17

Chapter 16

"Alex, Sergei, we'll be taking breakfast in my office. Marcel, Captain, you're on kid duty." Harry strode through the dining room, barely slowing long enough to impart his instructions.

The mercenaries looked at each other with a grimace. Despite their best efforts at unlocking the door, they'd been rescued by a laughing Captain barely an hour later, who had informed them that the door hadn't been locked at all, it had simply had a chair wedged under the handle. Their mortification had been complete when Connor had overheard the conversation, and had enquired innocently why they hadn't simply gone out the window.

Settling themselves in the chairs at the small circular table in the office, the men waited for their boss to join them.

Harry settled himself into his seat, leaning back and resting his elbow on the armrest. He tapped his lips contemplatively with one finger, the rest of his fist curled under his chin. "Tell me, why is it that I pay you both so much when a complete stranger is able to waltz into my bedroom unopposed while you are both in the house? For fucks sake, your room is next to mine!" Green eyes glared piercingly at the uncomfortable men. "And don't think for a second that I don't know that you were freed from your room by Captain, or that going out the window never even occurred to you. If I hadn't set up my own wards around the property and tied them exclusively to myself, it's entirely possible that I'd be dead this morning."

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, you big baby. I wasn't going to hurt you!" A female voice broke into the conversation, quickly joined by a slim girl dressed in tight black pants and an equally tight long sleeved turtleneck sweater. Her straight brown hair was cut into a chin length bob, and had purple streaks running through it, and they caught the light as she tucked a strand behind her ear. Her hazel eyes sparkled with humour, and her plump lips naturally curved as if she was constantly on the edge of bursting into laughter. She was small and lithe, and moved with a casual grace that was partially hidden by her terrible posture and flippant attitude. She looked to be about sixteen, and about as threatening as a butterfly on a plate of fairy bread.

She rolled her eyes when both men jumped to their feet, instinctively drawing their weapons.

"Yes, yes, you're very manly; I'm practically drowning in your testosterone and I'm very impressed with your dick substitutes. Now get out of my way, you're blocking the way to the food."

Harry's lips twitched into a faint smile, despite his best efforts.

"Alex, Sergei, meet Shot. Shot, this is Alexander Charleston, and Sergei Petrikov."

The girl didn't even bother looking up from her plate, simply waving dismissively and muttering around a mouthful of bacon. "Yeah, I've checked them out already."

The men eyed her suspiciously, cautiously resuming their seats.

"Checked us out?" Alex questioned, picking up his fork.

Harry smiled, baring too many teeth. "Shot here has a rather unique talent. Where I see patterns, she can manipulate anything computer or electronic based as easily as breathing. She's also an expert at finding information, no matter how well hidden. When she says she's checked you out, she means that she's put a file together on you. I've seen it, it's a lot more detailed than Bradshaw's, even. Sergei, are you aware that you were voted 'Most Likely to Set Someone on Fire' by your graduating class? And Alex, you never mentioned you won your school spelling bee in first grade."

Both men winced, knowing how comprehensive the file must be if those details had been unearthed.

"Now, Shot has kindly provided us with some valuable information, which we will be discussing in detail after breakfast. She's proposed a trade, of sorts, and I'm seriously considering it. However, given that some of the information pertains to Mama Andrews current whereabouts, I want to keep Captain out of the loop for the moment. He's too volatile right now, and I want him out of the line of fire, just in case things go wrong. I refuse to leave Greg and Daniel orphans if it can be avoided."

His Hounds nodded, and silence reigned as the four quickly finished their meal. Once the house elves had discretely whisked the empty dishes away, Harry gestured to Shot, who pulled out a file, and offered it to Sergei.

"If you could make copies please?"

Sergei obliged, mildly curious about why the girl was unwilling to do so herself, despite being clearly magical.

