During the more than two years since she first put the fae helmet on, Anna built quite a few connections as The Ghost. Not only she got to know the other vigilantes of the city, but a number of the most peculiar citizens too. For example, there was this young man, they called him the Medic. He never fought, but sometimes showed up with an old fashioned case full of medical equipment and patched up the injured heroes. Anna only met him once, thanks to her unique healing abilities, and found him almost rudely professional, but very effective.

Then there was the Seer himself, of course. He was an old man, hiding in the shadows. Anna trusted him, but she had her doubts: the Seer knew much, much more than what he told her or to any of the others. The girl couldn't stand secrets, even if she had a huge one. 

And of course, there were the ones that had very little to do with the vigilante-world itself: informators and supporters, hell-bent detectives trying to arrest them, sneaky little smugglers offering weapons and other things they couldn't buy unnoticed in the usual way… It was indeed a whole other world. It took her some time, but Anna finally knew how to navigate in it.

At least that was what she thought up until the moment when a stranger in a hidden back room of an already hidden bar told her that the Montgomery family was looking for her.

'That's nonsense,' she said, shaking her helmeted head. 'Why would they?

The little old lady shrugged.

'All I know is one of 'em was here the other day. The young one, not the tall redhead, but the blonde that looks like he needs to eat more. He said that he needs to talk to the Ghost, an' that's you, innit? He even left a card somewhere but curse me if I remember where… I'm sure though some cash would help if you catch my meaning…'

Anna did and gave a tenner to the old lady. Coincidentally that was the very moment she found the card in her pocket. It wasn't even a real call-card, but a piece of paper with a phone number on it. Anna knew that there had to be more suspicious ways of arranging a little chat but she couldn't think of one.

She didn't call the number right away, instead, she spent a couple of days asking around, but all she could find was more scraps of paper with the same handwriting and phone number. What on Earth the Montgomerys could want from her? Anna knew that they worked with the police lately, but she was way too small of a fish to have such elaborate plans to catch her. But what then? Maybe the truce between their family and the Caranos ended and they were recruiting for help? This thought led to another: maybe they are recruiting, indeed, only not against the Caranos, but The Priest? Last time they faced him it didn't go very well, so maybe they decided to hire more manpower. Despite everything that her vigilante-friend, The Gentleman told her she still wanted a rematch. The question was, did she want that so badly that she could work with those spoiled kids in order to get it? Probably not, but hearing them out couldn't hurt. 

So Anna called the number and spoke to the person that answered. She played hard and stayed adamant about the details, but they agreed on everything. It was going to happen completely on her terms: she named the time and the spot. She chose an area she knew like it was her own palm: the robust building complex of King's Cross and St Pancras stations. She used to work there during college in a coffee shop. The stations never really closed because there were always trains coming and going, and she knew the security system enough to avoid it.  

Anna got there first. She asked them to a platform most people didn't know existed, two in the morning when the schedule was empty for more than an hour, so they could talk unnoticed and undisturbed. She waited high up, above the cameras, crouching on a horizontal branch of one of the huge metal columns that supported the dirty glass roof. She was close to the point when the trains entered the station, just in case she had to make a quick exit. 

A few minutes before the time two people showed up on the platform, a man and a woman. The man was tall and elegant wearing a grey suit and a darker grey trench coat. He had a beard and a little longer red hair than in the picture the news used to show about him, but there was no doubt to it, he was Robert Montgomery. If nothing else, the fancy walking stick gave him away. 

His companion surprised Anna. She remembered the girl very well, in fact, she tried to forget her with her messy curly hair, cynical half-smile and magnetic charm. Back there in the vampire-club she said her name was Jennifer, but Anna knew for a while that she was Jenna Carano, the only child of the mayor-candidate Sebastiano Carano. 

They were talking quietly but thanks to her helmet's magical abilities, she could overhear them.

'How do we know this isn't a trap?' asked Montgomery. 'Benjamin said it was a woman that called him. It could have been Magda easily, or one of her friends. I don't think masked "heroes" have a secretary.'

Who the hell is Magda? What's going on?

'Let me get this straight: you are trying to say that if we are looking for the Ghost, and we find a girl, you would sooner think that she was the actual hero's secretary than accept the fact that the Ghost might be a woman?' Jenna Carano asked that with a smile, but if Anna were in the place of the man, she wouldn't trust in that smile. Apparently, Montgomery wasn't as big of an idiot as he looked like, because he shook his head and said:

'Of course not. I am only saying that putting on masks, having a silly name and beating up people is a kind of nonsense I would expect from a man. I believe women are much smarter than that.'

Nice save, genius, thought Anna. She agreed and felt offended at the same time.

'So beating up people not something a woman should do?' asked Jenna. 'Kinda weird that you are saying that to the very woman that beat you up a bunch of times, Professor.'

'And I deeply believe you shouldn't have done that!' pointed out the other one. 'I can't mention my crooked nose enough times…' 

'Get over it, you big baby,' Jenna answered but then looked around and tiptoed to kiss the crooked nose in question. Montgomery blinked surprised and so did Anna.

