Cheyenne strapped herself in and studied him as the agent pulled the Jeep out of the parking lot. “I think ‘rookie’ has lost its charm at this point.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll let you know when something catchy comes to me.” He snorted, then nodded at the black sleeping mask on the dash. “Put that back on.”
“Are you serious right now?”
“Rules are rules. But I’ll put in a good word after this and see what we can do about changing them.”
It’s a start, at least. The halfling snatched up the mask and pulled it over her head. Then she had to listen to Rhynehart calling whoever at the FRoE compound to bring in the big guns and send a whole team to Ranzig Ca’admar’s address. “We’ll be there in twenty. No, I seriously doubt the sonofabitch is keeping over two dozen kids in his damn house, but whoever gets there first goes in first. Bag the fucker if he’s home. If not, turn the place upside-down and find us what we’re looking for. Yeah, that’s right.”
He dropped his cell phone into his lap and let out a long, slow breath as the Jeep took them away from Chateau D’rahl on a route Cheyenne couldn’t see.
“I know this is the guy,” the halfling muttered. “We’ll find those kids through him.”
“Yeah, I agree. And I’d bet my left nut he’s the same magical smuggling all Q’orr’s shit off Rez 38.” The agent slapped a hand down on the steering wheel again while the half-drow sat beside him, straight-backed and blinded by the sleeping mask. “You know what I just can’t get over?”
“No idea.” Cheyenne shrugged. “It could be anything.”
“I’m serious. How the hell did the little chat with L’zar help you figure all that out? That wasn’t a real conversation.”
It didn’t have to be. The halfling folded her arms and leaned back. “It’s a drow thing.”
“Yeah, that’s a top-notch answer.”
“It’s the only answer you’re gonna get.”
Fifteen minutes later, Rhynehart’s phone sliced through the silence in the Jeep. Cheyenne heard the man jump in his seat before his hand found the cell phone and he brought it to his ear. “What do you have? Uh-huh. Shit. Good work, Presley. Yeah, we’ll be there. Hey, no one goes in until I’m on-site, you got it? Asses in seats and everything. Damn right, she’ll be there.”
The phone dropped back into his lap, then the Jeep took a startlingly tight left turn. Cheyenne braced herself against the passenger-side door and hissed, “Who taught you to drive?”
“You can take the mask off, rookie. Change of plans.”
The halfling didn’t miss a beat. She jerked the mask off her head, blinking against the evening sunlight. It was just before sunset.
“My guys went by the goblin’s house. Didn’t find him, but they found some pretty incriminating emails, the way Presley told it. New address, new objective.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Rhynehart shot her a quick glance and nodded. “We’re goin’ in to get those kids. Right now.”
When they pulled up at a huge three-story house, Cheyenne’s jaw almost dropped. Seven FRoE vehicles had parked in a line down the street, and every single agent had followed their orders.
“Yeah, asses in seats. Good.” Rhynehart reached into the back seat and picked up another dampening vest before dropping it into the halfling’s lap. “You know the drill.”
“Yep.” Cheyenne slipped it on and waited for Rhynehart to get out of the Jeep before she followed.
He moved quickly to the back and pulled out his dampening vest, gloves, and helmet, then closed it and moved up the line of black vehicles toward what was almost a mansion. Rhynehart thumped the door of each vehicle he passed, and the agents inside got out quickly and quietly, already geared up in their dampening armor and with weapons at the ready. They opened the trunks to pull out one giant fell rifle after another, and then nearly thirty FRoE agents were storming up toward the house as a single swift, deadly unit.
Cheyenne caught sight of Yurik as he fastened a utility belt around his waist, loaded with the same round devices Rhynehart had used to pepper the drow halfling in the padded training room. She stopped and waited for him to step onto the sidewalk before he jammed his helmet onto his head and fell in line with the others. “No cannons today?”
“Working on a new commission, I guess.” Yurik shrugged. “Jamal had the last two.”
“Great.”
“Don’t sweat it, Cheyenne.” Bhandi pulled her helmet out from under her arm and nodded at the halfling before pulling the thing over her head. “Fell cannons aren’t the only things that can take down an ogre anymore, are they?”
She and Yurik chuckled, then they unholstered the fell pistols from their hips, and Yurik handed the troll woman fell grenades from his belt.
The beefy goblin nudged Cheyenne in the shoulder. “Better gear up too, huh?”
“What?’
Bhandi smacked a hand against her helmet. “We need a drow. She better show up before we get inside.”
As they stormed toward the house, the first agents in line running up the steps to the front door, Cheyenne tried to pull up her drow form. Then she glanced down at the pendant hanging from the chain and grunted. Gotta pick my poison. This has to go. She reached back to unclasp the chain just as the first few FRoE agents knocked down the front door. Shouts and brilliant flashes of green and purple light rose from inside, and her fingers just wouldn’t do their job.
Snarling, the halfling yanked on the chain and pulled it free. The purple-gray skin and bone-white hair of her drow form took over before she stuffed the Heart of Midnight pendant into her jacket pocket, and then she was running up the front steps beside two FRoE agents she knew a lot better after last night. I trust
