Not that he needed anyone with Nash at his side.
Phillips’s gaze skipped from one person to the other in a way that was ingrained rather than assessing her chances of escape. A good Warden, and Phillips was beyond good, would have done it without making it obvious.
That meant she wanted them to know.
“You’ve got a solid team,” she said.
“My team isn’t the subject of my concern. You are. Now, talk.”
She gave a nod. “Almost a week ago, we tracked a group of ten curs heading south down the eastern coast.”
So, the rumors were true. There’d been a horde. And it took a lot of strength to create and control a single cur, let alone ten of them.
“As I’m sure you know by now, one of those went after Dr. Dante.”
“You know who made them?” Because first thing on Johnathan’s list was to kill whoever did.
“They were artificially created with a modified version of the VrK by people working with or inside the Senate.”
“How is that possible?” Nox said. “The government didn’t even know the Anubis project existed until a month ago.”
“They didn’t know about the Anubis project, but they knew about the VrK.” Johnathan nodded at Phillips. “Even the Wardens knew it existed. They just didn’t have all the details. And by the time they did, the vials were out of the lab.”
“So you did know more than you claimed,” Dr. Dante said it to Phillips.
“I knew nothing about the ichor existing. My intel stopped at the tissue samples stolen from Grey and the Cana DNA stolen from Isaiah. Whoever made the curs shipped out vials long before the Utah Facility incident.” She looked at Jonathan. “There were a lot of vials in those misplaced shipments.”
“Shipments?” Nash frowned at Johnathan.
“After the formula for the VrK was stolen, it was manufactured inside the Utah Facility and sent overseas. The only reason we have what we do is because we intercepted the majority of the shipments.
“We’d always assumed it was another Mah Clan who wanted control of the serum. It never occurred to us it was someone who’d want to modify it for other uses.” Even after Johnathan’s father confronted every Mah head of family and accepted their proclamation of innocence and loyalty, they’d decided it had to be a small group of rogue Mah who’d somehow pulled it off.
Since another source of the VrK never appeared, Johnathan had assumed the same as his father. Either their genetics were weak, and the formula didn’t work, or in they didn’t realize the level of violence propelling the black wolf into the world and it killed them.
Johnathan didn’t look forward to informing his father of the truth.
Phillips jerked her chin at Johnathan. “I’m willing to bet the maker of the curs is at the same location the shipments of VrK were sent to.”
A murmur ran through the others.
“This is bullshit,” Craige said. “She’s wormed her way in here while her buddies stake out spots to snipe our asses.”
There was the possibility Craige was correct, but Johnathan didn’t appreciate the interruption. “Then I suggest you two get on the porch to keep an eye out.”
“And miss the chance to chew out her throat when she moves the wrong way?” Craige bared his teeth at Phillips.
“That wasn’t a request.” Johnathan squared his shoulders. “Dalton, go.”
He did as ordered.
Craige lingered.
“Do not make me put you on the ground.”
Craige spit out a line of curses on his way to the porch.
“You three cover the rest of the house,” Seung said to her betas. They obeyed, but not without a dozen looks back.