"They've broken through. She's gone. Someone has stolen our queen." Her voice was flat, in the sort of shock that people get when the unimaginable has occurred.

I hadn't thought to bring a lighter with me so I walked forward with trepidation, not sure if the path to where she was standing was a straight one or if I'd fall into a black pit somewhere in the middle. But I needed to see what she was talking about. This was apparently a vital part of my father's plan for it to be so important to Tuli. I found myself wishing she wasn't involved in this, didn't actually want my father's goal to proceed-whatever it was. To defeat it was to defeat her, and that brought a conflict in my mind I hadn't expected.

The path was straight and sure. I stepped up behind her and tried to look around her into the breach in the far wall. But she wouldn't move, seemingly frozen by the sight before her. I finally grasped her by the shoulders and moved her bodily aside and took the torch from her hand. The flickering flame didn't reveal anything of interest to me, but it might be because I didn't know what I was looking for. All I could do was bluff and hope Tuli revealed more in her answer. "Are you certain She was here?"

Tuli shook her head and threw her hands into the air with the same frustration I could taste over the mildew, moss, and lingering sweat. I could taste other snakes too, and recently. It must be a strange sort of species that sweats. Most of us don't. "I don't know. The priests seemed so certain. The temple was the right size and the right location. The legends spoke of the precise layers we found here. The egg should have been in this center pyramid, the red one that was protected by her priests for millennia."

She'd taken my question at face value, and I suddenly realized just exactly what was happening down here. The torchlight revealed the deep crimson plastered over the stone next to the breach. Ochre blended with blood and then with cement. My heart started to beat so hard I could feel it my head. The tiny clues that had been gained by the blood of a dozen Wolven agents across the world for nearly a century all abruptly clicked home. Fortunately, if Tuli could smell my fear, she thought it was for another reason.

It wasn't that Father was resurrecting the Order of Marduc to be its leader. He planned on actually raising Marduc Herself! The great winged snake was considered to be male in a.s.syrian and Babylonian folklore but was, in fact, female. Only a few of the very ancient Sazi even remembered She existed, in fact. Most cultures had tales of such a creature, from dragons to quetzalcoatls and beyond. But few realized there really had been a freak of genetics in the ancient past. A Sazi, that was born of snake, fused to bird and had the strength of legions. There was no fire that breathed from her mouth, only power. Raw magical power that could freeze or burn into ash. It was said that lightning crackled around her with each wing flap and storms followed in her path. That would mean she had the equivalent power to the entire council. To the ancients, she was a G.o.ddess. And if Father had found a way to make her live again- "Merciful Adad," I whispered, an oath I hadn't used since I was a child. I pushed the torch fully into the crack in the stone, now realizing it was just about the size and shape of an egg that could house the great and mighty Marduc. I wanted to laugh at my concern from last winter that there might be werespiders back among us. I'd face a thousand spiders rather than one winged serpent that was born with any help from my father. Who knew what he had been putting into the process? But I now understood his desperation to have Tahira Kuric-Monier as his servant, to have a true power well that could pull on a thousand Sazi to bring her to life. He'd had an ego the size and depth of the oceans themselves, so I had no doubt he believed he could control her and make her a slave to fly before him and conquer, leaving him to rule in her wake.

I wasn't so certain.

"Yes." Tuli's voice made me flinch. "We must inform Nasil. Hurry!"

She rushed back out of the pyramid, leaving me to consider my options. I needed to get word back to Charles and Lucas. This was too important to simply stay undercover and try to undermine the process without help.

Tonight. During the hunt, I'd find a way to return to the cave and see if the magic was still strong enough to reach the young wolf. I'd marked it well so that I could both find it by scent and sight after dark.

Yes, tonight we'd begin the process of bringing down Father's plan at last. I sent out a silent mental plea, with no idea whether he could hear. Be listening, wolf. Be waiting somewhere to speak.

Chapter Fifteen.

"-SPEAK? MR. GIODONE? Can you speak at all? We're here." I felt someone shaking me and I shot upward so fast that the shoulder belt, still strapped to the frame, slapped against my nose.

Liz winced and pulled her head out from the pa.s.senger door. A low rumble echoed around me and cool, exhaust-laden air made me sneeze four times in a row. I snorted and snuffled and tried to get my head on straight while Liz watched me with a bouncing nervousness that spoke of actual concern. Sweet kid.

I got out of the car and looked at my watch. Unfortunately, the numbers didn't really register any sort of meaning in my head. It sure would be nice if I could just pop out of these visions and be back to normal, but it wasn't that easy. I felt thick and slow, weighted down under a pile of fluff-loose and floating, but too heavy to move.

