After a confirming nod from his father, the boy slid forward on his many tentacled base. When he bent over Olena his eyes grew attentive instead of fearful. He pulled his hands away from his chest, tentacles squirming. He touched one hand to her neck, at exactly the place Marcus had tongue-tagged her. The other he eased across her forehead, down across her nose and mouth. The tentacles expanded to cover her face entirely. Marcus almost cried out, afraid that she wouldn’t be able to breathe. He stopped himself, though. As strange as it was to watch, this was what he’d brought her here for. Nurassyl, the boy who he’d named an ace. He knew what that healing touch felt like, he just hoped it would be enough to save her.

The nurse was busy in the plane’s galley heating soup for Baba Yaga. Franny had slept for a few hours and awakened ravenous. He made a sandwich of cheese and hummus and dreamed about getting home and having a cheeseburger and a beer. There was a well-stocked bar on the plane, but he resisted. He needed to keep his wits about him, and he didn’t think a combo of bourbon and pain pills would help him do that. He returned to Baba Yaga and settled in the seat across from her.

“We need to start making some plans.”

“The plan is that you take messages from me to people who can actually accomplish things,” she snapped.

He held on to the fraying ends of his temper. “Okay, fine, but I’ve got to be able to tell them something other than a criminal needs to talk to you.” He decided to test his premise. “Besides, which, I’ve arrested you,” he added. “You can tell them yourself.”

She laughed and it was surprisingly robust like the harsh cry of a crow. “You’ve arrested me? You would be adorable if you weren’t so foolish. My plane, my people. I could have you beaten senseless or tossed out if it pleased me to do so.”

Franny glanced down the length of the plane to where the nurse stared with cold eyes at him. The nurse had four inches and probably eighty pounds on him. Franny might have been able to take him if he wasn’t wounded and exhausted. In his current condition he didn’t have a prayer.

“Okay. I see your point. Still doesn’t obviate mine. I need to know what is happening.”

“Something is entering the world, and it will not be kind to our reality. It will bring horrors, madness, and change. Can humans survive?” She fell silent, then gave a tiny head shake. “Doubtful.”

“More hints and no specifics. Fucking give me something!”