Nika kept up a running diatribe about a fictitious boss at a fictitious job and the unfair demands that bitch had placed on her. She wound down as they moved past the house, falling quiet when they were at least fifty yards beyond the driveway. After another seventy yards or so, she very softly said, “What did you notice?”

“It smelled of rotten food, some feces, urine, and incense,” Devaney said. “Lots and lots of incense.”

“Think about the rotten food. Parse out the different smells,” she said.

“Hmm, old pizza, Chinese food, older Indian, possibly Tikka Masala. And decaying meat.”

“Hold that thought. What didn’t you see or smell?”

He thought for a second, came up with nothing and almost conceded. But he wanted to impress his new teammate, so he thought about the houses on either side of it. One was fairly neat, other than a few beer bottles on the front porch railing, and the other had its own overflowing garbage, but that had mainly smelled of old booze. Both houses had a strong smell of marijuana.

“No booze or drug smells?” he guessed.

“Yeah, odd in college housing, right? And if they were the straitlaced, uptight types, that house would have been much neater. And how many college apartments smell like an old butcher shop?” Nika asked.

Devaney replayed the scent in his mind, something that he found much easier to do since his infection by LV. Incense had been the strongest, but the underlying dead and rotting meat smell had been coming in second place.

“Omega?” Nika asked, which confused Devaney for a second, till he heard her phone speak back to her.

“Placing two observation drones on that property in the next five minutes. Chris found a potential candidate, as did Stacia and Holly. All three buildings are now under observation. Chris has contacted Detective Sergeant Schulz for a background profile on each property. I am already tabulating the available digitalized information from the department’s records, but the detective will query the patrol officers on the various reports for personal unrecorded observations.”

“Thank you. How’s Declan?”

“Father is with Mack, finishing an early dinner in one of the dining halls. He has yet to say anything to me directly, but based on his body language, conversation, and overall demeanor, he is concerned with something to do with Mack.”

“Explain please,” Nika said, frowning at Devaney as they both listened for a response.

“Father is watching Mack very closely. I gather that there was a libidinous assignation today with a female that Mack has become obsessed with. This, in and of itself, is not out of the norm for him, as he tends to be sexually promiscuous.”

“Yes, he’s a man slut,” Nika said, nodding. “What is tripping your Declan radar?”