One Grave at a Time (Night Huntress 6)

My uncle tugged his eyebrow, muttering, "You're not going to believe this," even as Madigan smiled.

"Effective immediately, the head of Homeland Security upgraded my position from operations consultant to acting supervisor of this operation."

Shock froze me in the process of taking a seat. "Bullshit," I breathed. "They can't yank Tate's job out from under him without even giving him a chance to succeed at it!"

Oh yes they can, Madigan thought, interrupting his repeated mental mantra of the damned slogan that had blocked out the rest of his thoughts. He didn't answer out loud, though, continuing to stare at me with that triumphant little smile. Fifteen minutes can save you fifteen percent. Fifteen minutes . . .

It was Don who said, in a very heavy voice, "They did exactly that, Cat."

I felt like I'd been sucker punched by a sledgehammer. It wasn't shocking that the few, top-ranking government officials who knew about this department could make such a stupid decision; I'd seen government stupidity in action before. But I was stunned that they'd do it in such a short amount of time. That's completely unfair! rang through my mind, and though it might sound childish, it was still true.

"Congratulations," was what I bit out, acid penetrating each syllable. "Does Tate still work here, or did you fire him in your first official act as boss?"

Some part of me hoped that Madigan had fired every nonhuman on the team. That would make Cooper and the other veteran human team members quit in disgust. Then all of us could all sit back and count down the days until the Powers That Be learned the folly of trying to fight the undead with only regular soldiers. When the human casualties piled up, the same witless politicians that promoted him would throw Madigan out on his well-dressed ass, begging Tate, Juan, Dave, and the others to come back. Hell, they'd beg my mother to come back, and she hadn't even been out on her first mission yet, but she was still tougher than ninety-nine percent of their best human soldiers.

"Tate's been demoted to junior officer," Don replied, beating out Madigan's intentionally vague response of, "Of course he's still employed here."

Junior officer. My nails dug into my palms until the scent of blood made me stop. Despite my promise to Bones not to let Madigan rile me, it was all I could do not to start screaming at him. After all the times Tate had risked his life for this operation, not to mention all the lives he'd saved during his tenure, he did not deserve a demotion just because Madigan was a power-hungry schmuck who had issues with the undead.

"Cat," Don began.

"Not now," I said, my attention so focused on the injustice of it all that I answered him out loud. Oops! "Uh, not later, but now you want to tell me why I'm here?" I stammered to cover my slip.

Fortunately, Madigan didn't seem to pick up on it. He clicked a small device, and a flat screen dropped down from a slot in the ceiling. Really love your little gadgets, don't you? I thought sardonically.

The screen flashed a serial number and the word "confidential" before it focused in on an image of Chris, of all people, broadcasting in what looked like night vision. His eyes shone unnaturally bright.

"Who are you talking to?" he was asking, looking around a basement that I recognized with a sinking feeling. My own voice flowed out in reply.

"One of Waverly's former residents. Can you do me a favor, Herbert? Fly through the bearded man's left arm . . ."

I said nothing as the entire exchange played out, complete with several close-ups of my face as I directed an unseen ghost to dive bomb Chris's body. Son of a bitch! A member of N.I.P.D. must have rigged a camera down there during their setup period, but how had Madigan gotten ahold of the footage? It was barely more than a week old!

Madigan paused the video once we'd walked away from the camera's view. "Do you know where this was? On the Northeastern Investigative Paranormal Division's Web site, where anyone with a computer could see a former top secret operative blabbering on about how the supernatural really exists!"

I wanted to thump my head against the desk but didn't because it would only give Madigan the satisfaction of knowing how much he'd scored a hit-though to do it, he'd revealed an important bit of information. If Madigan had indeed found this only because N.I.P.D. put the clip on their Web site, then he had my picture plugged into a specialized facial recognition database that was normally used for the world's most wanted terrorists and criminals. Why was he so fixated on me?

"You see a former operative humoring a gullible investigator in order to get him to agree to take a job for a friend's paranoid client. I had no idea it was being filmed," I improvised, praying that my conversation about Kramer had taken place where no cameras were stationed.

"Really?" Madigan's gaze was blue steel. "So you weren't, in actuality, communicating with ghosts and directing their actions?"

I forced myself not to glance at Don, who hovered behind Madigan's chair close enough to be a barber about to give him a haircut. I hadn't mentioned ghosts in any of my reports while I worked here. Back then, my experience with them had been very limited, so there was no need. If Madigan learned that some ghosts were as intelligent as any other person and could infiltrate places most covert operatives couldn't, plus could be controlled by certain people . . . I suppressed a shudder imagining how he'd exploit such information.

"To my knowledge, ghosts are incapable of communication. All the ones I've seen are just vague impressions of leftover energy, no more sentient or able to interact than a house plant."

"There goes your Christmas present," Don murmured with a flash of humor.

"Really?" Madigan slid his glasses down an inch on his nose to give me the full effect of that drill sergeant stare, but I didn't flinch. Either he was toying with me because he'd seen footage of me talking about Kramer to Chris, or he didn't know I was lying, and I could hope to brazen this out. If it was the former, I was already so screwed that getting busted lying wouldn't make much difference.

"I've had experts go over this video, and they see faint hazy distortions in the same places where you stated that a ghost had initiated contact with the subject." Madigan leaned forward. "Explain that."

"They also said the distortions could've been faked," Don supplied rapidly. "Without the original film, it's impossible to tell."

I'd have Chris make sure that original film was destroyed tonight. I sat down for the first time, flouncing a little as if exasperated.

"Come on, Madigan. If you're running a paranormal investigation company, are you going to put any footage on your Web site that hasn't been doctored first? Who's going to hire ghost hunters who don't have any images of ghosts on their business page? They might be believers, but they are still trying to make a buck."