The day had gone entirely to hell after the morning conference with Jayewardene. Klaus had left the office before she could talk to him, not returning until an hour ago and not answering the text she’d sent him; she wasn’t sure where he’d gone or why, and she’d been too busy to find out. Ink had been passing reports to Barbara all morning, and all of them were depressing. Accompanied by Ink, she went into the afternoon staff briefing feeling harried and stressed.

This should have been Lohengrin’s meeting, but he’d finally sent a text message that she should run the briefing, that he’d be there but hadn’t been able to prepare. That told her more than any words about Lohengrin’s attitude.

They all looked up at her as she entered the room. She tried to smile at Klaus, but his face was frozen with an expression she couldn’t quite decipher. Michelle—Bubbles—wasn’t present but several minor aces were: Aero, the Spanish air-manipulating ace; Doktor Omweer, the first significant ace from the Netherlands; Wilma Mankiller, the Canadian strongwoman; Snow Blind, another Canadian ace with the ability to temporarily blind people; along with two of the aces who had been to Peru with them—Brave Hawk and Tinker. Barbara sat at the head of the table next to Klaus; Ink took the chair on the other side of her, an iPad sitting in front of her to call up reports, photos, and videos as Barbara needed. “Secretary-General Jayewardene wanted to be here but he’s meeting right now with Representative Temir Bondarenko of Kazakhstan at the UN. I hope he’ll have news for us later.”

“What is going on there?” Tinker asked, his muscular arms flexing as he shifted in his seat. Barbara shook her head.

“We’re still not certain.” She didn’t dare glance over to Klaus. “Hopefully Mr. Bondarenko has better information he can relay to us. Right now, it’s apparent we have a crisis there that seems to be getting increasingly worse and widespread every few hours, but exactly what’s causing it…” She shrugged. “And there’s more critical news that I’ve just received in the last few hours.” Ink had told her that Klaus hadn’t yet been given the report; she heard his chair turn to look at her. “I hate having to relay this news, which I know is going to pain many of you here, myself not least of all. General Ramos has been assassinated in Peru, apparently poisoned. The New Shining Path, and especially Curare, are suspected.”

The flat screen on the wall erupted with photographs: General Ramos, Curare, Cocomama, then a sequence of pictures and videos of street fighting between rock-throwing mobs and armed police. “There have been incidents in Lima, in Iquitos, in Trujillo,” Barbara continued as the aces watched the screens. “At Machu Picchu, a group of tourists was assaulted and robbed by a suspected New Shining Path group; some of the injuries were severe.” Barbara couldn’t hold back the sigh that escaped her. “A bare two days after having signed a peace accord, and it looks like everything we accomplished there is already falling apart. We may end up having to go back. The Secretary-General’s office has already had overtures from President Fujimori’s office.”