She already had the bags out, so I locked the car and started to follow her inside. She stopped and stared at me for a second, probably realizing I wasn't quite all there. "Wheel well?" Her eyes dipped to the key ring in my hand and all of a sudden, the real world came crashing back. The fuzz was gone and I was clear-headed. Thank G.o.d. "Gotcha."

I put my hand up to slow the car coming up the ramp and sprinted across to where the car was parked. Now my watch meant something when I looked. We had just over an hour left, which would work just fine. We could still grab a burger or some Chinese and get our allotment of meat and make it to the gates. I waited until the travelers hurrying from their cars had gone and tucked the key and chain up under the wheel well so it was sitting on the engine frame. It could still be reached, but wasn't obvious to pa.s.sersby, or even a regular sneak thief.

When I reached Liz again, she smelled relieved, a little pocket of light, fresh air in the chemical-laden entry. "You look better now."

I held the door for her, which seemed to surprise her. I smiled, but dropped my chin for a little reproach.

"I can be a gentleman, your ladyship. And yes, I'm better now."

She shook her head as we walked down the hallway toward security. "I don't know if I'll get used to the royalty thing. That's just weird."

I shrugged. "If by royalty you mean three hundred fiftieth in line to the throne, I suppose so. But don't be planning your coronation any time soon. Remember, no t.i.tle-so probably no tickets to the ball either."

Her little pouty face had too much sunny humor underneath to be anything other than a joke. "Oh, sure. Ruin my fantasy."

We were at a jog now, so when I spotted a ticket kiosk, I had to do a skid that nearly sent my roll-along sailing ahead of me. "Tickets."

"Oh. Oh! Yeah, that would be good. Should I go wait in line at security?"

I grabbed her wrist in response and felt a brush of power that was pretty impressive for a new turn.

"What do you think? No. We stick together."

The little huff of air was frustrated, but not resentful. "Okay, I deserved that. But I'm not going to run. I was just scared before."

"And now you're not?" I asked as I started to enter data into the computer. Charles had given me the paper with the confirmation number so it was pretty easy to pull up the boarding pa.s.ses and hit the print b.u.t.ton.

"No, I'm better now. I think it'll probably come back, but I'm just going with it for right now. Maybe I'm in shock."

I pulled the pages out of the printer tray and then we were off again at a race-walk clip. "Could be. Stranger things have happened."

Her voice came out a little airy from gulping for breath trying to keep up with me. "Speaking of strange things, what happened to you in the car? Where did you go?"

I let out a laugh loud enough to cause a couple of heads to turn. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

We reached the end of the security line, which was only three twists deep around the cordoned poles. She wouldn't let go of the bone she was chewing on. "Try me."

As I handed her the boarding pa.s.s with her name and pulled my wallet from my back pocket, I gave the short version. "I was in the head of a snake in the Honduran jungle, learning that a creature I thought was a fairy tale, or more precisely, a Tale from the Crypt, is actually real." I turned my head toward her as I tucked my pa.s.s and license back in my pocket and started to take off my shoes. "So, I'll be spending most of our time together on the phone, letting the right people know what they need to do to make it go bye-bye."

"Oh." She paused as my phrasing sunk home. It must have occurred to her that when a creature of legend is scared of another creature of an even weirder legend, it's a bad thing. "Oh! Yeah, okay then. Is it . . . um, nearby?"

"Hope not." My shoes and bag sailed through the scanner and I pa.s.sed through the detector without a fuss. "They lost it. That's part of the problem."

Dammit, I'd been right earlier. A serious-looking uniformed guard walked up to us when we were putting back on our shoes and asked politely, "Could you two step over into the office for a minute?"

Liz groaned and we both looked at our watches simultaneously. Eleven o'clock. The hand search of the luggage probably wouldn't take very long. I was just hoping there wouldn't be a cavity search involved.

IF THE RUSH to the airport had been frantic and exciting, the rest of the trip to Newark was deadly dull. I had no luck contacting anyone at the clinic and Lucas's cell phone was in a perpetually busy state. Or he had it turned off. It didn't matter which. So I told everything to Sue mentally. I was interested that she hadn't any idea about the scene in the jungle, but distinctly remembered certain things about Ahmad and Tuli in the plane. She didn't know how she knew, but she remembered the green tank top and camo pants and the taste of honey. That was weird and I wished I could figure out what the h.e.l.l was going on.

I'm sure it looked to Liz like I was out again, so when we touched down in Newark, I explained a little bit about how mating works.

