“Yah, that’s right. After the week I’ve had, I figured I’d earned a little time back home. What time is it, anyway?”

“Five thirty-four in the morning. You say you’re home right now?”

“Trying to get some rest.”

“In that case, you might want to call your cell provider. According to this, your cellphone is currently on its way to Virginia.”

Shit. I grabbed my cell from my pocket and powered it down. I had no easy way of removing the battery, and a determined libriomancer could probably track it even turned off. “Lena, could you do me a favor?”

She glanced at me in the rearview mirror. I pantomimed destroying the phone. She reached back to take it, and crushed it in her hand.

Nicola was humming to herself. Her magic spilled over the connection, sending a faint buzz of energy through my skull. It wasn’t a cohesive spell; she probably didn’t realize she was doing it. “Why would Vanguard target Coast Guard ships, Isaac?”

“Theoretically? I’d start by looking into where those ships were when the attack happened, and what their mission was.”

Nicola sighed. “I don’t have time for this.”

She could have knocked me unconscious or dispatched a team of field agents to intercept us if she really wanted. “They were bombing siren nests and taking prisoners.”

“I see.”

“The ship’s captain was carrying a JG-367.”

“Are you working with Vanguard?”

“No. I think someone is using them. Nicola, I spoke with Babs Palmer before I left Vegas. She was spooked. Do you think she—”

“The council put Babs through a very strenuous . . . let’s call it an interview process. Whatever differences we might have, she genuinely wants New Millennium and the Porters to succeed. I can’t see her providing magical weapons to people who could turn them against us, whether that’s Vanguard or the Coast Guard or anyone else.”

That was a good point. “She knows more than she was telling me. Something frightened her, Nicola.”

“I’ll look into it. Don’t do anything stupid, Isaac. Things are precarious. Derek tells me people are using this attack as one more lever to push additional anti-magic legislation through, and to increase funding for magical and military defense.”

“What do you want me to do? Sit around and wait for more people to die?”

“I didn’t tell you to do nothing. I told you not to do anything stupid.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” I muttered.

“I have the New Millennium org chart, and it turns out I am.”

“Curses. Foiled by the org chart.” I smothered a yawn. “Thank you, Nicola.”