“How fucking stupid are you?” Luthor snarled. “Does anything that’s been said here give you any reason to believe he’s okay? Or that you will be? Do I have to draw you a fucking picture, kid?” He leaned in and gave us that grin again. Still not reassuring. “By the time you actually die, you’ll be missing body parts and begging me to kill you.”

“And when Luthor finally grants you your wish, you’ll join Mr. Ross as the guests of honor at a luncheon banquet for my clan.” Arley smiled and just for a moment, his Lorannic fangs showed. Despite my mounting fear, I found that interesting. Someone or something was controlling his cloaking field in real time, just like Sheldon did for us.

“That doesn’t seem like the best way of getting Karen back,” I replied. “Hostage exchanges usually involve live hostages, if you get my drift.” I looked directly at Arley. “My understanding is that the Loranna stick to their deals.”

“Mm, true. But alive and healthy aren’t the same thing. I wonder how many body parts you’d have to lose before your team wouldn’t want you. We could remove a limb or two without killing you, I imagine. For snacks.”

Uh-oh. He had a point. While I was still searching for a response, Patrick said, “The same could be said about Karen, Arley.”

Arley laughed. “Even if you humans had the stomach for that kind of thing, our medical tech can regenerate anything, as long as she’s still alive. I doubt you have access to the same level of care.”

I kept my face still, and hoped Patrick had done the same. Arley had just unintentionally given us a big piece of information—he didn’t know about the Halo. He might in fact think the only Covenant tech we owned was a disruptor and a couple of belts.

At that moment, Luthor’s phone beeped. He pulled it out and glanced at it, then turned to Arley. “The third brat is in custody. They’ll have her here in ten.”

Nat. I felt my face go ashen as the implication sank in. Luthor noticed my expression and nodded. “Yeah, maybe we’ll work your girlfriend over a little in front of you. See if that helps jog your memory. Not that I care either way.”

I opened my mouth to reply just as all the mercenaries began falling down, clockwise from Patrick’s side of the room. Luthor only had time to reach for his gun when he and Arley keeled over as well.

Nat’s voice said, out of empty air, “Here I come, to save the dayyyyyyy.”

A silence descended on the room as the last unconscious body stopped flopping. “Are there any others?” I asked, looking around.