an opportunity to waste. Besides, one of the things I hated, hated about Pithica’s people was the way they made me feel helpless. Like I couldn’t make any move if they might be there to counter me … it made me want to boil into a hurricane of rage, show them I could be a goddamn threat. I wasn’t going to become a mewling coward around them. I had Simon, and I could place my bets on him and take a chance for a win.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m sure.”
I checked my weapons—my Colt and the Vector I still had from the venture to rescue Arthur. Then I backed up the car so it wouldn’t be visible to anyone peeling out of the ranch, and we got out.
“If we run into any of Teplova’s people, or the dogs, your job is to start talking very fast,” I said. “If we run into Dawna or someone like her, you’ve got the lead. Otherwise, don’t distract me.”
“Cas, I can’t guarantee I’m going to be … strong enough. Especially if—”
“We’ll try not to face anyone directly,” I conceded. “But you’re the only telepath we’ve got, and I’m not passing on a shot like this.”
I broke into a jog, and he swallowed any other doubtful protests to hurry after me.
The layout here was burned into my brain from Oscar’s memories. We were coming in at an angle to the lane, and we would hit the barn and outbuildings before the ranch house itself. Right now, the buildings were only shapes in the dark, but lights shone from between the barn and the ranch house—outside halogens of some sort. A large cube truck partially blocked our view of what the activity was.
But as we got closer, shouts and barks echoed through the night.
Barking. And growling.
My skin crawled, already anticipating the rabid fear.
I held up a hand to halt Simon as we approached the first of the outbuildings, and tried to listen without getting distracted, even as the all-too-familiar feeling began tugging at me to cringe into a hole and quiver. I hoped Simon didn’t see my shaky relief when I realized what was happening—although, of course he did, the bastard.
“They’re loading up the animals for transport,” I said. “It’s unlikely to be anyone from Pithica, then. Just people drugged up enough not to be affected. That means we can take them and interrogate them.” Oscar’s memories had revealed how anyone handling the dogs got close—take something mind-altering enough to make yourself unable to be properly afraid, and apparently that did the trick.
Of course, it also meant whoever was down there would not be the most cooperative.
I glanced back at Simon. He gave me a rapid nod. I took a second look at his face and tried to ignore how glassy his eyes were, how shallow his breath was.
I’d bullied him into this, but he’d have told me if he wasn’t up for it, wouldn’t he?
“I’m okay,” he said, as if he could feel my doubts. “I—I think it’s a bad idea, but—I’m okay. I think.”
Unless his judgment was impaired …
But I had to make the call. If he wasn’t fighting telepathic humans, only the dogs—that would be okay, right? He could handle that.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” I said. “Whenever they’re done loading or unloading or whatever they’re doing—they have to drive out of here. I’ll take them down as they come up the lane. The dogs will have to be shut up at that point.” They’d be locked either back in the barn or in the truck itself, if they happened to be the cargo.
Fuck, depending on how many dogs they were transporting—what were they planning with them? No, we definitely had to go in now.
Simon nodded again and wrapped his arms around himself. We waited in the dark.
We were still too far away to hear the shouts, but I thought I counted two voices. Two humans. That was fine. That was easy.
Simon had started fidgeting.
“Quit it,” I whispered. “I’m trying to concentrate.”
Doors slammed across the yard. They must be getting set to go. We wanted to take them alive, I reminded myself. For questioning. Even if it was D.J. himself, interrogation would be smartest. I’d give them to Rio this time and damn the consequences.
The lights changed as someone turned half of them off. A human voice hollered. The sound of chains rattling. A dog barked, apart from the rest of the clamor, echoing against its surroundings. Not all the animals were shut up yet.
The