Silver Basilisk - Zoe Chant Page 0,78

unfortunately had come to the rest home for a visit and would not take a hint to leave. But since that particular would-be volunteer was Edna, nearly 100 and not too steady, Godiva didn’t push too hard. She knew Edna would be tickled simply to be asked—and she was.

“Come by again,” Edna cackled. “And bring that handsome fella. I can’t do much beyond look, these days, but my, my, he’s easy on the eyes!”

Rigo stayed right beside Godiva the entire time. The first time she introduced him, it felt odd to be saying, “We’re together now.” But as the afternoon turned into evening she found herself really enjoying introducing him.

But it took time to explain what was going to happen and what to do. Caleb’s team had already learned the typical daily routes of each Cang minion. They matched each of Godiva’s ladies with one target, somewhere near the Cang minion’s daily starting point. And each woman was given a small spray bottle, with quickly printed-and-pasted labels like Bug Repellent and Hand Sanitizer and the like. Each woman was also given Doris’s number to call to report in on success or a need for someone else to make a second pass.

“You’ll smell them coming,” Godiva said to each woman, passing along what Sara had told them, word for word. “This street drug has a very strong smell of eucalyptus. As soon as you whiff it, start spritzing. It will neutralize the drug, and a drug that doesn’t work is a drug nobody will be able to sell.”

It was late when they all met back at Bird and Mikhail’s.

Everyone had been working. Doris supervised the student volunteers who brought batches of antidote the moment they were ready, as Sara and her lab rats made up the bottles that Bird brought to Godiva to distribute to their team of recruits.

Jen, Nikos, and Mikhail cruised, the first two looking for zombies and Mikhail on a silent hunt for Cang. If the plan was to go down the next morning, Cang had to be somewhere near. Mikhail found the house that the charm had been sent to completely empty, and a fast internet search revealed that the house was actually owned by people currently living overseas. Cang had obviously broken in and used the place for an interim lair.

So Mikhail went hunting in his dragon form, but found no sign of Cang. The red dragon had to be sticking to his human form, which made him more difficult to sense unless the other mythic shifters were very close by.

But the red dragon was nowhere to be found.

Late at night everyone broke up to rest before meeting again at the bakery in the morning. Linette had been told that there was a group planning to clean up the beaches, after meeting at her place to start the day with goodies and coffee.

Rigo drove Godiva and himself back to her place. By then her eyelids were drooping. As she got ready for bed, she sought for words to ask if he wanted to sleep with her or have a bed to himself, but before she could find them he smiled her way, question in his eyes—and within seconds, she lay with his arms around her.

I could get used to this, she thought sleepily. Then her eyes flew open.

Get used to it where?

She heard Rigo’s breath deepening, and told herself firmly: tomorrow.

But it was still on her mind when the alarm went off. Once again they had to rush the shower (there will be time for hanky panky in my gorgeous bathroom, Godiva promised herself) and then dressed. Godiva chose a tunic top that was bland in color, sturdy, with deep pockets, into one of which she stashed her ‘air sanitizer.’

“Ready?” Rigo asked, holding out his hand.

She took it, and struck a pose, saying, “Make my day. No. Wait. You’re supposed to say that to villains. What other thing do badasses say? Let’s do this.”

Rig chuckled as they moved quickly through the silent house.

It was just barely light, as the targets were supposed to converge on Joey’s watchers at the Oracle Stone site around seven a.m., before the tired night shift guarding the place went home, and the day shift appeared.

At twenty to seven, Godiva and Rigo reached Linette’s diner. Rigo opened the door, from which wafted the smells of coffee and . . . cleaning fluid?

The two walked in to discover chaos. The other members of the Gang of Four and their mates were righting furniture.