I felt a wave of cold numbness flow over me. What she said made too much sense, and I had been shying away from the same conclusion.
I worked through the implications in my head. “Akiyama must think that they won the Rifter War, and when they gain ascendancy over the other Families, they can subjugate the demons again,” I said.
“You know, your father would be proud,” Mom said. “That sounds about right, which proves that you’re smarter than the Akiyama leadership. I wouldn’t bet the demon lords learned nothing from the last war. Ashvial is at least as smart as any human I’ve ever met. If any of the Families are betting that way, then they’re idiots.”
“You need to talk to Olivia,” I said. “Mom, I can’t just bug out. Findlay saw this coming, and they want me to leave the police force and work for them. They need a magitek. And if we’re right, then the Fae aren’t going to be able to passively watch. They’re going to have to take sides.”
I heard her snort. “Good luck convincing them of that. They’ll have to be dragged kicking and screaming into this mess. You know that there’s a picture of an elven queen next to the definition of ‘arrogant’ in the dictionary.”
“And pictures of Frank Novak, George Findlay, Akiyama Benjiro, and Ashvial right next to it.”
Peals of laughter were her response. When she stopped chuckling, she said, “I’ll call Olivia. You take care of yourself, okay? You’re not invulnerable, and you’re the only kid your father sired. The one thing Olivia and I ever agreed on is that we don’t want you ending the bloodline. Before you go to hell in a blaze of glory, we want an heir. Capisce?”
“Geez, just when I think we’re on the same page, you go and pull a mother on me.”
“You bet. Take care of yourself, and if you need a place to hide, or to stash Kirsten, I’m here.”
I didn’t tell her that getting pregnant was the least of my concerns. It had been a long time since anyone volunteered to take a stab at it, so to speak.
I got up and went into the kitchen to grab the cup of coffee Kirsten had poured for me.
“Mom says that if things get too weird here in the city, you can stay with her,” I said.
She shook her head. “I’ll keep it in mind, but I don’t want to abandon all the plants in my greenhouses. It’s taken me years to cultivate some of them to the point where they’re economically viable.”
“Well, don’t go downtown today. The situation isn’t exactly stable.”
Kirsten rolled her eyes, then without a word, switched on the media screen. I watched for about fifteen minutes, then reached over, and turned it off. Unstable was an understatement. The rescue operation at the Palace was continuing. The rioting downtown had intensified overnight, though the streets cleared when the sun came up.
And then there was the demon army marching north. The police estimated fifteen hundred demons had come through, and they added to their strength with denizens of the Waste. The reports of slaughter were bad enough, but they were also taking a lot of human captives.
I wolfed down a quick breakfast and called Olivia. From Findlay’s perspective, things had gone from bad to worse. They were hiring mercenaries and were negotiating a formal alliance with Novak.
She finished her update with, “Dani, wind up your business with the police. We need you.”
Kirsten came into my room while I got dressed. “Who profits from blowing up the Palace of Commerce?” she asked. “All this chaos happening at once can’t be coincidence. The guy on the newscast said no one has figured out what set off the riots. A demon invasion through the Rift? I mean, that’s happened maybe twice in our lifetime.”
“All good questions,” I said. “Mychal and I speculated yesterday that a lot of what we were seeing was distraction, but distraction from what? And this is only the tip of the iceberg. My grandmother told me Findlay has been attacked all over the world.”
Kirsten shrugged. “Don’t you detective types have some kind of mantra about ‘follow the money?’”
I stopped what I was doing and thought. The records at the Palace were duplicated at three other locations—Prague, Nanjing, and Buenos Aires, so little would actually be lost. Families and corporations headquartered in other parts of the world would be only slightly inconvenienced. But those Families headquartered in North America would experience significant disruption.
Then there were the Rifter riots, which were happening not only in the Mid-Atlantic Metro, but in Atlanta, Vancouver, and Detroit, accompanied by a demon army in the Mid-Atlantic. If Akiyama and Ashvial were allied, it made some sense. How much would Akiyama have to pay for that kind of help?
I went to my computer and jacked into the datanet. I already knew the paths into both the Akiyama and Ashvial bank accounts, so it didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for. There were some recent transfers from Akiyama to Ashvial, but not large enough to buy his allegiance. The subsequent expenditures led me to conclude that Ashvial was probably funding the riots.
A thought struck me, and I called Osiris. When he answered, I asked, “When was Akiyama Benjiro last in North America?”
“Just a minute.” I waited for two minutes. “May of last year,” Osiris said. “He was in Vancouver for a week. Why?”
“And the last time in the Mid-Atlantic?”
“Oh, hell, it’s been several years. Definitely not since he assumed the Family leadership.”
“But you didn’t know Hiroku was here.”
“Hiroku is different. I can’t track every member of Akiyama’s leadership.”
“Thanks, Osiris.” I hung up.
Ashvial told me Johansson sold Sarah Benning to Benjiro. Either Ashvial had lied to me, which wouldn’t be a shock, or I had drawn the wrong conclusion when he told me that.
I finished dressing and gathered an assortment of toys and weapons, loading them
