Unclean Spirits

Nineteen

Where's the minivan?" Midian said.

"We lost it," I said.

"You lost it?"

The taxi was pulling away from the curb. I closed the door and put my backpack on the coat hanger. The house smelled like old laundry and popcorn. Kim stared at Midian and then, shaking her head, excused herself and headed down the hall toward the bathroom.

"How do you lose a minivan?" Midian said as I walked into the living room.

"There we were running down the highway, and I said 'Holy shit, Kim, I think I know why we're getting so tired.' Look, if it's important, I'll buy us another one."

Chogyi Jake emerged from the back. It might only have been that I'd been out in the world or that I was still coming off the adrenaline overload of my time in the hospital, but I thought he looked worse than when I'd left. The strain of holding up Eric's protections was showing in his face. I remembered a news program I'd seen when I was a kid with men in yellow rain slickers piling sandbags against a flood. They'd had the same exhausted eyes.

"I was starting to get worried," he said.

"Yeah," I said. "So was I. It's okay, though. We're here."

"What happened?"

It was easier for me to retell the story to Chogyi Jake than to Midian. He listened intently and without comment. I left out how Kim had insisted on going and that I'd caved, making it sound instead like it had been a mutual lousy decision. I also skipped the part where she told me she was still in love with Aubrey. Kim came back into the room about the time I got to the part where the helicopter landed at the airport and the two of us went to look for a taxi. I saw her glance at Midian, her face perfect for the poker table.

"You don't get to go out without a chaperone anymore," Midian said.

"Bite me," I said, and he grinned as if it was a joke. I only figured out what was funny about it after the fact.

"Kim," Chogyi Jake said. "I'm glad to meet you. I think we all owe you a debt."

"Kind of you to say so," Kim said.

"You know about riders?" Midian asked.

"I'm not an expert, but yes," she said. "I worked with Eric and Aubrey when I was still living in Denver."

For a minute or two, they compared their relative expertise on things occult. I couldn't follow much of it, but I had the impression they were each favorably impressed by the other.

"Any ideas how to beat the Invisible College?" Midian asked. Kim hesitated.

"No," she said.

"Well, welcome to the club," he said. "You want anything to eat? We're pretty much down to leftovers, but I think I can make a decent omelet with what I've got."

Kim considered the vampire without speaking.

"He's really good," I said. "Seriously."

"Then yes," Kim said. "That's kind of you."

Midian shrugged and limped back to the kitchen. I retrieved the report from my lawyer and gave it to Kim. She looked over it with a calm, practiced eye while the sound of chopping and the scent of butter wafted into the room. I turned to the subject of Coin and the still-unformed plan to separate the parasite from its host.

"There are a couple of possibilities next week," I said. "I mean, if the projections in the report are true. There's the doctor's appointment on Monday, and he's speaking at an international aid foundation meeting on Tuesday night. I've got a request in for an updated schedule for him, though. There may be a better opportunity."

"The problem being that any time we plan an attack based on his established schedule, we also face his established security," Chogyi Jake said. "It's safe to assume that he will be protected at any of these events."

"And the last time we went up against him, he didn't even need that," I said.

"Hey," Midian shouted, "how do you feel about onions?"

"Love them," Kim shouted back, and then turned to me. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but the failure of the previous plan was that you thought you had the element of surprise and you didn't?"

I sat on the couch's armrest and shrugged.

"Yeah," I said. "You could look at it that way."

"He knew how we were going to attack," Chogyi Jake said. "Not that it would be rifles, but that we would draw him out from his wards and that we'd be using the Mark of Ya'la ibn Murah and the sigil of St. Francis of the Desert. And so he was warded against those specifically. The attack by Ex and Aubrey gave him a channel back to them. Jayn¨¦ was only saved because she was wise enough not to pull the trigger."

I felt a momentary stab of guilt at my failure to attack and gratitude to Chogyi Jake for putting my inaction in that light. Kim only nodded.

"Since then, they've been circling," I said. "Looking for us. Midian and Chogyi can't leave the house. It seems like I'm okay because of some old protections Eric put on me. At least that was Ex's theory."

"And where is Ex?" Kim asked.

"We don't know," I said. "He opted out."

Midian came into the room, two plates balanced on his arm. He presented one to Kim and the other to me. The omelet smelled of onions and garlic, and it tasted like heaven. Kim took a bite, nodded her approval, and Midian accepted it with a bow before sitting down. I'd raised my fork, preparing to speak as soon as I'd finished chewing, when Eric spoke from my backpack.

I knew I was going to have to change the ringtone. I knew that it was going to be creepy for people until I did. But Kim's reaction was still startling. Her face went white, her eyes wide. She was halfway to her feet, food forgotten, before I could stand up. She tracked me with her eyes as I crossed to the front door, dug in my pack, checked the incoming number, and answered the call.

"Candace?" I said.

"Jayn¨¦," Candace Dorn said. "I know it's late. Is it too late? I'm sorry I didn't call back sooner. Aaron was working a double shift, and I wanted to talk with him about your call."

