L’zar pursed his lips. “Hmm.”
“Well then, let’s go meet the super-agents, huh?” Snickering, Persh’al walked around his computer table, slinging a huge, heavy-looking square bag over his shoulder as he headed for the front door of the warehouse. He patted the hard-case bag thumping against his thigh. “Got this baby up and running, but I can’t do shit until I get those access badges and a few other pieces. No one cares about the details. Got it.”
Bright sunlight and crisp fall air streamed into the warehouse when the blue troll pushed open the door. The group of rebel magicals followed him out to his black SUV in the cracked, uneven parking lot overgrown with weeds.
Ember snorted. “Anyone else notice the Rebelmobile looks a lot like the FRoE wagon?”
“Ha. Good one.” Lumil slapped the fae girl on the shoulder and brushed past her toward the SUV.
Blinking in surprise, Ember flicked her hand at the goblin. A burst of purple light bloomed on Lumil’s back and shoved her into the side of the vehicle with a hollow thump.
“Hey! Who the hell thinks it’s a good idea to start with the—” Lumil spun and found no one behind her. Byrd burst out laughing and pointed at Ember. “You too, fae?”
“If you’re gonna hit people like it’s no big deal, goblin, don’t get pissed when someone hits you back. It’s no big deal.”
“Uh-huh. You’re gettin’ too big for your little magical britches, my friend.”
Ember grinned. “There’s a lot more where that came from.”
Cheyenne leaned in and murmured, “I knew there was a reason you and I are friends.”
“Oh, you’re just now figuring that out?” Ember snorted. “Excellent.”
The other magicals piled into the car, Persh’al behind the wheel, L’zar up front in the passenger seat. Corian pulled Byrd back by the collar when the goblin man moved to climb into the very back row of seats with Lumil. “Uh-uh. I’m not driving anywhere in a car where the two of you are sitting next to each other.”
“You know you could say please instead of jerking me all over the place by my shirt, right?” Byrd ripped his collar out of Corian’s grasp and tugged down the sides of his jean jacket. “Jeeze.”
Corian shoved his face up into Byrd’s. “Please and thank you.” Then he climbed into the back seat after Lumil and stared straight ahead while Maleshi climbed in beside him.
Cheyenne, Ember, and Byrd sat in the middle row, and they made sure to keep the goblins on opposite sides of the car.
Chapter Seventy-One
The drive to the location Rhynehart had texted to Cheyenne only took them twenty minutes. Persh’al rolled the SUV to a stop and parked it beside a nearly identical black vehicle behind a maintenance building five minutes from the prison grounds. “Pros and cons of living in DC, right? Chateau D’rahl’s just a jump away, but everyone’s driving around in the same car.”
Cheyenne laughed as she stepped out of the vehicle and pulled the back of the middle seat forward to let the others out. “Hey, at least we won’t have any problem passing us all off as FRoE agents, huh?”
He snorted. “Says the halfling who doesn’t have to play dress-up. And half of us aren’t even going in, so don’t blow it out of proportion.”
“Still, it’s convenient camouflage.” Cheyenne folded her arms and watched Rhynehart and his agents hopping out of their SUV. “At least it’s not an orange Kia Rio.”
Rhynehart smiled as he caught the conversation. “Honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t seen that car anywhere else around town.”
She laughed. “That’s probably because Sir drives a beige Camry.”
He stared at her. “Where does he keep it?”
“Not at home. I can tell you that much.”
“As fun as it is to watch you two talk about something with zero significance to our current objective…” L’zar gave them a fake smile and gestured at Rhynehart’s SUV.
The team leader cleared his throat. “Right. On task. Bhandi.”
“Quit naggin’ me, man. I got it.”
The troll woman grunted at the open back of the FRoE SUV and stalked over to the others with a pile of gear in her arms.
Cheyenne almost laughed out loud at Rhynehart’s startled expression. “You let her talk to you like that all the time?”
“As far as I know, that’s the only way she talks to anyone.”
“Yeah, that’s the impression I got too.”
“Here.” Bhandi chucked a dampening vest at Corian’s face and slung one at L’zar, then eyed the others and shrugged. “Guess this one’s for me. And you two are gonna have to wear a mask. You cool with that?”
As the troll woman tugged the vest on, Corian and L’zar studied theirs with barely concealed amusement. Lumil and Byrd cracked up.
“Are you kidding me?” Lumil thumped the side of Persh’al’s SUV with a fist.
“Hey.”
She ignored the blue troll and pointed at Corian and L’zar. “You think those dinky little vests are gonna do anything those two can’t do with their hands tied behind their backs?”
“Oh, shit.” Byrd fought to catch his breath. “Man, I can’t wait to see you boppin’ around in one of those, L’zar.”
The drow thief extended his dampening vest pinched between his fingers and looked it over. “Indeed.”
“Those two,” Rhynehart said, strapping on his own vest, “have to pass as FRoE agents. All of whom, by the way, wear these vests.”
“And by mask, I’m assuming you mean a human illusion,” Corian added, inspecting his own vest.
“Yeah.” Rhynehart glanced at Bhandi, who shrugged. “That’s what our magical agents tend to call it, and we don’t assign magical agents to patrol Chateau D’rahl.”
“Ha!” Lumil smacked her hands together. “You guys have to pretend to be puny human FRoE agents who think they stand a chance against—” She burst out laughing. “Against real magic!”
Rhynehart scowled at the goblin. “You know what? This gear’s held up fine for the last twenty-one years.”
Byrd chuckled, shooting Lumil a fleeting glance and stepping sideways as she flailed around in hysterics. “Yeah, against criminals and random O’gúleesh
