Page 108 of Shield of Fire

He rolled his eyes. I grinned and motioned him to continue.

“The biggest of those,” he said, “is the fact that, if they are there, there’s nothing stopping either of them using their rubies to bring down the entire building on top of you.”

“They’re not suicidal, Mathi.”

“And yet Halak revealed his presence to you several times?—”

“Because we were once lovers, and he was testing whether the magical smudging he did on my memories still held.”

“And Mkalkee? He could have used a sunshield to prevent being seen at Afran’s building collapse and didn’t.”

The building’s music altered, telling me Sgott and three others were headed up the stairs. “They’ve always gotten off on the thrill of danger, but I’d still bet he had some sort of magic protecting him, even if it wasn’t visible.”

“I don’t think you should be going into their place alone. They will have escape holes—rats always do. If they overwhelm you and run, there won’t be much any of us can do.”

“Which is why she asked me to bring along a bio-tracker and a bug, and why we’ll have our own rat in the area,” Sgott said as he and the others entered the room.

I raised the kettle in silent question, and he nodded. The three people with him—the rat shifter and the blonde woman I’d met once before, and a tall, ethereal-looking woman who trailed magical energy behind her like a comet—all shook their heads.

“They’re likely to have preventative measures installed against both,” Mathi stated. “It’s common practice in most workplaces these days.”

“Maybe in the places you work,” Sgott said dryly. “But they couldn’t risk the identifiable footprint those preventative measures emit. The regulars do run random monthly checks for such things.”

“Regulars” being human cops.

“Would it not be better if we simply lay a trap for them? I’m not onboard with Beth going into an unknown situation?—”

“And you think I am?” Sgott raised his eyebrows. “Laddie, how long have you known me? How long have you known her? It isn’t like either of us could persuade her to do the sensible thing. She is her mother’s daughter.”

I handed them both a coffee. “I’m glad this fact has finally been accepted—although I will point out we have little real choice this particular time. I’m the only one the key will respond to, and if we go in all guns—and magic—blazing, we might just destroy any chance we have a capturing them.”

“The latter I concur with,” Sgott said. “Astrid is here simply as magic backup, should it be needed. Although she is very good at the ‘all magical guns blazing’ approach.”

Astrid grinned. A woman who enjoyed her work, obviously.

Sgott motioned to the blonde, and I put my cup down, turned around, and tugged up my sweater. She pressed the bio bug under my hairline at the base of my neck, then injected the bio-tracker into the skin just below my left shoulder blade. Then she stepped back and studied her phone.

After a moment, she said, “Signal on both clear and strong.”

“Good.” He drained his mug and handed it back to me. “Once you finish that drink, we’ll head out. I already have people discreetly covering the old wall and the nearby streets.”

I dumped his cup into the sink and then emptied mine out beside it. Aside from the fact I couldn’t drink hot fluids as fast as he did, I just wanted to get this whole thing out of the way.

Before my two former lovers could cause us any more problems.

We headed out, Mathi and me in Sgott’s unmarked car and the others in the car behind us. It didn’t take long to get across to Northgate, and we parked in a small street that ran between the old Roman wall and the canal.

As we all climbed out, a short, chubby man I didn’t recognize stepped out of a nearby single-story brick building with red-painted window frames. “Everyone is in place, boss. Lord Cynwrig has sent Ryka along, too, just in case we require earth removal.”

Meaning he had gotten my message even if he hadn’t responded, which naturally led into the next question—why? What had happened? Something must have given how intent he’d been in tracking down these two.

“Ryka is a dark elf we’ve worked with on a number of occasions,” Sgott said, with a glance at me before motioning us inside. The rat shifter slipped away, crossing the street and disappearing under the arched gate.

The room was small and cluttered with desks and chairs. From the bits and pieces of information up on the walls, it appeared to be some sort of office dealing with homeless folk. Sgott’s people had set up various monitoring stations on the desks, with camera views at differing angles along the wall in both directions, as well as Water Tower Street, which ended in a dead end just after the hidden access point into Halak’s underground bunker. Ryka was tall and shapely, with long, platted dark hair and a calm rather than overtly sexual demeanor. Which was no doubt why she’d been chosen to work with the IIT—the last thing anyone would want in a siege or hostage situation was a Myrkálfar’s natural “charms” distracting anyone.

“We’ve run a scan of the area,” a woman at one of the desks was saying. “No shielding, no alarms, no magic that we’re aware of.”

Sgott glanced at me. “The equipment is sensitive enough to pick up the faintest caress of magic—it may be that they no longer use this bolt hole.”

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