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ed it would be useful to get his input and bounce ideas off him. It didn’t seem possible that our last conversation had been only this morning, considering how much had happened since then.
A quick check of the DIRT status board showed me that it was early morning in Pohang, South Korea, where he and his team were currently deployed. I hated to risk waking him, but with sleep being a whenever-you-can-grab-it luxury, now was as good a time as any to call.
I plopped down at the kitchen table and dialed his number, relieved when he picked up on the third ring.
“Hey, Kara. Everything cool?”
“Would I be calling if it was?” I asked and received a dry chuckle in return. Good, he sounded awake, though tired. “Got a few minutes?”
“Not really, but for you, I’ll pretend I do.”
Using vague terms, nicknames, and the occasional demon word to throw off anyone who might be listening in, I gave Idris a “Previously on Kara’s Kompound” recap of the day’s events: Knight and Cory changing from gummy bears to mega-heavy pods, my going to Siberia to help Mzatal fight the Jontari, my subsequent attempt to contact Szerain through Vsuhl, Elinor’s interruption and my realization that she was on Earth and in Xharbek’s control and, finally, the censored rundown of what transpired in the dimensional pocket with Szerain, including the decision to summon Dekkak to rescue Elinor.
“Holy shit,” he breathed. “You’ve had one hell of a day. And you’ll be doing the first Jontari summoning in centuries.” His voice held awe, dread, and more than a touch of envy. At least he wasn’t telling me I was insane to even consider such a dangerous summoning.
“I have a few tricks up my sleeve. In fact, I’ll tell you all about them if you happen to swing by the ol’ homestead, say, day after tomorrow. I could really use your help.”
“I’ll do my best,” he said fervently. “This seafloor rift is kicking my ass, so I can’t promise anything, but wow. An imperator!”
“You don’t want to miss it,” I assured him then grimaced. “Rhyzkahl will be there. I can’t do anything about that.”
“I haven’t forgotten about him,” he said, voice abruptly a hundred degrees colder and razor-edged.
“Look, I know how you feel about—”
“Really?” he snarled. “You know what it feels like to have a lying, evil piece of shit for a father? To see him smirk? To know that he’s getting stronger every day after everything he’s done? You know what it’s like to have a mother who slept with the asshole and doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you?”
My calm sympathy snapped in the face of his rant. “Oh, give me a fucking break, Idris! Look, I love you. You’re family. But sometimes family gets to tell you when you’re full of shit. You have Rhyzkahl’s and Tessa’s DNA. So fucking what? Rhyzkahl doesn’t even know he’s your dad, and you sure as shit can’t blame him for that lack of knowledge. And we still don’t know whether Tessa has any idea you’re her son. Yes, you have every right to be upset and bitter that your biological parents are assholes, but you’ve taken righteous indignation to a whole new level of crazy. If you’re waiting for either of them to crawl to you and beg for forgiveness for having sex and making a baby, then you’re going to be a long time waiting. You need to move on from this shit, and no one can do that for you. You’re the only one who can decide when it’s time to stop beating up yourself and everyone around you.”
Silence.
A loooong silence.
Shit. “Idris, I—”
“You’ve made your point,” he said, voice stiff. “I have to go. The rift is belching demon sea monsters.”
The connection went dead.
I set the phone down and pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes. “Wow, Kara, you really have a way with people. You couldn’t have given him an ‘Oh, you poor baby’ just this once? No, you had to let him have it with both barrels.”
So much for having another summoner to back me up. But hey, maybe between now and the full moon, the sea rift would calm down, Idris’s curiosity and sense of duty would override his anger at me as well as his less than loving feelings toward his father, he’d show up in time to help, and everything would go perfectly.
Uh huh. Right. And maybe the invading Jontari will develop an allergy to Earth smog and slink back home.
To add insult to injury, with the way the conversation had gone pear-shaped, I couldn’t even enjoy the absurdity of demon sea monsters.
Enough wallowing. Time to deal with all the other crap on my to-worry-about list.
• • •
After grabbing a quick, oh-so-healthy snack of cookies, I joined the others in the war room. Bryce sat at the table with a phone to his ear, while across from him Giovanni sketched in a spiral-bound pad. At the far end, Pellini scowled at his laptop screen as his meaty fingers flew over the keyboard.
Bryce growled an ultimatum about a delayed shipment of bricks and hung up, then stood and handed me a slip of paper. “That’s the best deal I could make on the graphene net. But it’s a big one. Almost twice the size of the prototype. No luck with a power supply, though.” He paused. Grimaced. “The Memphis contact is solid, but he’s risking his career as well as his freedom to make that net disappear from DIRT inventory.”
“I’m not thrilled about putting that burden on anyone, but there’s been a development. I had contact with Szerain. It’s critical to rescue Elinor ASAP, so we have no choice but to move forward with the Jontari summoning.” I frowned at the paper and then at him. “Fifty pounds? Of what? I’m guessing this doesn’t mean British money.”
“Ah, no.” He winced. “See, cash isn’t as welcome what with the world falling apart and all. That’s how much gold he wants.”
