I kept on. Right now it was our only lead. "It was like he slipped up. Like he knew you, Ray, Susan, even Myers. You all used to work together. Did any of you work with somebody from England?"
"Yeah, lots. We've worked cases over there and we've worked alongside Commonwealth teams like the Van Helsing Institute and even their governmental units, but I can't think of anybody in particular." Earl was quiet for a really long time as he studied that picture, running his hands through his thin hair. He started to speak, then shook his head, as if the idea was just too stupid to contemplate. He grew frustrated and turned away. "Hell if I know."
"Well, what's the plan then?" Julie asked.
"I don't have one!" Earl snapped, which surprised me. He never raised his voice at any of us, let alone his great-granddaughter. That was really out of character. He immediately apologized. "Sorry, I'm just tired is all." He reached into his ancient leather jacket and pulled out his cigarettes, once again breaking his normal self-prohibition on smoking inside the main building. "This whole thing is pissing me off, and tomorrow's a big day."
"What's tomorrow?" I was too tired to remember.
"Newbie class graduation," Julie answered. "Esmeralda says they're ready to go. Most of our team leads and whoever else can get off are flying in to interview and pick which ones they want." Even as busy as our teams were right now, the leaders were going to make the time to come, because if they didn't pick their own Newbies, then they got the leftover ones, and nobody wanted to be that team.
"Well, that'll be fun," I suggested.
"Too bad one of them is probably a spy," Earl spat. That was probably what was eating him up. The very idea that one of his Hunters was working for the bad guys was blatantly offensive. In a group like this, we had to have total trust in each other. Hunters depended on their team, and by extension their whole organization, to have their backs.
"What did that oni thing tell you again?" Milo asked.
"She said that the Shadow Lord's minion had reported that I'd left the compound in a hurry to go there. So take that for what it's worth."
Milo stroked his beard contemplatively. "Maybe they just have somebody hiding out in the forest with binoculars." The idea of having a spy obviously seemed farfetched to him. He had lost his family at a young age, and had practically been raised by MHI. "Well, except that Skippy's people hunt the forest, and they'd spot anybody who hid out there for very long."
"We have to assume the worst," Julie stated. "We've got to think about who the possible leaks are."
"All the Newbies," Trip supplied. "How many of them saw you leave, or heard about it after you left?" Going through that group seemed daunting.
"Esmeralda's team. She and Cooper were with us, and one of them could have made a call when we weren't looking," Earl added. I noted that he didn't mention Julie's brother, Nate, because that was family, and therefore impossible to him, despite Nate's father's record for betrayal. "But I've known Esmeralda forever, and I just don't see that. Cooper seems like a good kid, but he's only been with us for a year."
"Dorcas," I said. Then all of us laughed. Not very likely.
"What about Grant and Albert?" Holly said. "They were right behind you."
"Al? I don't see it." Just because I held myself responsible for Lee's injury didn't mean he held any grudge. He was too honest a guy to fall in with the likes of the Condition. I paused. On the other hand, Grant had been gone for some time after leaving the company, only to come back just when this craziness started. "What was Grant up to all those months?" I asked.
Julie shook her head. "No way. He's a lot of things, but he's no cultist."
But it was obvious. Grant was our prime suspect. "Think about it. He's perfect. The timing just fits. Why else would he come back when he did?"
"A fat paycheck, for one thing," Holly suggested. "Man, I wish I had been along for that stupid oni instead of a lame troll."
"It'll be a cold day in hell before Grant Jefferson has to worry about money. His folks own, like, Delaware or something," Milo pointed out.
"You sure you're not letting your personal feelings get in the way of being objective?" Trip asked. "He did save you from the monster that was trying to kidnap you, which would make him a pretty lousy double agent."
"Or a really good one!" I insisted.
"You just hate his guts. It can't be Grant," Julie responded.
"And why are you defending him?" I shot back, and then immediately regretted saying it. Julie glared at me.
"Well, it's somebody," Earl stated. "And until we find them, we're not safe. Eventually this shadow freak is gonna lose his patience and just have the spy shoot Owen in the back."
"And if I leave, then he'll find me with magic and throw an army of undead at me. Great. At least here I'm safe from the dead."
"On the bright side, if it's a Newbie, then we'll farm them out to somebody else in the next couple of days," Holly offered helpfully.
"Unless I pick the spy for one of our vacancies. I'm a team lead too, and I'm still short since I sent Sam off to form Team Haven out in Colorado," Earl muttered.
"I do miss the big lug," Holly admitted.
"And then what about the next class, and the one after that? No, we can't risk filling MHI with a bunch of nut jobs. Not with the kinds of things that we're running up against all the time. Our people have access to every evil widget that comes down the pike. We have to end this now."
As if on cue, a small figure popped into existence, standing in the middle of the conference room table. The gnome tilted his pointy red hat at Earl. " 'Sup, dawg. G-Nome, reportin' for duty."
Julie, startled, went for her gun, but I grabbed her arm. "He's cool," I said.
"Damn right, I’m cool. Cool as ice," he said. His face was badly bruised, and he was wearing a few Band-Aids. I had at least given as good as I had gotten. The gnome turned his attention to Holly, leering down her tank top. "Hey, baby. Lookin' fine. I do like them blonde human chicks."
"Who the hell are you," she demanded, before adding, "Shorty?"
"Hey now, baby. It's all good. I'm G-Nome, out of B'ham."
Holly was just confused now. "Genome?"
"No…G hyphen Nome, straight-up gnome killa from the North Side." He flashed a gang sign, then folded his arms. "Yeah, that's right. I'm Tony Montana, baby."
Julie pulled off her glasses, cleaned the lenses on her shirt, and then put them back on. Nope. He was still there. She glanced at me, and I gave her the I'll explain later look.
"You were only supposed to appear to me or Owen, remember?"
G-Nome shrugged. "Y'all didn't seem to mind sharin' no secrets with these."
"You find anything yet?" Earl demanded.
"I'm just gettin' the lay of the land, know what I'm sayin'? Seein' the sights. Speakin' of…" He looked back at Holly and raised his eyebrows up and down quickly. "You know, they say once you go gnome, you'll never go home."
"Ewww," she responded, too grossed out to come up with one of her usual rebuttals.
"Back off, stubby," Trip said.
"Oh, you want to go, homie? Thinkin' you all bad?" G-Nome said, puffing his chest out.
"Don't go there, Trip," I warned. "Trust me on this one, man."
"Get back to work. Report in when you've got something," Earl ordered.
"Peace." And he was just gone. It was really unnerving.
"So, that's the secret weapon you were telling me about? One of the guys from the Rice Krispies, only psychotic," Julie muttered. "What's this place coming to?"
Milo harrumphed. "And you made fun of me for bringing home a troll," he said with a great deal of indignation.