One of the techs spoke up. “Hey, boss, I’ve got something coming up the main valet parking circle.”

Me and Mitch bumped shoulders trying to see the monitor. He spilled coffee on my armor. The screen showed a small, tracked remote-control vehicle driving from the police line toward the front door. “What is that?”

“It’s a bomb-squad robot,” Mitch said. “We had a threat a few months ago and the cops used one of those little guys to blow up a suspicious package someone left on the concourse. Turned out it only had sandwiches in it, but you never can be too careful.”

There was an unfurling spool of wire on the back of the little robot and a package dangling from its single arm. “Have your operator warn the conference center. The feds want to talk.”

We took one wrong turn and ended up in an entirely different section of the gambling floor. It didn’t help that this place had been designed to be confusing, so that anyone attempting to leave would get turned around until they just gave up and gambled until they died. By the time Trip and I had sprinted back across the casino, the robot messenger had already arrived.

Several Hunters were keeping the furious crowd away from the entrance. The robot was rolling on its little treads back the way it had come. Cooper was guarding the front door. The former EOD man waved goodbye at the departing robot. “Carry on, noble PacBot.”

“Friend of yours?” Trip asked. At least he could talk. He was in a lot better cardiovascular shape than I was. I was busy catching my breath.

“I carried one of those heavy little buggers on my back for a lot of long foot patrols in Afghanistan,” he answered. “Pain in the ass to drive with only a little screen in a pair of glasses and a Playstation controller. Still, I think we should buy a couple. I bet I could stake a sleeping vampire with one.”

“Where’s Earl?”

Cooper pointed down. “Follow the cable.”

The robot’s delivery had been taken into a side room for privacy. I made sure to close the door behind me. There were already several Hunters inside, most of them leadership from different companies. A desk had been cleared off and a laptop was running in the middle of it. The computer was plugged into a cable that led directly back to the roadblock. The hard line enabled us to bypass the jamming.

The initial communication must have been something, because Earl was yelling at the computer. “Damn it, Stark. Don’t be an idiot!”

“What’d I miss?” I whispered, but the nearest Hunters shushed me. I pushed between bodies until I could see the jowly face of the new MCB director fill the screen.

“That’s the deal, Harbinger. Take it or leave it.”