Nobody laughed. I must be getting rusty.

Jim scowled harder. Wow. I didn’t think that was possible. Showed what I knew.

“Don’t you think this is overkill?” I asked.

“No.”

Ask a stupid question . . . “Jim, there is enough manpower here to destroy a small country.”

He waited.

“Don’t you think it will communicate that we’re scared of the People?”

“It will communicate that if they even think about starting some shit, we’ll rip them into bite-sized pieces.”

I looked at the red-haired render in the front. His name was Myles Kingsbury and he was built to break bones: broad shoulders, hard chest, lean waist, and a calm look in his eyes. Myles was my age and the few times we spoke, he struck me as competent and sensible.

“Mr. Kingsbury, what do you think?”

The render opened his mouth and said in a deep voice, “I think it communicates that we won’t hesitate to take the initiative to be decisively aggressive.”

I closed my eyes for a second and exhaled. “Jim, if I were Curran, would you saddle me with this many bodyguards?”

“No.”

Well, at least I could still count on the no-bullshit answer from him. “So you agree that being heavily guarded is making me appear weak?”

“Yes. However, it makes the Pack appear strong. I’m not inclined to gamble with your safety. And”—he held up his hand—“I’d make Curran have a guard as well, if that stubborn bastard wouldn’t overrule me.”

I looked at Barabas. “Do I have the power to overrule him?”

“Yep,” Barabas said.

Jim gave Barabas his hard stare.

Barabas shrugged. “Do you want me to lie?”

Jim turned to me. “If I could have a moment of your time, Consort?”

Oh, it’s “Consort” now, huh. “Sure, Chief of Security. I’d be delighted.”

Normally walking a few feet was sufficient to get out of earshot, but everyone in the Keep enjoyed the awesome benefits of enhanced hearing. Jim and I marched fifty yards down the hallway.

“We’re at less than half of our normal strength,” Jim said. “Curran is away from the Keep. Whether accurate or not, you are viewed as much less of a threat than he is. If I were planning something, I’d hit us now and I’d hit us where it hurt.”

I kept my voice low. “This spy-on-the-Council thing is really getting under your skin.”

He inhaled slowly and looked at me. “Are you trying to say I’ve lost my perspective?”

“Maybe a little.”

He bent closer to me. His voice shook slightly, not with fear but with controlled concentrated anger. “Three months. Sixteen of my best people. Over a thousand hours of surveillance. I have nothing to show for it. Nothing. We have a mole and I have no idea who it is.”

Curran was so much better at this shit than I was. “Do you remember the hydra?”

Jim grimaced.