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from the Earth herself. And there'd been a Demon in the mix, fouling the well of power. . . . Anything could have happened, out of that bloody mess.

Apparently, anything had happened. Somehow, Bad Bob had managed to come back.

If he'd ever really been gone at all.

Suddenly, the appearance and rise of the Sentinels was beginning to make sick, deadly sense. Bad Bob was a player; he wanted power, and he'd do anything to anyone to get it. I'd cheated him the first time.

He'd make damn sure that David and I weren't in any position to do it again.

By separating the Wardens from the Djinn, then destroying the Djinn, he could ensure that no one had the resources and strength to fight him when he made his final move. Divide and conquer. A timeless classic.

"He's in Florida," I said. I was sure of it, as sure as I'd ever been of anything in my life. "The bastard's not even hiding, really. This is his old stomping ground. He's got networks of friends and supporters; he feels safe here. That's why we traced the signature to the Keys, and Kissimmee - "

"The beach house." David snapped to his feet.

"What?"

"The beach house. I sensed him. I thought it was just a memory, but - " A pulse of light went through his eyes, turning them pure white. "The signature of the power fits his."

"He's been at the goddamn beach house?" I'd gone inside. I'd searched the house looking for the focus of the wards. Bad Bob must have been out picking up his latest issue of Megalomaniacs Weekly, which was damn lucky for me, because if he'd been there, I'd have been trapped inside the house, with David outside, and Bob could have done anything to me, anything at all. . . .

I couldn't think about that. Not without shaking. I'd been through a lot of trauma in my life, but there was something so slick and calculated about Bad Bob's use of me. . . . It was worse than betrayal. He'd cultivated and trained me specifically to transfer the Demon Mark to me, a cold long-term plan that I'd spoiled by not being quite as weak as he'd anticipated.

You're stronger now, I told myself. But I also remembered the moment in my apartment when Bob had focused all the power of the Sentinels on me, and I'd realized that I wasn't going to be strong enough, in the end.

None of us was going to be strong enough, not alone.

"If he's still at the beach house," David was saying, as if he couldn't see I was melting down, "he won't be there for long. We need to get word to Lewis."

I shook my near-panic off with what I hoped wasn't a visible effort, and focused on the problem at hand. "Contact Rahel. Tell her to get Kevin out of there. I don't want him caught in the middle if we spring a trap. We're screwed if Bad Bob has the contacts in the Wardens that I think he does. He was too well liked, even after the facts started coming out. Too many good people still like him. They wouldn't even think of it as betraying us to do a little under-the-table heads-up to him."

David nodded. "Ortega. I need for you to go to Rahel and give her the message. Tell her to extract Kevin. I don't care what she has to do. I don't care how noisy it is. Just tell the two of them to get out."

"Me?" Ortega looked completely thrown. "But I - "

"It's an emergency," David said, and again, I felt that pulse of command and control. "I'm sorry, I know you don't like to leave this place, but it has to be done."

Ortega looked utterly miserable now. "Can't you go? She won't listen to me. She doesn't even like me - "

"No," David said. "I can't." He didn't explain. Ortega heaved a great sigh, nodded, and blipped away.

David didn't relax. He looked grim and angry, and avoided my eyes.

"Why didn't you go?" I asked. "I mean, I'm grateful. I'm just surprised."

"Because if you're right, and if they have what I think they have, they will be setting a trap," he said. "A trap designed specifically for me. They want to lure me in. I hope that they haven't managed to get everything together yet to spring it. That's why I'm sending Ortega."

"Because they'd be planning to get you."

"The Conduit," he said. "If they can destroy me,