Church set down the phone, removed his glasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Old scars on his skin flared with remembered pain. Deeper wounds that ran all the way to his heart ached with fear and weariness.

“Nicodemus,” he said to the soft shadows in his office. “Too soon.”

Then he picked up the phone again and began making a series of calls.

The first was to Lilith. To tell her and suggest she warn Violin.

“Ledger is seeing night birds?” she asked.

“He is.”

“That means he is very close to the veil,” she said. “He is more in death’s kingdom than this one.”

“Yes.”

“You may never bring him back, St. Germaine. Not this time.”

“I know.”

His next call was to Bug, to make sure his people included the new information from Ledger.

“Militia guys?” asked Bug. “Is he sure?”

“His source was sure.”

“Okay,” Bug said, sounding as comprehensively tired as Church felt. “I’ll spin this up. And Joe wants us to look at something in the next month or two?”

“Yes, but my gut tells me that this will happen sooner than later.”

He called Scott Wilson.

“I was just about to ring you,” said Wilson by way of a hello. “We just heard from our team at the Pavilion.”

“What’s happening there?”

“Seems as if our bad guys are loading some of the combat tech for transport. The feed from Bunny’s cam was clear, so we have visuals and a license plate number. I’ve already instructed Andrea to put a drone on that truck.”

“What is the drive time to East Texas? Same question for Fort Lauderdale, Florida?”

“Twenty-eight to thirty-two hours to that part of Texas. Forty-five to fifty for Florida. More, if you count stops for food, fuel, and sleep.”

“Assume this is straight through. I want routes plotted, and make sure there’s a backup to the drones.”

“Very well,” agreed Wilson.

“Two more things,” said Church. “First, Ledger is inbound. Not sure which of those two locations he’s heading for. Check flights from Brandenburg leaving anytime from right now to four hours out.”

“Easy enough. What’s the other thing?”

“There’s a new player in this.”

“Friend or foe?”

“Definitely foe,” said Church. “Nicodemus.”

“God save the queen…”

Church called Toys.

“I was rather expecting you to call,” said Toys. “Violin just had a rather disturbing call from her mum.”

“No doubt. Put this call on speaker.”

He gave them all of it, including the intel from Bunny.

“We’re on our way,” said Violin. “At the airport now.”

“Hurry,” said Church.

CHAPTER 145

FORT LAUDERDALE–HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA