“Secure the door,” Hill shouted. “Whoever you are, you’re not getting out of here. Surrender, or you will be killed.”

He’d drawn his sidearm. That was a mistake. I knew the JG-367. I’d read the book it came from. Not only could I read its power, I could mess with it.

“Show yourself, and tell me what the hell you’re doing on my ship.” Hill kept the gun pointed to the floor in front of him, his finger off the trigger. “Lynch, radio the Czerneda and the Independence. Tell ’em they may have invisible vamps sneaking on board.”

I tugged the JG-367’s telepathic control text into myself, switched firing modes, and triggered the weapon. A silver beam of light touched the floor, transforming metal to stone.

“Fucking magic.” Hill reached for a mundane sidearm on his other hip, while simultaneously trying to holster the JG-367. This was what I’d been waiting for. I fired it again, this time sending a sleep spell directly into his leg. He collapsed.

Deb snatched the folder from his hand.

“Right there!” One of the crewmen pointed my way. “There’s two of them!”

I’d overextended myself. In setting off Hill’s weapon, I’d lost my invisibility spell. I could see the text crumbling around me. I only had a few seconds before Deb and I would be completely visible.

Two men blocked the door. Deb hurled them aside. I barely had time to jam my earplugs back into place before she wrenched open the door. The song of the surviving sirens outside slammed over me and the crew. I blinked hard, trying to focus. With shaking hands, I pulled my headphones into place, further quieting the sirens’ magic.

A gunshot cracked behind me, little more than a quiet pop, but fire erupted through my forearm. I climbed up the stairs and out onto the deck. My head was spinning. Men with machine guns were running toward us.

Deb caught me around the waist, climbed the rail, and jumped. My winged sneakers slowed our fall, but that magic was dissolving as well. I dropped what was left of our invisibility and concentrated on holding on to those tiny wings.

A spotlight swept past me, but most of the lights were aimed elsewhere.

I stopped breathing when I realized my mistake. The invisibility spell that had protected the two of us had shielded Lena and the Nemo as well. When that spell failed, our little fishing boat had become visible.

The Kagan’s deck guns fired, ripping enormous holes through the Nemo. A second ship added its assault to the Kagan’s.

Between the two of them, they tore the Nemo apart.

JAPANESE VOTE BRINGS ASIA CLOSER TO WAR

The Japanese legislature narrowly voted to amend Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution today, in what many see as a serious threat to peace in the region.