I cleared my throat to interrupt, and glanced at my watch. “By…5:23 p.m. on Tuesday.”

“…by 5:23 p.m. on Tuesday,” Ike repeated, after another round of nods, “resume the attack.”

“I understand” was Beck’s only reply. Ike tossed the phone back to me, and my father’s familiar sigh of relief—or maybe disbelief—whispered over the line. Seconds after that, the front door closed on another series of footsteps, and the wind died in my ear.

And with that there was peace. At least temporarily.

“Okay, Dad, I gotta go. But I’ll call you from the road.” For more updates, and advice on how the hell I was supposed to get to Malone’s territory on my own, with no car, in time to get back with evidence I didn’t even have yet.

“Don’t dawdle” was all he said, but it sounded very much like “I love you” to me.

I hung up and slid my phone into my front pocket before one of the birds could demand it back, then tightened my grip on Kaci and faced the old woman. “I don’t suppose you guys have another television, or some video games or anything?”

I got dozens of confused looks, and at least five shaking heads.

“Yeah, I figured. Books, then. You have books?” I’d seen several birds reading in their perches overhead, so I knew they had at least a few.

“We have hundreds of books,” said a male voice I decided not to track down.

“Good.” The classics? That would explain their stilted cultural awareness, and maybe their formal speech patterns. “Would you please bring a good selection to Kaci’s room? She’s going to need something to keep her mind occupied while I’m gone.” I was willing to fight for that one. If they gave her nothing to distract her from the possibility of her own impending death, Kaci would dwell on that, and on the fact that I’d left her. And that would be torture. Literally, in my opinion.

To my surprise, my request met with several more nods.

We followed Brynn back to the second-floor room and I studied the nest as we went, in search of anything that might prove useful. Another exit. A potential weapon. Hell, even a bargaining chip they actually valued. But short of snatching one of their little ones and promising its release in exchange for Kaci’s, I came up empty. And I could never hurt a kid, and if I bluffed them, I’d lose all credibility, which was the only asset I had in their eyes.

Besides, they’d probably cut me down long before I made it into the nursery. Assuming the kid I grabbed didn’t do it herself. I’d seen how fiercely even the little ones fought.

In the room, Kaci and I waited through the departure of both Brynn and the young cock who’d brought an armload of worn paperbacks. Then I closed the door and sat across from her on the bed. But before I could say anything, she burst into tears, her chest heaving as if she’d been holding back sobs for the better part of an hour.