Violin took a steadying breath and said, “What do you want me to do next?”

“What do you think you should do next?”

Several seconds flitted past as Violin thought it through. Then she told her mother.

Lilith’s tolerant smile vanished entirely.

“What choice do we have?” asked Violin.

“None,” said Lilith bitterly. “None at all.”

Chapter Eighty

Chapter Eighty

On the Road

Tehran, Iran

June 15, 9:17 p.m.

We drove for miles, killing time to make damn sure we weren’t being followed. Tehran is a massive city, bigger and more densely populated than New York. We avoided main roads where security checkpoints would be more common and instead threaded our way through the poorer outskirts of the town.

“Let’s find someplace quiet,” I suggested. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Another safe house?” asked Lydia, who was driving.

“Not a chance.”

Luckily there were plenty of abandoned buildings, and we found one with no squatters. It had once been a building-supply company but it looked like no one had set foot in it for decades. Lydia parked inside. We huddled inside the ruins of an office. Smith stood by the window and watched the access road that led from a little-traveled street to the loading bay.

“That guy back there,” began Lydia. “The Iranian guy. Friend of yours?”

“We just met, but he was one of the good guys.”

She nodded. They all did. At some later time we would talk about it. I’d want to tell them about the man and his kindness, about his photos, and the unspoken tragedy implied in those simple images. Such discussions are not for the battlefield. While they can strengthen us by connecting us to our shared humanity, to talk about it while we were still in danger was to invite in weakness. Everything in its place and time.

I straddled a crooked office chair that was missing its wheels. Bunny and Lydia sat cross-legged on the floor—near to each other, which is something they’d started doing a lot lately. Khalid sat on a crate and Top remained standing. John Smith was outside setting up an observation post and was listening in via the team channel.

Ghost flopped down in front of Bunny and Lydia and was getting his full share of petting.

“How much do you know?” I asked them.

Top spread his hands. “The big man was feeling unusually chatty today,” he said. “Told me just about everything you and he talked about. Nukes, Rasouli, Arklight, your girlfriend with the sniper scope.”

“Put laser sights on your nuts, huh?” asked Bunny. I ignored him.

“And he told us some weird shit about vampires.”

“Right,” I said, “and you met the fearless vampire hunters back at Jamsheed’s.”

Top ran a hand over his shaved head. “Cap’n, how much of this is happening and how much of this is Mr. Church having some kind of neurological incident?”