Then it was over. Panting, Simon released Eve Denby and looked around. All this in the time it had taken for a traffic light to change. He didn’t see any police cars, but Debany, Kowalski, and Hilborn were suddenly there, cuffing the Sandee and assessing who else needed to be arrested while Lieutenant Montgomery called for ambulances for Robert, that Clarence, and any wounded humans who were in the crunched cars. Tornado and Avalanche trotted back to the Pony Barn, leaving cars half buried in snow and a traffic mess that would take hours for the police to sort out.

Vlad carried Leetha up to the Sanguinati’s apartment and summoned their bodywalker. Merri Lee and Miss Twyla hurried across the street and took the girls and Eve into the Denbys’ home. Montgomery followed them but returned a minute later.

Sam stayed near Simon. The pup looked a little stunned, but he wasn’t hurt.

More sirens. Probably the ambulances.

Montgomery approached, looking closely at Sam. “Are you all right?”

Sam nodded. “Robert’s hurt.”

“They’ll take him to Lakeside Hospital. Looks like he’ll need some stitches, but I think he’ll be fine. I called Pete Denby. He was doing some work downtown today.” Montgomery looked sad. “Simon, I—”

Three gunshots in quick succession.

No, Simon thought as he and the police turned toward the sound. Then he ran to the delivery area in front of the Liaison’s Office.

• • •

Monty pointed at Debany and Hilborn, who was now a probationary member of the team. Hilborn hesitated, but Debany nodded and turned back to deal with the trouble at the Denbys’ residence while Monty and Kowalski ran after Simon.

Nathan overtook them, turning into the delivery area just ahead of Simon.

Greg O’Sullivan knelt on the ground next to Skippy, who was whimpering and trying to get up.

“He’s hurt,” O’Sullivan said. “Leg might be broken. Maybe some ribs. Looks like he also took a hard blow to the head.”

“Nathan, check on Meg,” Simon growled as he knelt and put a hand on Skippy to stop the juvenile Wolf’s struggles. “She’s not out here with Skippy, so she might be hurt.”

“She might be in the Market Square,” Monty said, hoping for a benign reason for Meg’s absence. He shuddered when Nathan made one of those disturbing partial shifts, looking neither human nor Wolf, in order to open the office door. The moment he was inside he shifted back to Wolf, leaped over the counter, and went into the sorting room.

O’Sullivan stared at the door, frowning. “That door should be locked. When I spoke to Meg a couple of minutes ago, I told her to lock the door while I picked up sandwiches at the Stag and Hare.”

“We heard shots,” Monty said.

“That was me.” O’Sullivan stared at the door while he wagged a thumb in the direction of the blue mailbox positioned outside the consulate. “I’ll arrest myself later for shooting government property, but I wanted to get your attention and I didn’t know who might get hit if I shot in the air.”

Blair arrived in a BOW, driving down the access way too fast to stop if someone had been heading up.

Inside the Liaison’s Office, Nathan leaped back over the counter, sniffed around the front of the office—and howled.

Monty didn’t need Simon’s and Blair’s reactions to know it was a battle cry.

“She’s gone, isn’t she?” O’Sullivan said flatly, getting to his feet and stepping back from the injured Wolf.

Simon rushed into the Liaison’s Office, vaulted over the counter, and disappeared. He returned in less than a minute, his amber eyes turned red with rage.

Blair stayed outside guarding Skippy and watching all the humans as if they had just transformed into enemies.

“Maybe this was a crime of opportunity, but I don’t think so.” O’Sullivan scanned the area. “I do not think so.” He focused on Monty. “Where is Cyrus Montgomery at this moment?”

No. Jimmy couldn’t be that selfish, that stupid. What O’Sullivan was implying . . . Gods above and below. Would the city be torn apart because of Jimmy?

A crime of opportunity? He thought about the ruckus at the apartment and felt sick that they might have fallen for a distraction a second time. “Let’s be sure,” he began as Simon slammed out of the office.

“We’re sure,” Simon snarled. “That Cyrus’s scent is in the office—and Meg is gone.”

CHAPTER 23

Thaisday, Messis 23

Vlad looked around the table in the consulate’s meeting room. He’d expected Captain Burke to arrive as soon as he’d heard the news, but he hadn’t expected Mayor Walter Chen and Police Commissioner Raymond Alvarez to be part of this meeting.

He also hadn’t expected to be outnumbered. Besides Chen, Alvarez, and Burke, Montgomery and Kowalski were also in the room. He and Elliot Wolfgard, who was the Courtyard’s consul, were the only terra indigene at this meeting.

“Mr. Simon Wolfgard will not be joining us?” Chen asked Elliot.

Elliot hesitated. “He’s too upset to be around humans right now.”

Chen nodded as if that was the expected response. He looked at Alvarez, then at Burke. “What are we doing to find this young woman and return her to her family?”

Interesting choice of words, Vlad thought. But he detected no hypocrisy in Chen’s voice.

“We’re doing everything we would do for any abduction,” Burke replied. He looked Vlad in the eyes. “With some help, we can do more.”