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“Arkan got to Gunderson?” I guessed.
“Most likely. Nothing in our background on either Gunderson or Arkan shows a link between the two. Arkan saw an opportunity, and Xavier must’ve taken it for him. The way Gunderson got out of the lockup suggests a telekinetic interfered.”
“Did Bern restore the phones?”
“Partially. He got the Compound landline working. He was still working on the system when I left. Leon got home about the same time I did. The FBI agents were hit on their way from Cabera’s house to their office.”
Damn it. “Is he hurt?”
“He says he isn’t.”
Knowing Leon, that meant nothing. His arm could be cut off and he would tell you he was “fine.”
“Are Wahl and Garcia okay?”
“They are alive, but according to Leon, ‘not happy.’”
Ugh. “Why go after the FBI?”
Alessandro gave me a dark look. “He’s trying to cut off access to Smirnov.”
“He isn’t sure if the FBI knows anything, so he tried to kill them just in case?”
“That would be my guess.”
“They’re federal agents. He doesn’t strike me as a stupid man.”
“Smirnov must know something. Something so big that Arkan is desperate to keep it quiet.”
I looked at him. “What could it be?”
“It concerns Konstantin. I’m following a trail of bread crumbs.” He faced me. “Catalina, I promise you I will find out.”
“I know.”
I leaned back in my seat. We’d gotten hit on every front. The buck stopped with me.
“Blaming yourself is the easiest thing,” Alessandro said. “Coming up with a plan is much harder.”
I knew he wasn’t telepathic, but sometimes I had my doubts.
“I got complacent.”
“We. We got complacent. Do you understand how cybersecurity works? Could you write code to deal with a network security breach?”
“No.”
“That’s Bern’s job. A job he is very good at. I had an even simpler job, one job, to protect the Acting Warden. I left that job because I judged that doing a favor for Lenora Jordan was in our House’s best interest. You can’t micromanage everyone. You must delegate. You have done that. All of us knew what we had to do. We got outclassed.”
“Not for long.” I gritted my teeth. Magic stirred inside me. Normally it was like a clear geyser bubbling up to the surface any time I lifted the lid. This time it felt different. Vengeful. Vicious.
He leaned over, brushed a tear off my cheek, took my hand, and kissed it.
“I’m not sad,” I told him.
“I know. You’re crying because you’re angry.”
I leaned against him. “Are you angry?”
Orange sparks flared in his eyes. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me to him. His magic wound around us, violent and charged with power. It didn’t feel like anger. It felt like wrath.
“Very,” he said.
I laid my head on his shoulder. “Good. Let’s be angry together.”
The hill around the Compound was pitted with large holes, as if someone had tossed a handful of grenades about. A crushed metal wreck that might have once been a vehicle smoked slightly on one side of the road. On the other side, three other wrecks, crumpled and smashed like discarded Coke cans, formed a modern art installation dedicated to House warfare—one on its side, one upside down, and a third torn in half.
Arabella must’ve been furious. There was plenty of that to go around lately.
Patricia met us at the main house, flanked by a medical team and my younger sister. The moment the Bus doors slid open Arabella bounded inside.
“Mom!”
“I’m fine,” Mom answered. “It’s minor. Don’t freak out.”
“You smell like blood and smoke!”
I turned to Patricia. “Casualties?”
“None on our side.” She turned and pointed to the left.
A row of bodies lay on the ground, sealed in body bags. One, two . . . Nine. An enormous metal club, covered with dark stains, rested next to them. Connor had given it to Arabella for her eighteenth birthday. That explained the ruined vehicles. Good. I was afraid she might have stomped on them. The last time she went on a stomping spree, she cut her monster foot, and after she reverted to human form, we had a devil of a time making her get the tetanus shot.
“Arkan deployed a pyrokinetic and a psionic, backed by a few professional killers,” Patricia reported. “Your sister informed me that she would handle it. She did.”
It would have taken a better psionic than anyone Arkan had to panic Arabella. When she raged out, there was no room in her for anything except fury. Trying to induce fear would have just pissed her off more.
Alessandro finished helping my mom out of the Bus and handed her off to the medical team. His phone rang.
His face snapped into a harsh mask. He took the call and walked away. Italian again, too low for me to hear clearly.
The dead bodies lay in a neat row, like matchsticks in a box.
“What about the three guards who went out with my mother?” I asked.
