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Wolfe was ready for the action to get started. He couldn’t wait to get his house back. Fain’s ex-girlfriend showed up late Friday morning at the Guild House. They’d all agreed to spend the day there, even though you couldn’t go into the living room since the window wasn’t sealed properly and let a crack of light in. Someone had come and replaced the carpet since they shot that guy from Seabingen. It had the off-gassing plastic smell of new carpet and the musty dampness of joint compound. They were in the dining room, huddled around a glass-topped octagonal table that looked like it had been rescued from an alley. The kitchen smelled of greasy takeout burritos and that weird not-quite-human smell of Fain’s ex-girlfriend. She looked exhausted.
“Okay, here’s our situation.” Fain spread out the blueprints of the house on the table. He brought out a second map showing the property and overlaid a thin acetate sheet over top of that, which had the Levantine ward overlaid in a circle, and the electric fence in a rectangle. “Here’s the front door. There’s a closet just off the master bedroom. As you can see, the closet is in the absolute center of the ward, so Sorrow said it would most likely be there.”
“Does the closet have a door that locks?” Melbourne asked, turning to Wolfe.
“Yeah,” he said. “Just one of those simple privacy locks.”
“But you have that telekinesis,” Fain said. “You can unlock doors with your mind.”
“No, sir, I do not have telekinesis. Stuff gets unlocked or locked inconveniently. I have never, ever been able to control it.”
“How long will it take you to disable the ward?” the Spider asked as she handed Melbourne a cloth sack secured with snaps.
“Fifteen, twenty minutes?” Melbourne undid the snaps and peered in the sack.
“Once you’ve disabled the ward, you’re going to hide in the house until it’s dark.”
Melbourne shook her head. “Disabling the ward is going to make a lot of noise. I’m basically going to be chiseling stone. They will know I’m there. Even invisible, there’s no way they’re not going to find me, and I don’t like the idea of being trapped in a house, in the dark, with angry vampires. How about I wait until the repairman leaves and do it as close to dusk as possible? What’s your drop-dead time to have the ward down?”
Fain looked at the Spider.
“Sun sets at seven twenty-three,” she said. “We need to have the plan completely executed by eight thirty. That’s when the wi-fi will come back on.”
“As soon as I start pounding away on that rock, they’re gonna come barreling in there to kill me.”
“Chewing gum,” the Spider said. “Lock the door, then put the gum in the outside. Then they can’t unlock it.”
“Does the door open inward or outward?” Kit asked Wolfe.
Wolfe couldn’t remember. “Outward.”
“Well, that will make it harder to kick in.” Melbourne shook her head. “It’s still gonna be dangerous.”
“You have a smart phone?” the Spider asked. “Medina will show you how to log in to the house system. When you’re done with the ward, you can signal to us by flicking the porch lights on and off and we’ll start stage three. I think that will take us only fifteen minutes. Can you hide for fifteen minutes?”
“I guess I’ll have to,” Melbourne said. “Do we know how many are in there?”
“Three. Eric, Crispin and Stephanie,” Wolfe said, and described them for her.
“The human security guards—” Fain began.
“Sean and Joey,” Wolfe said.
Fain continued, shooting a look of irritation at Wolfe. “—the human security guards leave at dusk. It’s going to take us a minimum of twenty minutes to get there after the sun goes down. Try to hold off destroying the ward until at least half an hour after sundown to be safe. Medina is going to remotely control the cameras to make sure that they don’t see Kit enter the building. She’ll also do reconnaissance to let us know what’s happening. That will only last until she’s able to shut down the wi-fi, which will happen once the Spider gives the signal that she’s ready for her stage. Medina, Kaltenbach, the Spider and I will have walkie talkies to communicate with each other.”
“Why not just use your phones?” Wolfe asked.
“Because you and Kaltenbach are going to climb the cell phone tower and disable the power so that Eric can’t call for help or worse, call the police. That’s the last thing we need.”
“Do I get a walkie talkie?” Wolfe asked.
“Budget only extended to four, and you’ll be with Kaltenbach.” Fain pointed at the stables. “Spider, you have the hardest job. You have to shut off all the power in the house except for the power to the air handling units. Then you will take the cover off the intake so that you can flood the house with tear gas.”
Melbourne peered into the sack. “That explains this.”
“There are quite a few variables we haven’t been able to test, so we don’t actually know how long it will take to fill the house with tear gas, or how many canisters it will take to get the saturation level to a point where they’re compelled to leave. Once they come out, we shoot Crispin and Stephanie.”
“Don’t kill Stephanie,” Wolfe said. “She’s innocent.”
Fain rolled his eyes. “Okay, we won’t kill Stephanie.”
“Shoot Crispin on sight,” the Spider said. “In the head. Twice, and then sever his head. And then bury him at a crossroads with a wooden stake in his heart.”
“I’ll take care of Eric,” Fain said. “I want him to know who did this.”
“And then I go back into my house and invite the rest of you in,” Wolfe said. “Sounds like a plan, Sire.”
And after that, the next part of his plan would be to order Medina to get Fain into the master bedroom, which had a secret passage entranceway through which he could sneak and shoot Fain in the head when Fain was busy with Medina. And Fain would be busy with her. Wolfe had seen the goo goo eyes she’d been making at him. Kind of gross, actually. Wasn’t he like a hundred and thirty years older than her? What a pervert.