“It’s my job. You think no one notices when a group of weres with an agenda start mobilizing? People are coming.”
“Isn’t that the point?”
“God, you’re thick!” Sam hissed, then smacked Magnus in the chest with the back of his hand. If Sue hadn’t been standing there, Magnus would have pulled it off at the shoulder, then beat Sam to death with it. “They’re coming. This revolution or whatever it is will not get off the ground. Everything’s going to happen here, tonight. Everything’s going to end here, get it? There won’t be a worldwide chain reaction. When the smoke clears, the status quo will still be the status quo.”
“But…” Sue looked stricken. “Some of them are our friends. Yours, too.”
“They were never my friends.”
“You’re not a bear,” Magnus told him. “You’re a vole.”
“I can be both,” he replied, and pushed his glasses up again. “And better a vole than a mass murderer.”
“Barely.”
Chapter 51
Now.
“Fucking traitor is what he was,” Gulo said. “It was a pleasure to pronounce him dead.”
“Um. Gulo? Saying he’s dead doesn’t actually mean he’s dead. You get that, right?”
Gulo waved away the piddling detail of falsifying evidence in a homicide investigation. “He bailed on Sue. And I don’t mean figuratively. If he didn’t die in the crash, then where is he? It’s been days. If he lived, he crawled off somewhere to die like a tabby cat hiding under someone’s porch. Some Stable who thinks shooting herbivores means they’re a Big Bad Hunter will find his bones in a few years and that will be fucking that for Smalls. Both of them.” Gulo smiled at Berne. “I haven’t seen Sue in years. She looked pretty good on my table, all in pieces. What little there was of her.”
“That’s your cue to swing at him,” Oz volunteered, “because, again, Gulo doesn’t do original thoughts. Or subtlety.”
“Aye, lad, I’m aware. Sam wasn’t my favorite person, but he wanted to save lives. And not just ours. It’s not traitorous to stop people from jumping off a cliff.”
“Spoken like the guy who ducked and ran.”
“Yes,” Magnus replied, and Oz had to give it to the guy, he positively radiated dignity. “SAS wasn’t what I thought it was. And when I began to suspect, I should have trusted my instincts and acted right then. Instead, I dithered and hoped our other selves would reveal our better selves. That was a mistake, and people died.”
“So SAS started out fairly benign, then slowly evolved into a thing of unmitigated evil, feeding on itself and growing ever darker.” Annette paused expectantly.
“Go ahead,” Oz sighed. “You know you want to.”
“Just like the Republican party! Wait. Too political? Just like the DMV! Better?”
“For God’s sake,” Mock muttered.
Magnus didn’t even crack a smile.
“I ran to save us. I ran because I finally realized I never had any business being there. I couldn’t set the clock back, there was no way to make it right, but I could learn. O’course, a couple of buildings had to catch fire before I came to that realization.”
“Isn’t that the way it always is?” Annette asked wryly.
Chapter 52
Then.
They were still arguing when the incendiary device blew. They’d had no warning, there’d been no smell of gasoline or chemicals to tip them off. They hadn’t heard ominous ticking that induced them to flee. One minute Sam was exhorting them to get gone, the next a terrific blast and the air was full of projectiles, many of which were on fire. Sue screamed as Magnus lurched toward her, only to get knocked off his feet as Sam threw his ridiculously small body at him.
He rolled to his feet and saw Sam had shoved him out of the way for a reason; the wall where he’d been standing was riddled with holes and smoldering. He’d been so focused on Sue, he’d ignored his own peril. Sue had dropped to her knees, clutching her arm above the wrist; her hand dangled by tendons and bones and not much else.
“Christ, lass!”
“Go!” Sam urged. “There’s more, and—” They all stiffened as the sound of sirens permeated. A lot of them. “It’s not just Shakopee Fire and Rescue. It’s the feds, it’s my bosses, you can’t be here.”
“You come, too,” Sue said tearfully.
“Aye, lad. All three of us need t’go. If the SAS finds out who you’re with, they’ll kill ye.”
“Who, me? Teeny tiny Sam Smalls, whose last name is an accurate joke? I’d never have the brass balls for anything like that. Ask anyone.” He grinned and there was another blast; across the street, another blaze had begun. “By the time they figure it all out, the mess will be swept up, the story will be quashed, and I’ll be safe. So you be safe, too.” He pushed his glasses back up; Magnus had decided it was a tic, since the man’s glasses never seemed to need adjusting. “I know your intentions were good. Both of you. I know you weren’t on board with SAS’s real plan. This doesn’t have to follow you for the rest of your lives.”
“Ridiculous bullshit,” he snarled, because he had a feeling it would follow them. Worse, now he was indebted to the bespectacled bastard.
That brought a smile to Sam’s face, the first one Magnus had seen that day. “You need a better catch phrase.”
“I hate you.”
“Better.” The grin widened. “Get her out of here.”
“I fucking adore it when men talk like I’m not in the room.” This while Sam ripped up part of his shirt and fastened a crude bandage for her wrist. “Cut it out—fuck that hurts!—before I pull my hand the rest of the way off and shove it down your throat.”
Magnus picked her up, thought about all the times he’d wanted to hold her like this, and had new respect for the “be careful what you wish for” cliché.
“Maggie.” He could have smiled at the pure exasperation in her tone. “My legs work fine.”
The sirens were getting ever closer, and people were suddenly everywhere,