"You mean if I find the one, the right person in the whole world for me, I'll have some sort of mental link to him forever?"

I nodded, but then winked. "Unless you're actually gay, and it's a her instead of a him."

She gave a little shudder, which surprised me since she said she was liberally bent. "No, that's not an issue. I'm very, very straight. I don't even know anyone who's gay."

That made me smile. "Actually, you do. Remember Linda and Bab . . . I mean, Barbara in the car? They're a couple."

Her mouth opened wide and she turned to me in the aisle of the plane where we were waiting for the flight attendant to open the door. "But she's pregnant!"

A couple of people stopped talking, moving from pa.s.sive to active listening, while trying to appear not to. I leaned close to her ear. "Yep. With Carmine's baby. They're a threesome. Carmine and Linda. Carmine and Babs. Babs and Linda."

She blinked and shook her head and put her hands up in front of her like she could push away the image. "Whoa. Um . . . wow. I . . . that is, that never would have occurred to me."

"And they were sweet as pie, weren't they? Just two best friends shopping for the kid and trying to protect their man. Is that such a bad thing? I'm straight too, and don't share well. But if they're happy, is that a crime?"

I knew I was going to have to stop throwing all this esoteric s.h.i.t at the poor kid. But she had a lot of promise. It seemed a shame to have all the independent thought beat out of her by the system before she even has the chance to think about real-life stuff.

I opened my mouth again, but she held up a hand to stop me. She just kept blinking and shaking her head in tiny little movements. "Sorry. Brain's on overload right now. Try again later."

That made me chuckle, which was just about the time the door opened with a whoosh and sunlight filled the narrow cabin.

We exited into the busy airport and started to head toward the ceiling-mounted screens to find out where Nigel might be arriving. "Charles said American flight one-twelve from New York. I'll bet that was a slap in his face."

She turned to look at the side of my face. I could see her brow furrow in my peripheral vision. "Whose face?"

"Lucas told me once that your grandfather's a British loyalist. Thinks King George never should have given up putting down the colonial rebellion. He apparently vowed never to set foot on American soil."

She got it in one. Again. "Eww . . . and he's flying in on American Airlines. Ouch." Then she shrugged.

"Well, I'm about as American as they come, so he'll just have to deal with it. I can be polite and learn what he has to teach me, but he won't convince me that America isn't the best place on earth to live."

I just shrugged. I'd been a lot of places in the world, and there are a lot of very cool cities and countrysides. But that was for her to learn. I wasn't going to argue. We started to move toward the Bnumbered gates. It was going to be a long walk to B-47, since we were starting at A-19. But there was no hurry. The screen said it was delayed and wouldn't arrive for another hour.

It was when we had just stepped onto the down escalator that I had to backpedal fast and hard, pulling her with me out of the line of other pa.s.sengers. She nearly dropped her suitcase and did drop her purse, but grabbed it before it went downstairs without her. I motioned for her to follow me quietly. We went to the railing above the main terminal. "Look over there. Isn't that the same guy you saw at the hospital? Louis Perricone?"

I knew it was. He was walking with Scotty, which was a stroke of luck I couldn't believe. Unless, of course, they were here looking for me. But how would they get here before us?

She peered over the rail and looked around. Her eyes moved past the pair standing talking at least three times, with no sign of recognition. "Sorry. I don't see anyone I saw at the hospital."

"He's right there. In the center, with the blond kid in the gray suit. Next to the hotdog stand." I pointed, making sure to be very casual. Then I turned around in case they happened to look up.

She shook her head again. "Nope. Sorry. I see the teenager, but that's not the guy from the hospital."

It made me stop and think. While I hadn't actually seen Louis in the hallway, Mike and Marvin have known him for years. It would be tough to pull the wool over their eyes. Plus, I remembered a friendly scent, even if I couldn't place it with certainty. I ducked behind a pillar, but kept them in my sights.

"Describe him. The guy you didn't like the smell of in the hospital."

"Probably forty and beefy. Very Italian face. Big nose, dark complexion and hair sticking out his nostrils. Yuk."

Yeah, that was Louis all right. Linda keeps telling him to cut the nose hairs. Even bought him one of those trimmers a few years back. But he won't. Said he likes the body G.o.d gave him and he's not going to change it and insult the Big Guy.

"Now, describe the guy and the kid."

She flicked her gaze downward and squinted a little for a closer look. "The teenager is probably sixteen, and he looks like a normal teenager, just dressed up. He's blond and slender, but he looks like he doesn't smile much. Has more frown lines than someone his age should have. Hard to judge the other guy's age, but I'd say thiry-five. Mexican, or . . . no, maybe Middle Eastern. Yeah, sort of an olivey complexion. Straight black hair and dark eyes." About halfway through, when she said Mexican, I had to look over the rail again. No, that sure looked like Louis to me.

