or harness. Opting for the first choice, he had it in place before Cole knew what hit him. “That’s a .45 so it’ll work with the ammo I made for the rest of us. I got plenty of Nymar rounds as well as some of those new Blood Blade points. Once we all use the same caliber, we can pull from the same ammo pool.”
Cole set the shotgun down and tried to draw the pistol but had some trouble. “I think it’s snagged on something.”
“That’s a rig used by the Spetznaz. Russian commandos. Grab the gun by the handle, slide it down then out.”
Cole followed the instructions and felt the pistol’s mechanism move with the motion.
“Nice, huh?” Rico beamed. “The rig draws the slide back so you don’t have to. When you bring your hand up, it’s good to go. Shaves a few precious seconds off the draw time and gets you ready to do some damage that much faster.”
“Good. We’ll need this when we go to Miami.”
“No. We’re headed back to Philly. Paige can handle herself for now. If she needs us, she’ll call.”
“If she’s able to call. What if she’s lying in a ditch some-where?”
“Then we don’t have much of a chance of finding her,” Rico replied.
“Damn,” Prophet grunted. “That’s cold.”
Giving the bounty hunter a sideways glance, he asked, “You think you can find her in Miami just by asking around about a little brunette with an attitude problem and food stains on her shirt?”
Cole walked over to one of the shelves covered in supplies and books. Grabbing one eyedropper from a narrow wooden rack, he showed it to Rico and told him, “These are the drops we used before. The ones that allow us to see scents. We tracked Nymar with them and we know we can see Skinners the same way. We’ll use these to find Paige.”
Prophet was definitely intrigued by the drops, but knew better than to ask for a free sample.
“There was a breach at Lancroft’s place,” Rico said. “Two of them. We need to go back and see what the Full Bloods were after.”
“Could have been they were just after Skinners,” Cole pointed out. “That’s why Burkis hit that cabin in Canada. He heard about Gerald and Brad being there and set an ambush.”
“Gerald, Brad, and the Blood Blades were there,” Rico corrected.
“So with all the crap that was in that place, you expect us to just go in and see what’s missing? There were rooms, closets, cases, lockers, and boxes filled with God only knows what, and less than half of it was identified.”
When Rico looked over to Prophet, the bounty hunter said, “He’s got a point. I was in there. That place was piled high with Skinner shit.”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t go back and have a look around,” Rico insisted. “There had to be a good reason for the Full Bloods to go in hot like that. I’ve never even heard of two of them working together like this, not to mention running with Mongrels.”
“And,” Cole replied, “there’s no reason for us to think that place isn’t a pile of rubble. They set off the explosives Lancroft rigged, remember? Didn’t you see what was left of the reformatory? The Dryads could send us right into a pile of rocks. Maybe we’ll materialize into solid—”
“Aw, for Christ’s sake, we’re not talking about beaming in like some goddamn movie.”
“Oh, excuse me. We’re talking about riding a green wave of happy thoughts and music,” Cole snapped. “Big difference.”
When Prophet started laughing, both men turned to look at him. The bounty hunter sat behind the computer, shaking his head and chuckling to himself. Knowing he was the center of attention without having to look up, he said, “You two really don’t know what the hell to do without Paige leading the way, do you?”
Rico and Cole both sputtered for a second as they tried to be the first to speak up in their own defense. Then, after thinking it over and taking stock of the situation, they found they were only sputtering. Finally, Cole took off the coat that was making him sweat like the proverbial working girl in church and asked, “Has there ever been this much going on with you guys? I don’t just mean Philly. I mean KC, what happened at Chicago, Henry, Misonyk, all of it. If so, how the hell didn’t I know about you guys before I met Paige?”
“It’s been a hell of a season,” Rico admitted.
“I’d like to think I’m not the new guy anymore, but I’m in over my head with this.”
Without pausing, Rico said, “We’re always in over our head.”
“You know what your problem is?” Prophet asked. “You’re used to dealing with these things like hunters and wild game. Now there’s more game out there than you can pin down. You two are just runnin’ around like kids in a candy store.”
“Got any more analogies, Walter?” Rico grunted. “Or were you heading somewhere with this?”
Prophet tapped one last key on the clunky keyboard, stood up and announced, “You need to go about this a different way. And here’s where you’re gonna be glad I came along.” He circled around the desk so he could pick up Cole’s new coat and run the unusual leather between his fingertips. “Shift your mind-set into my world on this one. Come at these guys like fugitives instead of animals.”
“We know they’re not just animals,” Rico said.
“Sure, but you’re tracking them that way.”
Cole fidgeted with the .45 to get it back into its holster as he said, “Let me guess. When you say we should track them like fugitives, you mean we should track the Nymar that your boss wants us to track.”
Doing his best to look offended, Prophet let out a few hacking breaths and glanced over to Rico. He got no support on that front, so he shifted back over to Cole and dropped the act completely. “You remember the last time you talked to my boss? You told Stanley you’d help track down those Nymar that were giving him trouble in Denver.”
“I never said that.”
“Paige did.” Immediately sensing what was coming next, Prophet quickly added, “And if Paige was here, I’d be telling her the same thing. When wild animals start going nuts, you track them down and catch them. That’s what you guys have been doing, and it’s worked so far. When those animals get organized into groups and start making precision hits on places like that Lancroft house as soon as there’s an opening, that means they’re not wild at all. From where I stand, it seems they’ve got their shit together a whole lot more than you do. These guys in Denver have been an organized pain in the ass for a while. What’re the odds they might also know something about what’s been going on with the rest of the vampires in this country?”
Cole and Rico looked at each other but couldn’t put together an argument strong enough to take Prophet out of his stride.
“Denver’s a big city,” Prophet continued. “What if things go to hell there the way they did in Chicago and Philly? Lots of people could get hurt. Me and Stanley already know where these guys are, and we know some folks to call that’ll tell us when they’re in one place. Wouldn’t that help in surprising them when you kick their doors in? Once you do, you can catch one, make him talk, inject him with whatever, do what you do.”
“What does your boss want with a bunch of bloodsuckers anyway?” Rico asked.
“To you, they’re bloodsuckers,” Prophet replied. “To Liberty Bail Bonds and the Denver PD, they’re tattooed fugitives who don’t like showing up for court dates. They’ve been recruiting from the lowlifes out there, which also happen to be Stanley’s client base. The more of them disappear off the grid, the more money he loses. I’m a shareholder in the business, so I’m losing money too. More than that, they’ve been protecting their interests by attacking our bondsmen. That shit’s gotta stop.”
Reluctantly, Cole admitted, “We do owe this to Velasco for paying our bail when we were locked up.”
“He’s a bail bondsman,” Rico grunted. “That’s what he does for a living.”
“Then we should just pull the money together and pay him back. You got that much on you?”
Looking over to Prophet, Rico said, “Ask Walter over there. He’s the man with the lottery picks.”
“We’ll do it,” Cole said. “First we check up on the Lancroft house to see what’s left there. After that we’ll head on out to Denver. The nymphs will be able to send us out that way, right?”
“I don’t see why not,” Rico said. “But if you think I’m gonna let you take off after Paige on yer own, you got another think comin’. If something did happen to her, the last thing I’ll need is to be forced to track
“You’re right,” Cole admitted. “Paige can handle herself, and she also wanted me to read these journals. I’ll do
