She stopped at a green headline reading: IMPERIUM FRATRUM LOCATION OF NEXT EVENT.
I leaned in, thinking maybe I was missing something, but nope. That was all it said.
“I don’t get it,” Jude said.
“I didn’t either,” Storm said. “And I got even more confused after I clicked on it and ended up…” She clicked on the link and a new web page opened, the image so different from the black-and-green theme of the dark web that I blinked as my eyes adjusted. “… here.”
The screen was filled with lush furnishings and valuable art: tapestries and gilded furniture, portraits of people in elaborate costumes with white wigs and rouged cheeks, chandeliers dripping with crystals.
“Is that… Versailles?” Jude asked.
“Yep,” Storm said. “I didn’t know it, to be honest, but I was so stumped by the vibe shift that I showed it to Gage.”
Nolan’s gaze slid to Gage, like he understood now why Storm had brought him into the job.
“What is it?” Rafe asked.
Storm slid the computer over a few inches so Gage could reach it.
He used the trackpad to move the cursor to a portrait of Marie Antoinette. He hovered over her face and the cursor turned into a hand — a signal that a link was buried in the image.
He double-tapped and the screen changed again, the difference enough to give me whiplash. Now we were staring at a black screen with a deep pink door, the wordsImperium Fratrumunderneath it.
“What the actual fuck?” Nolan’s eyes were glued to the screen.
“My thoughts exactly,” Gage said.
“Click on it.” My breath had turned shallow, my pulse thudding in my ears.
“Can’t,” Gage said. “Well, we can, but then we get this.”
He clicked on the door and an empty bar appeared for a username. Below it was another empty space, this one for an invitation code.
“Invitation code?” Rafe muttered. “What the fuck is an invitation code?”
“We were hoping you might know,” Storm said.
“No, we weren’t,” Gage said. “This is some weird shit and we don’t want any part of it. We’re just passing along the info. What you do with it from here is up to you, but we’re out.”
Storm glared at him. “Speak for yourself.”
“I’m not,” he said, his voice steely. “I’m speaking for both of us. We’re out.”
“Just because you’re the oldest doesn’t mean?— ”
“I don’t blame you,” I told Gage. “Itissome weird shit, and I can tell you for a fact that you don’t want your little sister anywhere near it. Is there anything we need to know to get to the page with the link to the image of Versailles?”
Gage shook his head. “It was right there. You should be able to find it using Tor just like we did, assuming it’s not set to expire.”
“What do you mean?” Nolan asked.
Gage shrugged. “The meeting place thing makes me wonder if it — whatever it is — is a limited-time deal.”
“Shit,” I said.
Rafe rubbed at the scruff on his jawline. “And you’re sure there’s nothing else on this Imperium Fratrum?”
“Not that we could find,” Storm said. “I looked for the organization plus invitation code. I looked for events, alumni, pretty much anything I could think of that might trigger a result. This was all I found.”