The ringing of his phone woke Daisuke from a sound sleep. A glance at the window confirmed that it wasn’t even daylight yet. He groped around in the dark until his hand fell on the nightstand and his phone.
“Yeah?”
“Sorry to call so early,” the boss said. “But Helena finally woke. I’ve got good news and bad news.”
“That’s rare. Usually you just have bad news. Let me have it.”
“Good news is, Helena’s going to make a full recovery, though she’ll be out of the field for at least another week.”
“That’s certainly better than the alternative. And the bad news?”
“She said two agents attacked her. One a wizard and the other a highly skilled martial artist. The wizard was a man, late thirties or early forties, dark skin, and dressed in an all-black suit. The fighter was an Asian woman. Sounds like he specializes in support magic and she handles direct confrontations. We’ve got nothing in any of our files about Blood of Solomon agents matching their description.”
Daisuke sat up, thoughts of more sleep long gone. “When you have bad news you don’t screw around. Are they actually Blood agents or do you think a third party is interested in the prison?”
“I wish I knew. Assume third party until you know for sure one way or the other.”
“Right.” He ran a hand through his sleep-rumpled hair. “What are the odds of getting some backup out here?”
“If the matter isn’t settled in a week, I can send Helena, but other than her, everyone’s committed.” The boss sounded as tired as he felt.
“We need more people.”
“Yes, but it’s not like I can just go down to the employment agency and hire them. I can’t even hire technical staff that way. We let one wrong person into the Circle and it could jeopardize every agent in the field.”
“I know, I know. Can you at least tell me which demon I’m dealing with should the worst happen?”
“Sorry, Daisuke. Helena didn’t get a good enough look at the symbol to memorize it, so I can’t look it up.”
“Grand. Anything else?”
“Just my wish that you have good luck.”
“I’ll take all I can get. Go to bed, boss. You sound like hell.”
“Precisely my plan. Call me tonight no matter what.”
“Will do.” He disconnected and flopped back down on the pillow.
So he either had two Blood agents to worry about or two unknown third-party players and potentially a different Blood agent that no one knew about. Daisuke had been dealt some shitty hands since he took this job, but this one was right up there with the worst.
He put his phone back on the nightstand and flicked the lamp switch. Squinting against the glare, he rolled out of bed and dug the room service menu out of the drawer.
“You want waffles or pancakes?”
“Yes,” Ruq said. The imp had shifted back to his preferred rat form and climbed up on the bed.
Daisuke ordered four of each along with bacon, hash browns, and lots of maple syrup. Not a very Japanese breakfast, but he’d gotten used to this kind of thing during his time in Europe and now seldom ate anything else. He never worried about getting fat. Just maintaining his link to Ruq burned a lot of energy. Three thousand calories was a normal day that he didn’t expect to be using magic. Today he’d be wise to double it, at least.
He finished his shower just in time to let the bellhop in with a tray of food. Once the meal was complete, he sat on the floor and closed his eyes. Opening his awareness fully to the ether, Daisuke centered himself and prepared for what he hoped would be an eventful day.