was a moment's pause. Overhead, a bird rattled and took wing. Chogyi Jake nodded.
"It would take time," he said. "And there is a wooden chest in the London townhouse that would be... very useful."
"Okay. So magical stuff from London and a place to use it. Check. Karen? Did you have a place in mind for the safe house?"
"I don't," she said. "I was torn between having something here in or very close to New Orleans and taking Sabine entirely out of the picture."
"Okay," I said, "tell me about that. What are the issues?"
The sly smile bloomed into laughter.
"You are Eric's family, aren't you?" she said. "All right. On the one hand, this is Glapion's territory. She knows the city, and the rider has power here. On the other hand, if we send Sabine out of the city, someone has to go to guard her. Also... well, I didn't work many kidnapping cases, but the common wisdom at Quantico was that most of the abductees that escape do it when they're in transit. There are a lot of variables in moving people around, especially when they don't want to be moved."
"Yeah, I can see that. Okay, so that's job one."
"And transportation," Ex said. "Aubrey's right. We need something to move the girl in once we have her. Unless we're taking the kid on the bus."
"Do we have a good way to put wards on a van?" I asked.
"I'll look into it," Chogyi Jake said.
"All right," I said. "How about this. Chogyi gets in touch with the property manager in London and gets whatever we need shipped out here. Karen? You've been local. Can you and Ex arrange the transportation?"
"Sure," Karen said. I had the feeling that her amusement was tempered with respect, and the idea warmed me a little. The truth was I was showing off, taking charge like I was the Godfather. It wasn't how I usually operated.
"If I'm buying something off the lot, I'll need the Darth Vader card," Ex said, meaning my American Express Black.
"Too showy," I said. "We don't really want to be memorable. You guys scout it out. If it's cheap enough to do out of petty cash, just grab it. If we need something new, I'll have the lawyers make the purchase through a shell corporation."
"Right," Ex said. "I'll need a way to go shopping in the first place. Should we take the rental?"
"I'll drive," Karen said. "I know a chop shop that sells a lot of gray-market cars."
I nodded, gratified that Karen was going along with my plan.
"Aubrey and I can hit the real estate sites, do some driving, see what we can find for a safe house."
I pulled my cell phone out of my pack and checked the time. Three thirty, local. In Athens, it was pushing midnight. I felt fine at the moment, but experience suggested that I had maybe four more hours before jet lag kicked in. After that, I'd have about three working neurons, max.
"We don't have a lot of time," I said. "How about we do what we can between now and seven o'clock. Then meet back at the hotel, compare notes?"
Aubrey raised his hand like a kid in a classroom.
"You were attacked by a very powerful rider a little over an hour ago," he said. "Are you sure we should scatter out in all directions?"
I hesitated. The rational, thoughtful part of my mind saw the point, and I had to admit it was a good one. But it also took apart everything I'd just proposed. I was not going to be humiliated in front of Karen.
"I think we can handle ourselves," I said.
"I agree," Karen said. "If a captain's highest aim was to preserve his ship, he'd keep it in port forever."
Ex looked across the table at Karen like he'd just seen her for the first time. I felt an uneasy warmth in my chest that might have been pride or fear or something made from both.
"Okay," I said. "Let's get to it, shall we?"
Back at the hotel, I called the lawyer while Aubrey got online and poked through real estate websites advertising rentals and houses for sale. The best balance of seclusion and proximity we found was a place in Pearl River, about forty-five minutes away. I printed up directions and tossed Aubrey the keys to the minivan. Twenty minutes later, we were on I-10, passing the Irish Bayou Lagoon and heading out over the wide, empty water of Lake Pontchartrain.