"Cheers. Now, this file contains everything I could find on Mrs Andrew's abduction, who was involved, and where they are. I've included schematics, guard rotations, profiles on the key players, and a few titbits for blackmail if you need it. I have a much more detailed file, of course, but I've provided everything I thought was relevant. I doubt you need to know about Lucas McCreedy's truly terrifying spaghetti fetish or Timothy Winter's forays into the world of Furries to pull this off."

Alex pursed his lips, eyes narrowed as he tried to ignore those mental images. "And you want what, exactly, in return for this information?"

Shot sighed, her perky demeanour darkening instantly. "As I discussed with your boss last night, Mrs Andrews is being held out the back of a, uh, specialist establishment." Her tongue flicked out to wet her lips, and she flicked a nervous glance at the boy watching her quietly. "Do they really need to know?"

Harry nodded slightly. "Yes. Though the information won't leave this room."

Sighing again, she straightened, eyes locked over Harry's head and jaw set. "Fine. The building is a high end specialist brothel. They provide trained kids, and a few very special teens. My little sister is there, and I can't get her out without help."

The men stiffened, glancing quickly at the unmoved Harry. Clearly, he was already aware of this information.

"The full story, if you please, Shot." Harry murmured, picking up the puma kitten that was chewing his shoelaces, and setting her on his lap. She snuggled down for a nap, purring softly with her face buried against his stomach.

Realising if she wanted their help, she would have to show all her cards, Shot grimaced. "Ok then, a little history for context.

"I didn't come from a good family. My mother was a junkie, and my father was an abusive fuck. He was more than happy to keep my mother supplied, and she in turn did whatever - or whoever - he told her to. When I was four, he decided he'd had enough of my 'freeloading' and he was going to have me earn my keep. I'm sure I don't need to spell it out for you. Anyway, a year later, my little sister was born. I'd just turned five - we actually share a birthday." She smiled fondly, her eyes distant as she remembered the little girl who had been the only ray of sunshine in her dark world. Clearing her throat, she continued.

"I don't know why, but even my scumbag father adored her. He treated her like an absolute princess, even though he still treated me as anything but. I didn't resent her for it though, I was just glad that she wouldn't be treated like I was. There was nothing I wouldn't do for her." Sniffling slightly, she rubbed her eyes. "When I was seven, things got even worse. Rather than just keeping me for his own use, my father decided that he would offer me up for others as well. He charged them larger amounts, and offered me to the real sicko's, the ones who like to brutalize kids, not just screw them.

"One day, I was beaten and used so badly I could barely move afterwards, let alone do my chores around the house or service any of the other clients. He was so furious he beat me again, until I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I knew that I couldn't take it anymore. If things kept escalating, I'd be dead before the year was out. So as soon as I could stand, I ran.

She drew a shuddering breath, her voice thick with supressed tears. "God, if I'd known, I never would have left Alice there! But he doted on her, and I was only seven and badly hurt! How the hell could I have looked after a two year old, even if I'd known?" She buried her face in her hands, shoulders shaking slightly as she sobbed quietly. "I tried to keep an eye on her, wanted to watch her grow up from a distance, even if she didn't know who I was, but I got into some trouble, and couldn't stick around. I lost track of her. By the time I got back, that bastard had sold her to the McKinnon's to pay off a debt he'd run up with them. It took me ages - nearly a whole month - to find her, but I can't get her out on my own. The place is a fucking fortress, and while I may be a tech genius, I'm useless in a fight. So here I am."

Alex quietly offered her a handkerchief, while Sergei pondered her story quietly.

"So when you saw that one of ours was in the same building, you decided to take the chance to recruit people who are a little more handy in that department than yourself." Sergei grunted.

Shot nodded, discretely wiping her nose. "Yeah. I'd heard rumours that Vahan had a set against people who sold kids, so I was already checking him out to see if I could convince him to help. When Mrs Andrews was snatched, I decided to see if he'd accept a trade. I was pretty sceptical about what a kid could do to help, but, well, his reputation is well earned, from what I've been able to find."