"I completely understand," I said.

Kim lowered herself slowly back to her seat, her head bowed. Chogyi Jake was frowning at her, and Midian's ruined eyebrows had lifted. I wasn't the only one to think something interesting had just happened.

"He's here now," Candace said. "I'll get him."

I had a sudden flashback to sitting at my computer talking to not-Ex.

"Candace!" I yelled. "Hold on."

"Yes?" she said.

"If there's someone else there...I mean if you're being coerced in any way, say 'Yes, it's okay.'"

She laughed. "It's nothing like that. God. Were you thinking it would be?"

"I'm a little jumpy," I said. "You don't...I mean...I'm sorry. Could you just tell me what price we agreed on for fixing your problem? Just so I know it's you?"

"You didn't charge me anything," she said. Her voice was lower now. I could imagine the furrows on her brow. "Is this serious, Jayn¨¦? Should I be nervous?"

"Maybe a little," I said.

There was a fumbling sound on the far end. Someone new came on the line.

"Jayn¨¦? This is Aaron."

His voice was deep and masculine and made me think of recruitment ads for the Marines. I couldn't help smiling.

"Hi, Aaron," I said. "I'm glad to hear from you. You're doing okay?"

"I am. Had a long day today, but if there's something going down, I can get a cup of coffee and be anywhere you need me in about fifteen minutes."

"Thanks. There's nothing going on right now, but I might need a favor pretty soon here."

"Are you safe where you are now?"

"Yes," I said. "Safe as I would be anywhere. There's something going on, though. Something big. If you're around, I'd really like to talk to you about it."

"Is it another one of those fuckers that got to me?"

"Similar idea," I said. "Bigger scale."

There was a pause on the line. I heard Candace's voice in the background. Aaron grunted in a way that sounded like assent.

"Hey," he said. "If you really don't need me right this minute, I'm going to get some rest. I'm dead on my feet. But I'm going to give you another number. It's my emergency line, and if anything happens, you call it."

He rattled off the number and I wrote it on the back of some junk mail. He made me repeat it back to him to ensure I got it right.

"Now you listen to me," Aaron said. "You saved me. You saved Candy. You ever need anything-ever-you call me. You're family now."

"Um," I said, oddly touched by the ferocity in his voice. I'd only ever known the guy as a German shepherd. "Thanks. You bet. Why don't you call me when you wake up. Maybe you guys can come over?"

"I'm already there," he said, and we ended the call. I programmed Aaron's emergency number into the phone and put it back in my backpack. When I got back to the couch and my cooled and thus somewhat rubbery omelet, Kim had regained her composure.

"That the other resource?" Midian asked.

"Yeah," I said. "We did a favor for a cop. It might be useful."

Kim nodded. Small white dots had appeared at the corners of her mouth where her lips pressed tight. I glanced at Chogyi Jake, and he gave me the smallest possible shake of the head. Don't push her. Not now.

"Okay," I said. "So anyway, we've got a couple things going for us. Aaron's one. We have Kim now. We know where Coin's going to be more or less, and we can get more digging done on him if we want it."

"It's not enough," Midian said with a sigh. "We had Aubrey and Ex before, and me, and tofu boy here. And you. And all the juju Eric put on you. And we got dicked over."

"Yes, but that was the point I was making before," Kim said. "The one thing you thought you had and didn't was surprise. They were working under the assumption that you would all be coming at him under something similar to the original plan. You did. They won. This time will be different."

"You think so?"

"This time you actually can surprise them," Kim said.

I CRAWLED into bed just before two in the morning, my body humming between the two poles of fatigue and residual adrenaline. The pillows were cool. The soft babble of a news channel in the front room meant Midian was taking the first watch. The ceiling above me seemed to glow a little, like an old television turned on but without a signal.

I willed myself to sleep, but with no effect. I was bone-tired and twitchy. I was scared and bored and uncertain. I was ready to pop. I had Kim now, and after our time at the hospital, I was even pretty sure I could count on her. Not bad, considering I'd slept with her husband. Her husband who she still loved.

I wondered where Ex was, if he was safe. If he was alive. I wanted him back with us, his angry blue eyes and his assured, in-control way of holding himself. Even when he was wrong, he was never uncertain. Having Aaron, Candace, and Kim helped. Understanding better how my inheritance from Eric gave me options helped. But I was getting tired of the people I needed going away. Ex. Aubrey. Cary. My father. My family.

Eric.

Somewhere in the city, the thing that looked out Randolph Coin's eyes was waiting for me. Watching. I wondered if the rider ever got bored, got distracted, looked away. I tried to put myself in Coin's place. Eric Heller had been gunning for me and died for the offense. Eric's team had taken up his cause and failed. The enemy wasn't gone-one of the fallen was in the hospital as cheese in the mousetrap, and another had already run. Would Coin know how many had been in the conspiracy by the warehouse? Would he know what resources I had?

I shifted, pulling the pillow over my head. The murmur of the television grew quieter so that I wasn't sure anymore whether I was hearing or imagining it.

