“We need eyes inside the building,” I said. Colin and Amanda had joined us at Nori’s place, and we all sat around working on a plan to rescue Wakumi. “Amanda, can your hacker friend tap into the video cameras on site?”
She shook her head. “He’s not available right now. He’s pulling a job for a client in Boulder.”
“We need to know where in the building they’re holding Wakumi.”
“Are you worried about the ninja?” Colin asked.
“I don’t mind killing ninja,” I said. “I do mind them killing Wakumi.”
“You’re really going to kill them?” Colin asked. “They’re just people doing their jobs.”
“And their job will be to kill us and to kill Wakumi if we get too close. So they should have chosen a less dangerous profession.”
He seemed surprised, but he shook it off. “If we can’t tap into their cameras, maybe we can fly in our own.”
“How do you propose to do that?” Nori asked.
“I have a UAV. It’s a quadcopter. A drone with a live video feed to my iPad or phone, and I’m pretty good with it.”
“Too big and too loud,” I said. “They’d see it and smack it out of the air.”
“How about a camera from an iPhone?” Amanda asked.
“You want to fly a phone in? How?”
“Not the whole phone. Just the camera. They’re small. With some simple magic I could have it send a signal to all of us.”
“You can use magic as a power source?” Colin asked.
Amanda nodded.
“That’s amazing.”
“It’s child’s play.”
“Okay,” I said. “I like that idea. Do we have an extra phone?”
“Goro had an iPhone,” Nori said. “You can use it.”
“Does anyone here know how to remove a camera from an iPhone?” I asked.
Pat grinned. “I’ll bet there are videos on YouTube about that.”
“You’re elected,” I said.
Nori nodded. “Hop to it, Pat.”
“We still have a problem,” Amanda said. “The building is too close to DGI. If I go using magic there, they’ll send wizards over to stop us.”
“They’re greedy bastards,” I said. “If you convince them it has nothing to do with them, I’ll bet they’ll sell us a permit as long as they don’t know I’m involved.”
“They might. I’ll have to go over there in person to get it, though. They’ll want to know what we’re doing.”
Nori shrugged. “Tell them it’s surveillance on Crimson Moon Imports.”
“Crimson Moon?”
“Hey, I didn’t name it. Blame Shinobi’s boss.”
“What’s his name?”
“Her name.”
Amanda nodded her approval. “Cool.”
Nori gave her a funny look.
“What?” she said. “It’s nice to hear that women are climbing the supervillain corporate ladder. That’s a tough glass ceiling to break.”
“All right,” I said. “Go get that permit. If you need money, Nori will give you a credit card.”
“I will?”
I stared at him.
He nodded. “I will.” He pulled a billfold from his pocket, yanked out a MasterCard and handed it to her. “No shopping sprees.”
“Aww,” Amanda said. “You’re such a spoilsport.”
“I’ll walk you to your car,” I said.
“Sounds good,” Amanda said.
When we were outside next to Cecil, her beat up Honda, I said, “I expect things to go south at some point.”
“They always do,” Amanda said.
I took out my gun, checked the load.
“Silver bullets?” Amanda asked.
“A simple precaution.” I held the Colt out to her.
“I hate guns,” she said, shaking her head.
“I hate werewolves. Take the damn gun, Amanda. If this goes the way I expect, I won’t be able to take it in with me.”
“But Nori will opt for a direct attack.”
“I’ll lead him to a plan that might work. Bring the gun with you when you come.”
She hesitated, but took it. “The things I do for you.”
I smiled at her and returned to the house.
“Everything all right?” Nori asked when I closed the door.
“Peachy keen. Where were we?”
“Strategizing.”
We discussed where we’d keep Wakumi if we were in charge. The building was fourteen floors with a height of 177 feet and change. We knew how many rooms there were. We could tell you the number of parking spaces there. What we could not say was where they’d have Wakumi or how many ninja would be there to protect her. Or kill her if anyone got close.
That was the part that worried me, so it was time to lead him toward my idea.
“Every plan you’ve concocted involves us fighting through all these ninja,” I said. “There’s a reason most movies and TV shows avoid this, and it has nothing to do the budget. There’s simply no way to get through all those men before one of them drives a sword through Wakumi’s heart.”
“There’s no way to sneak in, so a direct assault gives us at least a minor chance.”
“This isn’t a Jason Statham movie. They’ll kill her before we get close. We need to do the obvious thing,” I said.
“No. You are not taking Ichiro to them,” Nori said.
“It’s the only way to get close enough to Wakumi to save her. It has the added bonus of keeping your men alive.”
“My men are warriors prepared to lay down their lives if necessary.”
“I know all samurai walk into battle as if they’re already dead. My point is that they don’t have to die.”
“It would be better if we all died in a frontal attack than to let Ichiro fall into their hands. He can’t hold off the change.”
“I know that, too.” I pointed at Ichiro. “Can you tell me how it feels when the moon is coming up and the change is coming on?”
He hesitated. “Even now I can feel it calling to me,” he said.
“You look calm.”
“The moon does not rise until 7:22,” he said. “I can maintain my composure until then.”
“Shinobi knows the time of the moonrise, too.”
“Of course,” Nori said.
“So let me ask a different question.” I grinned at Ichiro. “You’re working so hard to maintain your calm and remain human, but you’ll lose that ability when the moon rises.”
“I do not hear a question,” Ichiro said.
“You’re always fighting to keep things under control, but what would happen if you give in to the rage?”
“I do not understand,” he said.
“Can you bring on the change before the moon rises?”