"So, you provide the intel, we do the grunt work. That's the exchange you're offering?" Alex asked quietly, his hazel eyes sympathetic but still guarded.

Harry chose this moment to interrupt. "Partially. Shot is a very valuable resource, a fact of which she's well aware. Her sister, also, will be in need of assistance, probably for quite some time, given that she's spent the bulk of her life in that establishment. From the profile Shot has put together on her, it seems that Alice has a unique skill, which makes her highly sought after, but not particularly well suited to life outside a sheltered environment. Our best guess is that the situation she grew up in has fractured her magical core - not that the muggles would understand this - and the free magic is expending itself as a form of empathy so she doesn't spontaneously combust from it - a very real danger if her ability is ever disabled. She's able to not only feel the emotions of those around her, but also influence them to a degree. Nothing overt, and no full control, but enough to aid in protecting herself. Soothing anger, boosting affection, that sort of thing. As I'm sure you can imagine, such a skill would be useful, but detrimental if exposed to regular life. Too many people, too much stimulus."

The men nodded pensively.

Harry shifted, and lightly scritched his kitten, who despite being so young was almost large enough to drape fully across his lap. He stroked the soft spotted coat, smiling slightly when she shivered with pleasure under his hand. "So Shot has offered her skills to me exclusively, in exchange for a safe place for her sister to live for as long as she wants it, and a weather eye on her after that." He snorted at the incredulous looks that flittered across his men's faces. "Not those skills, perverts. Her tech and information retrieval skills."

The Hounds grinned in amusement, ignoring Shot rolling her eyes.

"So what are you thinking, Boss?" Sergei asked, sipping a cup of coffee that a dedicated house elf had just delivered.

Harry frowned, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "Marcel is struggling with being around muggle kids all the time, and having to hide everything he's doing. I'm thinking I'll move him to The Haunt. I'll offer space there to Mama Andrews, Captain, and Daniel too. Greg can stay here, he's been thinking about moving out of home for a couple of months now, and this will keep the entire family happy. I'll have Captain work with both the Nestlings and Ghosts regularly for basic defence training and the like. Same things we've got him doing now. Between the two groups, and running security for both houses, it should be enough to keep him busy."

Alex frowned. "What about here? Who will you have look after the Nestlings day to day, and screen any new little birds to see if they are Ghosts?"

Shot lit up, a wide smile splitting her face. "Alice! She'd be perfect! She's already trained for how to run a large household with lots of kids, she's excellent at the counselling thing because of the empathy, she understands what the kids will be dealing with emotionally, and she won't bat an eyelid at any less than legal dealings. And because of her own magic, she'll be able to spot any magical kids that come through and send them over to The Haunt! Oh, you are good, Mr Potter!"

Harry chuckled as his men stiffened again and eyeballed his newest acquisition darkly. "I'm aware. Stand down, men. You didn't think she'd approach me without checking me out as thoroughly as she does everything else? The very fact that she was able to not only figure out where we are, but my entire history, not to mention my financial and legal contortions, had me convinced to offer her a job even before the whole sob story came to light. And I made her swear a secrecy oath before breakfast."

"At gunpoint," she grumbled.

"At gunpoint," he nodded amiably, smiling slightly.

"Alright, so, anything else we need to know before planning this raid?" Alex asked, gratefully sipping his tea.

Shot shifted uncomfortably, flushing in shame and dropping her eyes to the floor. "Just one thing. Alice doesn't remember me. She doesn't even know she has a sister, and I want to keep it that way. I don't want her to know I was involved in this beyond what I'll do for any other job, I want her to think of me as just another of Vahan's employee's."

Alex frowned lightly. "If you don't mind me asking, why? We will of course respect your wishes in this, I'm just curious."

Shot glared at him sullenly. "How the fuck would I explain to her that I left her behind, and because I was too weak, too selfish to take her with me, she was sold into prostitution and slavery? That it's my fault her life was so shit that something in her broke and she will never be able to cast active magic? That because of me, she will never be able to be a part of the world that should have been hers?"