"Wow. That's some talent you've got, kid."

"What is?" She peered down again, trying to figure out what I was seeing.

"That guy is a Sazi. He's projecting an image to make himself look like Louis. You remember how you looked away from Charles when he changed back at the clinic? You saw him as naked, right?" She nodded. "Well, the rest of us saw him in a three-piece suit. Not a bit of skin. And we all saw the same suit. We could testify in court or take a lie detector and pa.s.s." I motioned downward with my chin.

"Same thing here. n.o.body can fool you with illusion, which is an awesome thing, like seeing through a magician's trick. But your gift will keep you alive."

"So is that boy seeing the same thing as you? Is he pretending to be someone the kid knows?"

She's quick on the uptake. "You've got it. But I don't think he's a predator . . . at least in the way you're thinking. But he does want to get him alone. He's going to lie to him and try to get the kid to give up an article he stole, and-"

"Oh. That's not so bad, I guess."

I finished it, because she was still being naive. "And . . . then he'll kill him. I would bet it won't be quick, either. I'm thinking this is one of the same guys who sliced the c.r.a.p out of Carmine . . . my friend in the hospital."

"So we have to save the thief from the attempted murderer? That doesn't seem right."

I shrugged and started to drag her back in the other direction, toward the stairwell. "Actually, we're saving the murderer from the murderer. Sometimes the ethics are confusing in this biz. Scotty took over my place in Carmine's family. Don't underestimate him, and don't turn your back for a second. In fact-"

I paused and rethought the whole thing, liking the second scenario better. "You're going to stay here and watch the bags." I fished the cell phone from my pocket and held it out to her. "You're an official lookout. I'm going down to meet with them, and try to figure out what's up. Your mission-"

"Should I choose to accept it-" She didn't reach to take the phone.

I opened her hand and put it in. "Whether or not you choose to accept it . . . is to use the speed dial to call Lucas and leave a message in case this goes badly. Then I expect you to go find your grandfather at his gate and tell him what happened too. After that, your life is up to you. But remember you'll need to change tonight on the moon, so if you're going to duck and run, go somewhere private. Don't get caught and wind up ratting out all the little shifter kids who'll end up like you someday. You'll condemn them to waste away in some prison compound they'll probably call a reservation for the rest of their lives."

The last line got through. She blinked and then nodded solemnly and scrolled down the screen until she found Address Book. She took a deep breath and gave a shaky smile. "Okay. All set. Go . . . do whatever it is you do."

I went and started thinking furiously as I did. I didn't have a gun, or a knife. In fact, the only thing I had was a garrote hidden in my belt. But that particular belt was up in the bags, so even that didn't help. If this guy could cast an illusion wide enough to reach me on the balcony, and keep his magic inside enough that I didn't see the glow, then it was going to be tricky.

Could I pull off happy and effusive? With Scotty and "Louis"? The kid wouldn't buy it for a second. He's known me for too long. He'd be suspicious as h.e.l.l.

I let out a small smile as I headed toward the escalator.

And that was my in.

Chapter Sixteen.

MY MIND WAS moving with lightning speed as I kept myself hidden behind the large woman in the flowered dress. As the escalator descended, the little Chihuahua in her arms peeked over her shoulder and let out a fierce tinny growl. But then I looked at him and let the tiniest bit of power slide forward. His bulging eyes went even wider and his ears flattened tight against his furry head. He ducked back into the safety of his owner's arms and began to tremble until the woman patted him in a comforting way.

They were still talking, not even looking my way. But the Sazi would smell the wolf in me pretty soon. I had to be quicker. My goal was to get the guy to do something very un-Louis-like. Scotty probably didn't hobn.o.b with the made guys like Louis yet, but he'd been exposed enough that he'd notice something really unusual.

I threw open the door to Sue's mind as I touched bottom and felt her respond. I need some bright and sunny to pull this off, sweetheart. Can you read some jokes and laugh a little to help?

She spotted Scotty at the same time I did and I felt a moment of panic from her. He'd scared the c.r.a.p out of her more than once. She didn't underestimate him a bit. Remember. Bright and sunny. You wanted agent, you got it. The man you're seeing isn't Louis. It's illusion, and I need to expose him to Scotty.

I felt her scrambling in her mind and could actually hear the clicking of keys as she logged in on the computer. I've got a jokes folder here. I'll try to find some funny one.