'What?' the girl asked. 'I can be nice every now and then when I'm really trying… Or had one too many whiskeys...'

They reached the line behind which passengers weren't allowed and were almost exactly under Anna.

'The question remains, how do we know it isn't Magda's trap?'

Carano shrugged.

'Doesn't matter. We are here to find her anyway, right? If she is here it's just less trouble for us.'

Anna decided that she couldn't decode their conversation without some further information, so she jumped into the abyss. She descended slowly and it must have looked very cool, even though there was nobody to see it. The couple down there only noticed her when she was halfway down.

Montgomery raised his stick, but Carano stayed still, hands in the pocket of her too big leather jacket. She followed Anna with her narrowed eyes, then those warm, brown eyes opened up big all of a sudden from the surprise and Jenna smiled. Anna remembered what "Jennifer" told her: she could feel magic. And now she felt the same one she did once before for sure, back when she was hitting on a stranger who had some magical thing in her pocket. It wasn't hard at all to figure out the rest, and Anna assumed her mask had a very unique magical trace. Damn it.

'For your information, Mr Montgomery, I am a woman and a masked vigilante with a silly name. If that's not okay with you, I can leave any time. If I remember correctly, you are the one who wants to ask for a favour,' her sneakers touched the floor. She considered staying in the air, slightly towering above the man, but it would be childish and unnecessarily energy-consuming.

'I'm not… I meant… It's actually Professor Montgomery, by the way. How may I call you?' he talked with a posh British accent.

Anna looked at Jenna, who smiled at her and gave a little shrug what Anna understood as "up to you, I won't tell". 

'You can call me Liz,' she said. For some reason that made the man lift his eyebrow. 'So what's this all about? Who is Magda?'

Montgomery opened up his mouth but Carano raised her hand to silence him.

'Once upon a time I went to a pub,' she said. 'I wanted to pick up the pretty brunette at the bar, but she was immune to me, which still hurts by the way. After that mysterious girl left me hanging, I had to lower my expectations and I went home with the bartender. Now as it happens, that girl turned out to be a psychopathic stalker vampire with a bunch of dangerous friends and the idea that I and her belong together. As it also turned out, there is a person whose speciality is to find aggressive vampires. See where I'm going with this?'

Anna did see that and shook her head with a sigh.

'I'm sorry but I cannot help you,' she said. 'I can't find people the way you need it.'

'You were in the news at least three times already because you knew where certain vampires were going to be,' pointed out Robert Montgomery. 'That is exactly the skill we need.'

Anna shook her head again. How could she explain it without giving away too much information? Carano already saw her face. Even though it was in a poorly lit bar and the woman was fairly drunk, that was already a huge problem. 

'I understand why are you thinking that,' she explained. 'But I got my tips from a source that only has access to random knowledge. I didn't know who those vampires were and I still don't know why they are doing what they are doing. All I knew were the time and the location.'

Montgomery frowned.

'You are talking about precognition, which is impossible,' he said.

'You threw an actual lightning bolt at some ancient creature or whatever who were freed by an immortal madman, do you really want to discuss what is impossible and what isn't?' Anna replied.

'That is a good point,' nodded the man, which surprised Anna. She was used to men who were fighting until last blood for their flawed opinions, regardless of facts and reasons. 'Very well, let's say you can see moments from the future. Isn't there a way to control it?'

Something just occurred to Anna. Maybe… Could that work?

'It's not me who can see the future, and the person cannot control it. But there might be another way… Let's make a deal.'

'Honey, if you changed your mind, I'm afraid it's a little too late, I'm kinda committed right now…' said Carano with a grin.

'Kinda?' asked Montgomery with a raised eyebrow. 'Kinda committed?'

What the hell? Would it be possible that those two ended up together somehow? After years of fighting? Weird. But it looked like that was exactly what happened. They made sure not to touch each other but their body language and the chemistry between them gave them away.

'Well I guess we could still be friends,' shrugged Anna with a smile which they could only hear in her voice. 'The kind of friends that are bringing each other when they are going to deal with The Priest… See where I'm going with this?'

They did, even though none of them could understand why would anyone go near to The Priest willingly. Anna couldn't explain it, not a way Montgomery could get it, but Jenna nodded after Anna told her story.

'So you want another go with him. Fair enough. Not really smart, but fair enough. What can you bring in this deal, then?' 

Anna told them about the compass. It was a long shot but they all agreed that it's worth a try. 

'If The Priest used it to find the descendants, we could figure out how to use it to find one certain person,' said Montgomery. 'If only we had something that was Magda's to use as a link…'

'Use Jenna,' said Anna. 'They had sex, right? There is your link.'

'That's not how… Well, actually, that could work,' said the man with a nod. 'Clever.'

'Ugh, after that nice thought I'm gonna need a long shower,' Carano shivered. 'Let's go. So tomorrow, at the vampire pub, at midnight, right?' she turned to Anna, but she disappeared by then, like every masked hero with a silly name would have done.