one of their number, then you can jump in to remove protective wards as necessary.”
“And to open the cage to let their shadowkind prisoner out,” Snap piped up.
“Yes, that too,” Omen muttered as if annoyed at the reminder that I would be useful in more than one way. He fixed his stare on me. “Got it?”
“Aye, aye, captain,” I said dryly. I suspected he’d have tried to lock me in the car instead of letting me tag along at all if he’d thought there was any chance that car could hold me for more than a minute. But even he couldn’t deny the value of my immunity to the materials that deflected shadowkind powers.
Just in case I found a good use for it, I picked up one of the mini-golf clubs and swung it experimentally through the air. A little light, but it had decent heft to it. For good measure, I stuffed several of the small but incredibly dense golf balls into the pouches on my belt.
I’d decked myself out in full cat-burglar gear for this operation. If I didn’t move or speak, I’d be nothing but a shadow on the rooftop, even my red hair hidden under the black knit cap. Thank flaming eels the evening was already starting to cool off, or I’d have been a puddle of sweat in a matter of seconds.
Thorn gave me a boost to the edge of the roof, and I scrambled across it to duck down behind one of the fake gables. Peeking over the protruding section, I could make out the edge of the golf course and all of the parking lot.
The shadowkind quartet had discussed their plans in more depth while I’d been chatting with Vivi. As I settled into my position, they vanished into the shadows. From what I’d gathered, they were going to station themselves in a rough circle around the parking lot. The idea was to watch the hand-off long enough to determine the sword-star crew’s usual procedures, and then—unless the squad appeared too well-equipped—charge in, free the shadowkind the collector was selling to them, and snatch one of the sword-star employees for later questioning.
I shifted my position on the clay tiles a few times, my back getting stiff and my shoulder achy from my hunched posture. Every time a car rumbled by through the deepening evening dark, I froze. Finally, a black van that looked like the sort of vehicle used to transport large livestock pulled into the lot. It parked in the far corner where the golf course rubbed up against the warehouse.
Only one figure stepped out—the collector, I assumed. At first glance, he could have passed for an evil-genius supervillain from the type of comic books I was guessing our hacker had read too many of. The dome of his bald, bulbous head shone in the faint light from the far-off streetlamps, and he wore a gray suit with its square collar buttoned right up to his chin. I half expected him to produce a monocle from his chest pocket.
Then I noticed the sheen of perspiration that caught even more of the light than the pale skin of his scalp. The dude might have supervillain fashion aspirations, but super-confident he was not.
It took another ten minutes before a second vehicle growled into the lot: a white delivery truck with a bakery logo painted on the side. A fake business, or another front like the discount toy store the sword-star crew had run some of their operations out of? I made a mental note of the name in case it was the latter.
Five figures emerged from the truck. They wore the silver-and-iron helmets and plated vests that we’d seen before. All shadowkind found one if not both of those metals repellent, but they couldn’t block Thorn’s physical strength or whatever concrete tricks Omen had dreamed up.
One of the figures appeared to have a whip, probably one of those glowing laser-y ones, at his hip, but they weren’t holding any weapons. It looked like they didn’t anticipate dealing with any hostile parties in this transaction.
Exactly as we’d hoped.
The sweaty collector opened the back door to his van. Searing light spilled out—he’d have bright lamps set up all around the cage that must be holding the powerful creature to prevent it from slipping away into the shadows. The sword-star bunch wheeled a container like an oversized gym locker out of the back of their truck and set it facing the van. It looked like they meant