If I were in his position, what would I expect of my enemy? Well, I'd expect us to run like hell. Just the way Ex had. Maybe we'd try to save our fallen, but the trap around Aubrey had failed once. In Coin's place, I'd think that gambit had failed. Would I still keep watch on Aubrey?

A scene from an old movie came to me. One of the Vietnam films my older brother had liked to watch when our parents left him in control of the house. Someone in the band of brothers had been shot by the enemy and left in the open, his screams the bait to lure the others out where they could be killed. Yes, I'd leave a guard on Aubrey. And I'd cover the roof next time.

The problem was...well, there were a lot of problems. I wanted to know exactly what Coin and his people were capable of, but my brief lessons in riders and qi and magic pretty much confirmed that was going to take a lot more time than I had. I could rely on Kim and Chogyi Jake to give me their best guess. I didn't know how good that would be, but I didn't have anything better. I wanted to know what Coin's plans and intentions were so that I could navigate my way around them, but it wasn't like I could ask him.

I wanted to misdirect him, to point over the Invisible College's collective shoulder and sucker-punch them when they turned to look. But I couldn't even do that.

My eyes flew open as the thought came to me.

Or maybe I could.

I got up, dug my laptop out from under a pile of old clothes, and stared at it without opening the case. My fingers twitched toward it. They hadn't tracked me the last time I'd talked to the fake Ex. I hadn't admitted that I knew he was a fake. Maybe there was a way. Maybe I did have a way to lie to Coin and the Invisible College. I opened the screen, my finger hovering over the power button. Was this stupid? Was this something I needed to talk to the others about?

I put on my robe, tied it in a square knot at my waist, and stalked out to the main room. Midian was on the couch with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other.

"I thought I said not to smoke in the house," I said.

"You did," the vampire said. "I've only been doing it when I was pretty sure you wouldn't see me."

"I let you guys make the calls last time, and we failed."

"Old news, kid."

"I'm not doing that anymore. Eric left everything to me. Not you, not Aubrey or Chogyi Jake or Ex. Me. This is my show now."

Midian took a long, slow drink from the can, then held the cigarette to his mouth. The ember went bright as he inhaled, then back to its dull orange glow. The yellowed ivory eyes narrowed.

"What's bugging you?"

"I'm making a decision," I said. "I think it's the right thing to do."

"But?"

"But if I'm wrong, I might tip our location to Coin and get us all killed."

"You want to talk about it? Roust tofu boy and what's-her-name out of bed, chew it over."

"No," I said. "I'd only convince myself not to do it."

"So was there something you wanted from me?"

"No, nothing," I said. "I just thought I should tell someone that I'm making the decisions now."

"Even the risky ones," he said.

"Especially the risky ones."

Midian looked up at me from the couch. Almost imperceptibly, he nodded.

"You sound like the old man when you say that," he said. "Welcome to command, General."

I nodded curtly, drew myself up an inch or so.

"Put out the cigarette," I said, and went back to my room.

There were two hundred spam messages, but Thunderbird killed ninety percent of them, and I deleted the rest by hand. There was a note from my little brother, Curt, asking how and where I was, but the tone of it seemed more like his usual whine than something urgent. I pulled up my chat program.

There were half a dozen people online just then that I knew, mostly from ASU. Including my old boyfriend. His screen name showed he wasn't idle, so he was talking to someone. Just not me. Extojayne, on the other hand, had been listed as idle for days.

JAYNEHELLER: Ex! Where the fuck have you been? Why the fuck haven't you been calling? We've been out of our minds here!

I sat back on the bed. This was stupid. This was a mistake. I should never have done it.

Someone on the other side started typing.

EXTOJAYNE: Complications. Nothing serious. I'm fine. Sorry I've been out of touch. What's the status there?

I flexed my fingers like claws. I shifted the mouse over and turned on the logging feature. Better to have a transcript of this so I could keep my lies straight. And I might as well start with something they already knew.

JAYNEHELLER: The rabbit thing fell through. You were totally right about that one. Sorry I gave you grief. The big news is we tried to get Aubrey, but it was a no-go. The Invisible College folks are on that place like white on rice. We barely got away. EXTOJAYNE: We? JAYNEHELLER: Me and Kim. The others weren't there. I don't think we're going to be able to get Aubrey out of that. I hate to leave him behind, but I just don't see what else we can do. EXTOJAYNE: I understand. I'm not happy about it either, but you're probably right. What else? What's the news on Texas?

I grinned. He was buying it. All vestiges of exhaustion were gone. I felt like I'd just had eight cups of coffee and a jelly roll. I could keep going with this bullshit all night.

JAYNEHELLER: Texas looks good. If we can get to Mexico, I think we'll be all right. You keep them distracted for a few more days, and we'll be just about ready to make a run for it. Cool? EXTOJAYNE: I can do that. But let me know the details. I don't want to do something that would get in your way. JAYNEHELLER: You betcha.

Hey, Coin. What's that over your shoulder?

Go ahead.

Look.