Harry's eyes glittered as he watched the exchange, the patterns forming in his mind, calculating the best approaches to achieve his desired results, weighing the benefits of using them or leaving things to fall as they would; a thousand possible futures stringing into webs in his mind's eye.

He decided to intervene, primarily because he was sick of all the emotion in the air. He didn't understand it, and he didn't like it. He may be perfectly willing to take advantage of it in other people to manipulate them for his own benefit, but it was an irritant when there was work to be done.

"It wasn't your fault, Shot. You did what you had to, and you had no way of knowing. But if you want our silence on the matter, you have it. The topic will not be broached again, by us, anyway. Now, we need to get this raid planned. I, for one, want to retrieve Mama Andrews before Captain punches any more holes in my walls."

Harry groaned, rubbing his face. He'd sent out Alex and Sergei to do some last minute recon and act as decoys, given that they now knew the McKinnon's - the ones behind Mama Andrew's abduction - were stalking them. Luckily both men had been exceptionally carefully when coming and going from The Nest, and that combined with the discrete wards that prompted anyone not keyed into them to remember something urgent they had to do elsewhere, had allowed The Nest to remain uncompromised.

Harry wasn't concerned about Mama Andrews disclosing their location, even under duress, since because she wasn't bound by Vahan's secrecy oaths, she'd only been keyed to part of the wards. She could walk in any time she wished, but was unable to remember where the house was, or any incriminating or identifying information about Harry if she tried to tell anyone else. It wasn't as stringent as a Fidelius Charm, but it was effective enough for a home for muggle children. All of the residents not bound by the oath were placed under the same spell, though of course the muggles were never informed of this.

Wandering out to the backyard, he sat on the back porch and eyed the gardens, breathing deeply in the cold air. He'd sent Marcel and Bradshaw to The Haunt earlier, and Captain and a finally healed Greg to the park with the children since they still had access to too much sugar and were driving him up the wall with their constant yelling and interruptions. Shot had ducked back to her bedsit to pack up all her belongings, since she was now to be a permanent part of his entourage, moving with Vahan and his Hounds whenever they did. Of course she wasn't likely to follow him around like his guards, but he wanted her on hand at whatever place he was staying, and she had agreed, as long as he paid for duplicates of all of her tech gear so that she could - well, he wasn't sure what she intended to do, since she had descended into tech-talk that he couldn't parse. He could probably learn enough to follow the gist of the technobabble, but at this point he had no intention of doing so. If he was honest, all the tech stuff bored him silly.

He laced his fingers behind his head, stretching back until his spine clicked and his muscles tingled, enjoying having the house entirely to himself for a change. It was peaceful, and he found himself smiling slightly, even as he shivered from the chill.

Slightly restless, he decided to nip up to the shop on the corner, and buy himself a treat of some description. He could easily ask the elves to provide something, but the need to get out of the house and stretch his legs for a few minutes before everyone got back drove him from his chair. Alex and Sergei would have a fit about him leaving the house without an escort, of course, but there were benefits to being the boss, one of which was he could have alone time if he bloody well wanted it.

Throwing his ankle length coat on over his standard Armani and silk combo, this time with an added cashmere sweater, he tucked his wand into the heavily charmed holster on his arm, and added a couple of extra blades to the ones already strapped to his body. Shoving his wallet into his back pocket and tugging on gloves and a scarf, he strode out the door.

The walk to the shop was just what he needed. The air chilled his exposed skin, but the weak sun peeking through the clouds made the snow glitter prettily, and the recent snowfall had coated everything in a lovely white blanket, not yet reduced to muddy slush. He browsed the shelves idly, not desiring anything in particular but contemplating buying some different candy to stash in his desk for when Alex gave him stupid amounts of paperwork to go through.

He was debating the benefits of red frogs versus jaffas when a scuffed footfall behind him alerted him he wasn't alone. Before he could react, something heavy hit the back of his head, and everything went black.