was a limited number. They could need more or there could be something wrong with the current formula.” She tilted her head to give Gordon better access to the cut tracing her eyebrow.
“I’m probably missing a few variables to this equation, but I have a feeling at least one of them is connected to keeping Nash and Luca together.”
“Why would Grey care?”
“Dr. Dante was with Luca and Nash at that bunker, and they’re probably how he wound up at a hospital rather than freezing to death.”
“They’re friends.”
“Dr. Dante worked closely with Nash in the Utah Facility. I’m sure he knew how much Dr. Dante cared about Koda. And he took a huge risk by trying to find Nash and Luca on his own when we were trying to track them down last month.”
“Sounds more like he sees them as family than friends.”
“Which is one of the things that makes it so odd.”
“How so?”
Laura smirked. “Dr. Dante became a ward of the state at the age of two when his parents decided to go on vacation with some money they’d won from a scratch-off ticket at the local corner store. To keep him out of trouble, they put him under an upside-down playpen. Left him a bag of flour, some pickles, cookies, water.”
“How long was he there?”
“Not long. Apparently, it wasn’t their first offense, so when they didn’t come home after a couple of days, the neighbor called the police. Which was a good thing because the parents never came back. The father’s body washed up on a beach in Aruba. The mother was never found. Drug tests on the father suggest he did a lot of partying. Doubtful he partied alone.”