“Get down!” Babs dragged her sister to the floor. A second series of gunshots struck the window. I dropped flat just as the next bullet broke through. It buried itself in the wall, directly behind where I’d been standing.

“Kiyoko?” I guessed.

“It has to be. The windows are bulletproof. From the angle she’d need to hit Potts, she must be firing from another tower, hitting the exact same spot with each bullet until she breaks through. Nobody else could pull that off. She must have another camera in here, helping her aim. I thought I’d found them all.”

I dragged my bookbag off the desk and hastily crafted a shield that would protect me from gunfire. I crawled over to check on Potts. Despite the blinds and the distance, Kiyoko’s bullet had struck him in the center of the forehead. His dead eyes were frozen in anger.

The guards outside must have heard the shots, because they’d stopped trying to break in. “Babs, how much trouble can you cause for Kiyoko from here?”

A staccato burst of gunfire destroyed the monitor on her desk. Babs yanked open the bottom drawer and pulled out several hardcover books. She used the first to create a tablet computer, and the second for a pair of silver revolvers, one of which she handed to her sister.

“Let’s find out.” She raised the gun and closed her eyes. Magic crept over the barrel, guiding her aim up and to the right. She squeezed the trigger, blowing a four-inch hole through the wall. She raised her head and waited, but there were no more gunshots from outside. “Guess that was the last camera.”

I pointed to the tablet. “Does that thing have a USB port?” When she nodded, I handed her a black flash drive. “You had an audio file queued up and ready to go. If Kiyoko starts to broadcast, play this instead.”

Babs held up the crumpled note I’d written. “Thank you, Isaac.”

“What did he write?” asked Darlene.

“I told her I understood why she’d helped Potts and McGinley, and that I needed her help to retake control of our home.” I approached the door. The outer office was quiet. Babs pressed a button beneath her desk, and the lock clicked. I cracked open the door and peeked into Kiyoko’s office. The room was empty. “Lock it behind me.”

I headed toward the closest stairwell. ‹Talulah, I need a status update.›

‹Charles is at the Library Tower. He had the bright idea to create a dowsing rod to search for the sirens.›

If he made the rod sensitive enough, it would pick up even small bodies of water, including any tanks for holding captive sirens. ‹Good thinking, but they’ve probably shielded the sirens against magical detection.›

‹That’s what I told him,› said Vince.