Operation Successful

Vivi read Hermione's message aloud to Pabbie and Anne, then set the phone back on the table.

"Graves isn't at the Black Forest base. Where do you think he went?"

Harry stood up from the table and walked over to the Magic Map on the wall.

"If he went to the Hexagon Center, then left southern France and moved northeast—the Black Forest is northeast, but he isn't in the Black Forest. The Tatra Mountains are northeast too. Maybe he went to The Ashwinder Party's base in the Tatra Mountains.

"That's one of The Ashwinder Party's three remaining bases in Europe. The other two are the Black Forest and Crete."

Vivi walked up to the Magic Map and looked at the location of the Tatra Mountains.

"The Tatra Mountains are on the border between Poland and Slovakia, about eight hundred kilometers from the Black Forest. If Graves set out from the Hexagon Center, went to the Black Forest first, and then continued northeast to the Tatra Mountains, the timing works. He may have stayed at the Black Forest base only briefly, just to confirm the base's defensive status, then kept moving."

Hermione sent a second encrypted message from Confederation Headquarters.

"When the Confederation Technical Group compared data from Europe's magic monitoring stations, they found a suspicious Magic Fluctuation trail.

"The signal started in southern France, passed through southern Germany, entered the Czech Republic, then turned northeast and finally disappeared near the border between Poland and Slovakia. The signal waveform is highly similar to Graves's Magic Fingerprint. He did go to the Tatra Mountains."

Vivi looked at Hermione's message, her brows knitting slightly.

"How much intelligence do we have on The Ashwinder Party's base in the Tatra Mountains?"

Hermione's reply came quickly.

"Very little. The Tatra Mountains base is the most hidden