“‘Yes, Mother.’ I wonder if you heard a word I said.”

“I hear you, Mother. I’ll be careful and I’ll be smart.”

“Good,” said Lilith. “And there’s one more thing…”

“Yes?”

“When you face the Upierczi … I know some of them are your brothers.”

“Yes.”

“They are not family to us, girl. They are monsters. Show them mercy and they will consume you.”

In the darkness, Violin smiled. It was as cold as knife steel. “Mother—‘mercy’ was a lesson you never taught me.”

She disconnected the call and melted into the shadows.

Chapter One Hundred Nine

Chapter One Hundred Nine

Aghajari Oil Refinery

Iran

June 16, 5:57 a.m.

I backed away from the open door. “Listen, this is what we came for. Go upstairs until you get a signal and then get everyone down here.”

Lydia eyed me dubiously. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to wait right here until you get back.”

“C’mon, Gaucho … I was born at night but it wasn’t last night.”

“Just go. That’s an order, Warbride. Clock’s ticking so do it now.”

She gave me the kind of look my mother gave me when she was really pissed, but she did as she was told. “Try to be alive when we get back,” she snapped, and then with a swirl of black robes she was gone.

I stepped over the corpses and moved to the door once more, listening to the darkness. Nothing. I even tried the earbud once more. Same thing. I would like to think that the lack of signal was simple interference from the dense rock, but I wasn’t actually stupid.

“Uh-oh,” I said to Ghost. I said it like Scooby-Doo. “Rut-roh!’ The joke didn’t make either of us feel any better.

I debated getting the hell out of there, and if this mission was about anything else I would have. This was so phony they should have just painted the word “Trap” on the secret door. On the other hand, if I walked away now and the device was really here, then what was my next play? Buy a condolence card for the relatives of anyone who used to live in the Middle East? Not much of an option.