Lib Novel Page 2
Here’s the thing about coding and algorithms—with enough tweaking, you can create a program that perfectly predicts the movements of the market. During the years after Varun and before Bigby left for California, I had a lot of nothing to do.
Aris pays us a good wage to be part of the team, but a custom graphics card from Japan is more expensive than what the average person might expect. I needed a little extra money. When I read an article about day trading, I had an idea.
My stock-trading program considers millions of data points before buying and selling stocks. With a little extra work, I’ve rigged it so it can assess the financial movements of politicians, billionaires, and technology players. It considers information from the news cycle and analysis thousands of social media posts a day to predict trends.
It’s worked better than I ever could have predicted. I click over to my account and see it’s gone up a few ten million since I last checked.
Another alarm dings on my phone, and I stand.
“Computer, shut down.”
I watch as all the screens flicker to black, then grab my laptop bag and stuff it inside, turning and walking out the door.
***
“How hard is it to be on time to a video call?” Aris mutters, taking a sip of his coffee and glancing up at the screen, which is gray and reads, joining soon. Ado sits to my left, quiet, like usual, and Bigby is fully reclined in a chair to my right. I stare at it, worried that it might snap under his weight.
As usual, Percy is late to the monthly meeting, and since he’s in Missouri, it’s not like he’s going to be able to bring donuts to make up for it. My heart is skipping along, partially thanks to the energy drink.
“Good morning!” someone says from the screen, her voice floating through the room, and I put a hand to my chest, rubbing my palm there, as though it can keep my heart from acting up.
“Are you okay?” Bigby asks, leaning over to me, his eyes flicking between my hand and my face. I drop my hand and glance at the screen, where Olivia’s face is blown up, her green eyes sharp.
“Fine,” I say, hoping she didn’t see that. If she did, she doesn’t say a thing, instead backing up and sitting next to Veronica on a couch in a hotel room. Through the window, the Gateway Arch is visible, early morning fog concealing all but the top.
“Okay, now that everyone is here, let’s get started,” Aris says, waving to the camera. “First up, Bigby has results from his mission.”
“Right,” Bigby says, leaning back in his chair and tapping a pen on the table. “Ado and I found the vamp nest near here—cleared out. Completely empty. We spent hours there gathering evidence, but it doesn’t look like there’s any clue as to where they went.”
Just a few months ago, the team had to take on a swarm of vampires trying to kidnap Veronica, Percy’s mate, after finding out about her pregnancy—the result of which will be one of the first-ever true-born shifter-vampire hybrids.
As a medical professional, Veronica is already excited about the prospect of the baby and discovering what that kind of hybrid might mean for the paranormal community.
“What do you have for us, Byron?”
I blink at Aris, realizing I’d zoned out of the conversation for a moment too long.
“Right,” I say, clearing my throat and trying to avoid looking at the screen, where Olivia is sitting casually, her legs crossed, the hem of her dress around her calves. “Well, I’ve been scanning the internet more, and there are a lot of trends encouraging young people to make themselves vulnerable to vampires, especially in major metropolitan areas.”
“Anything on St. Louis specifically?” Veronica asks, leaning closer to the camera.
“Yeah, ran that last night,” I say, tapping on my laptop and bringing up the figures. “More than two thousand reports of strange bites in emergency rooms across the city, specifically at SSM, Barnes, and Touchette.”
When I look up, they’re all still looking at me expectantly.
“This is significant because these emergency rooms are closest to downtown, and the nightlife is where the vamps like to strike. We’re seeing more activity from vampires in downtown areas. In fact, the reports of bites haven’t been this high since the late 90s.”
“Shit,” Bigby says, shaking his head, and when our eyes meet, I can tell he understands the significance. With the boom of the internet, people were suddenly able to coordinate meetups with online friends. Internet safety hadn’t been established yet, and teens and adults alike were victims of vampire attacks.
The vamps were one of the first groups to take to chatroom culture, and were a huge cause for the internet security push in the early 2000s.
“I found two events coinciding with the mayor’s ball tonight,” I say, tapping my fingers on the table. “I’ll send the information over, but there’s a strong chance it’s a vamp ambush, specifically targeted at teenagers.”
“Well, shit,” Percy says, his voice fuzzy through the video call. “Good thing we’re here.”
“As tempting as it is to check out the events, I don’t want to leave any of you on your own tonight,” Aris says, “so we’ll keep all of you at the mayor’s party.”
I look down at the agenda briefing for today’s meeting, eyes scanning quickly.