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Oh yeah, I wanted one of those. That shit was going on my Christmas list.
As I ran a cloth through the barrel of my gun, I gave everyone a quick rundown of the abduction attempt on Jill as well as what happened to Amaryllis Castlebrook. “I’m positive Jerry Steiner is the perp in the Amaryllis case, and now we know that he and Angus McDunn are actively working against us—almost certainly with Katashi.”
“Leo Carter is also with them,” Bryce said. “Farouche’s head of security. You saw him at the plantation.” Then a smile split his face. “Our good news is that Idris and I found the Katashi base this afternoon.”
“You did?!” I straightened abruptly and knocked the bottle of gun oil off the table. I snatched it up before more than a drop spilled then pierced Bryce with a look. “Tell!”
“It’s the twenty-acre property from the list of possibles you gave us,” he said. “Idris detected wards when we did a drive-by. We couldn’t see the house from the road, but we set up not far away with a pair of binoculars and saw Carter and a female passenger drive out the gate.”
Elated, I performed a brief and silly chair dance. “I knew they wouldn’t hole up in a shitty motel. How heavily warded is the place? Any chance we can infiltrate?”
Idris spoke up. “We checked the fence line. Warded out the wazoo. Not quite as heavily as this place, but close.” He dragged the red bundle out of his messenger bag and placed it on the table. “But here’s the upside. Katashi has a way of camouflaging wards from othersight. It’s sneaky because even if you know a ward is there, you can’t sense it, which means you can’t deal with it.”
“Erm,” I said, “am I missing something? That doesn’t sound like much of an upside.”
“Yeah, the hidden ward part sucks. But it turns out we have a detector, so to speak.” He pulled the silk back to expose the Katashi forearm with its Mark.
“Jesus fuck!” Pellini blurted. “Is that an arm?”
Oops. Forgot he didn’t know about Mr. Handy. “Katashi’s,” I told him. “Long story, but he totally deserved to have it chopped off. Promise.”
Pellini muttered under his breath, but he didn’t leave the room. I gave Idris a Go on nod.
“Here’s the cool part,” Idris said, and his eyes lit up. “This baby twitches when it’s near a Katashi Special. Plus, if I manage to pinpoint and touch the sigil with the hand, BAM, the camouflage drops.”
Its fingers jerked.
I recoiled in shock, but Pellini shot out of his chair and stumbled back, reflexively aiming his barrel-free gun grip at the arm. “Are you shitting me?”
Idris stroked the arm as though soothing an animal. “It’s cool. It does that every now and then.”
Heart thumping, I watched the thing warily. “Does that mean there’s a Katashi ward nearby?” Pellini eased back into his chair, eyes never leaving the arm.
“No, the twitching for a ward is different. Regular. Frantic.” Idris flicked his fingers open and closed several times to demonstrate the difference. “I haven’t connected these occasional jerks to anything specific.”
“That has to be the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen,” I said and couldn’t hold back the shudder, “but it does sound useful.” I surveyed the table, then had to laugh. “Guns-a-plenty, and a magic arm. We’re set.”
“That arm looks fresh,” Pellini said with dark suspicion. “Did it just get cut off?”
“Nah, it’s been zombified for over six months,” I said. “Mzatal put a demonic lord whammy on it to keep it from rotting.”
Idris gave me a pained look. “A putrescence counter-cascade ritual,” he corrected then re-wrapped the thing and tucked it away in his messenger bag. Pellini had a glazed look about him but resumed his gun cleaning once the arm was out of sight.
“We’re pretty thin in the manpower area,” Bryce said, disassembling the Sig as easily as breathing. “I can’t see any way to infiltrate the Katashi household that won’t end in disaster.”
“Fair enough,” I said. I wasn’t going to argue the point. Bryce knew tactics better than anyone else in the room. “We’ve been stabilizing the valves, but we need to come up with a plan of action beyond that. Katashi has a clear goal and a strategy to achieve it.” My mouth twisted. “I don’t like feeling as if we have to wait for disaster to strike before we can act.”
“Sounds like Katashi is the kingpin,” Pellini said. “Take him out of commission and the whole shebang comes to a screeching halt.”
Idris nailed Pellini with a We don’t need your input look. “Really? Wow! Wish I’d thought of that.”
Pellini tensed, and I spoke quickly to forestall violence. “We’ve all thought it, but now it’s time to consider specifics. Idris, you’ve spent a lot of time with Katashi. What are we up against if we decide to take him out?”
His belligerence retreated. “Katashi is one of a kind,” Idris said. “He’s been a full-fledged summoner for over ninety years, and conducted the first summoning of modern times. He not only managed it without a mentor or any formal training, but he summoned the reyza Gestamar—hands down the hardest demon to summon.” Unabashed awe flashed across Idris’s face. Despite his hatred of Katashi, he respected the skill. “I don’t know any other summoner who could pull that off,” he continued, serious again. “He has techniques he doesn’t teach anyone, and even his inner circle isn’t privy to his methods and plans for the valves.” He pinned us each with a dark look as he spoke. “Don’t let his old man act fool you. Mzatal, Jesral, and possibly other lords trained him. The bastard is sharp and strong.”
In other words, Katashi was an enemy to be reckoned with. I masked a grimace. I, too, was guilty of thinking of him as just another summoner—one who happened to be iconic. I’d certainly never thought of him as a mastermind. Once again, I’d underestimated him. Stupid and dangerous.
“His stamp is on everything that has anything to do with summoning,” I said, pulse thudding as the implications sunk in. “All modern summoners—every single one of us—has either been a direct student of Katashi, or a student of one of his students.” Like my Aunt Tessa, I thought as a lump tightened my throat. Katashi had kept her on the sidelines for years before calling her into service. And though I didn’t believe for a minute that she was complicit in any of the nastiness, she dropped everything and went to him the instant he snapped his fingers.
