“Captain?” Kowalski raised a couple of fingers. “Why now?”

“Some of you met my cousin Shamus Burke, who was visiting from Brittania. I received a cable from him this morning, which is the second reason I called this meeting.” Burke glanced at the station chief. “I don’t know how far this news has traveled through official channels, but the Cel-Romano Alliance of Nations attacked the terra indigene all along their border. They have new kinds of weapons—airplanes—that can fly over a long distance and drop bombs that can destroy buildings and kill a lot of people, no matter their shape. They bombed terra indigene settlements situated between Cel-Romano and the wild country. Troops followed and killed the Others who survived the bombing. The Alliance of Nations has expanded its borders by miles in one collected attack.”

“What have the terra indigene done in response?” the station chief asked.

“They’ve done nothing.” Burke looked grimmer, if that was possible, and pale. “They’ve done nothing. If you read Thaisia’s history—or the speculations that have been written about conflicts in the past between humans and the terra indigene throughout the world—you’ll see they do nothing while they consider the actions and behaviors of the predators attempting to take their territory. Those hours or days are usually the calm that precedes a catastrophic counterattack. I have no doubt the terra indigene are going to strike Cel-Romano. Maybe, if we’re lucky, the Others from the wild country won’t understand that the Humans First and Last movement is the common factor between the attacks on the Wolfgard in Thaisia and Cel-Romano’s grab for land that resulted in an unknown number of terra indigene deaths.” He paused. “That’s it.”

Monty filed out with the rest of the men. There was no answer at his sister’s apartment, no communication at all since his mother’s last message. They could be anywhere at this point—and nowhere was safe.

“Should I bring the car around, Lieutenant?” Kowalski asked.

Monty nodded. “I’ll take a minute to check my messages; then I’ll be ready to go.”

•••

At the trailing end of dusk, Simon trotted over to the part of the Courtyard where the Elementals resided.

They were all there, except for Autumn and Winter.

“Wolf?” Air said. “You have an answer?”

<Perhaps.>

He’d talked it over with Blair and Nathan, with Henry, with Vlad and Nyx. He’d even talked with Tess in order to shape an answer to the question of why humans would have killed the Wolfgard in two regions of Thaisia when they should have known their so-called victory would be nothing more than a short-lived illusion.