Buford was able to get him out of the public areas of the building and upstairs, but that seemed to be the extent of the ace’s clout. Franny was left in an outer office with a bland-looking male secretary who alternated answering the phone with scrolling on his iPad. His response to most of the callers was, “Ms. Baden is in a meeting and can’t be disturbed. She’ll get back to you as soon as she can.” A few of the calls went through.

Time ticked past. Outside the windows the skyline of Manhattan began to glow as the night came in. Franny lurched out of the overly low, deep chair and stalked to the receptionist’s desk. Resting his palm on the top he leaned across.

“Can I get you something? Cup of coffee?” the man said with the air of someone who had placated a lot of waiting dignitaries.

Franny pointed at the closed door. “You can get me in there.”

“Ms. Baden is—”

“In a meeting and can’t be disturbed,” Franny finished the sentence. “Would that meeting happen to be about Talas? Because if it is I know a little something about that, and I can connect her with somebody who knows a fuck lot more than I do. So, will you please get me in?”

“We have people on the ground. I’m sure Ms. Baden is well briefed on what—Hey!”

Franny reached the door and threw it open. There were a lot of people in the conference room. Some of them Franny recognized from American Hero. At the head of the table was a small dark-haired woman with shadows beneath her eyes and even deeper shadows haunting her dark eyes.

“What is the meaning—?”

“There’s someone who wants to see you. If you don’t come people are going to start dying. As a further incentive, she can tell you exactly what’s happening in Talas.” He paused, thought about it, and then added, “And probably how you’ve fucked everything up. She’s really good at that.”

“Where are we?” Tiago said to Ana. He’d dropped some of his armor, and trash littered the streets behind them like breadcrumbs in Hansel and Gretel.

“I have no idea,” Ana replied. “Our tracking equipment is dead. So are these hazmat masks.” She tossed hers aside.

The drizzling let up, but it didn’t make anything better. The mist was getting thicker. They were walking blind now that their coms, phones, and trackers had stopped working. And nothing looked like it had on the map for the tracker. They should have been near Bugsy’s last location, but the streets were all wrong.

Fuck him anyway, Michelle thought. Can’t do a simple reconnaissance mission. Idiot.

A low moan floated to them. They came to an intersection. There was a dry fountain in the center with a pillar in the center. The broken pieces of some Kazakh hero lay on one side of the fountain. Ringed around the fountain were cages.