Tony threw up his hands. “I agree with you,” he told Armstrong. “Both about the self-defense and Adam’s chances in court—though if the case is kept local, I think he would do better than you think. Still, there are bodies.”

“The buried Cantrip agents were shot execution style, with the same gun that killed Peter,” Adam said.

“You run ballistics?” asked Tony.

“No.”

Tony frowned at him. “Then how—” Then he shook his head. “Never mind. But those aren’t the only bodies.”

Adam’s face became even more expressionless. “There will be no other bodies. After we escaped, there was a fire at the winery.”

Another silence followed.

“I can accept a separate justice,” Tony said, finally. “I’ve known you. I and my department have called you for help, and you have never failed us. I’ve seen you meet violence with soft words. And I’ve never seen you lie. I’m in agreement with Agent Armstrong. I have a few ideas, and I think if Armstrong is willing to help, we can sell this to the department.”

“You said there was a fire at the winery?” asked Armstrong.

Adam sat down and rubbed his hands over his face. “Yes. We are used to cleaning up our own messes. We’ve found fire to be very effective.”

“Teeth and the denser bones,” said Tony with extreme neutrality, “tend to show up after a fire.”

“I’d be very surprised if there are any teeth or bones,” I told him half-apologetically. Adam had left Elizaveta out of his explanation. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

Armstrong gave me a sharp look, but he didn’t say anything further. Instead he asked, “What about the mercenaries the renegades were working with? Did you identify them?”

“No,” Adam said. “They’re out of it, and of no more concern to me. I think there are only three players left.”

Asil held up a finger. “The money man.” He held up another finger. “The turncoat in Senator Campbell’s security detail.” And a third. “The person who gave the Cantrip agents the contact information for the mercenaries and the dossiers about your pack and werewolves in general.”

“I have a friend looking into the information man,” Adam said. “He’s pretty sure that he can find the contact name from the mercenaries without causing an international incident.”

On Kyle’s landline, Adam had been able to get in touch with Charles. Charles was scary good at finding out things no one wanted anyone to know. Charles was just plain scary in general.

“But,” Adam continued, “I think the damage the information man can do is done. So there is no great urgency in running him down.”

“Let’s be clear here, in this room,” said Armstrong. “Are you talking about killing him?”