"Ah. I guess the villains just aren't that into me."

He manfully refused to smile.

"Okay," I said, "I'm going to nominate Vox as the bad guy. Who else has 'criminal mastermind' on his business cards?"

"Vox alone?"

Interesting question. "Nicodemus?"

Church shrugged. He left to make a few more calls.

I saw Echo Team standing apart from the activity, looking like a biker gang that had crashed a women's empowerment meeting. I gestured for them to follow me to the far end of the warehouse.

"Good job tonight," I told them. "I was listening and I still never heard you on my six."

"Kinda the point," said Lydia. "Clumsy soldiers don't get Christmas bonuses."

We stood for a moment, each of us looking back at the cluster of Arklight women as they continued arming for war. I saw Violin sliding loaded magazines into slots on a bandolier. She saw me watching and gave me a brief nod that I returned. We turned away at the same moment.

"Top," I said, "get back to the other warehouse and get everything ready. Finish modifying our equipment, but don't use all the garlic. Church will have some kind of transport here soon. As soon I talk to the Big Man again I'll come back for a mission briefing. Everyone eat some food, hit the head, take your vitamins. Finish that special project I gave you earlier from those notes Circe got from that folklore professor. Looks like we're going to need it. We need to be ready to rock, and who knows how long this will take. Bring as much extra ammunition as you can carry."

"Boss," said Bunny, "what that woman said? That's all true, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

He shook his head. Bunny was no naive kid, but this was all a long, long way from Southern California.

Khalid looked concerned. "There's a question we need to ask these women here," he said. "If garlic hurts the vampires, is it safe to use around the ... um ... what was the word?"

"Dhampyri."

"Yes."

"Good question. I'll ask. In the meantime, let's hustle."

"Hooah," they said, and I watched them vanish through the back door, silent as ghosts.

Chapter Ninety-Seven.

Arklight Camp Outskirts of Tehran June 16, 3:43 a.m.

As I turned to go find Violin, I saw Church heading quickly toward me.

"We're hitting them all, Captain. A coordinated soft infiltration. Everyone is moving in at the same time. Four targets here in the Middle East and the one in Louisiana. I have every DMS and JSOC team not currently assigned to one of the targets on deck. Nuclear response teams are on high alert. We'll do whatever is possible to do, but we can't wait any longer."

Soft infiltrations meant stealth and nonlethal weapons. Doing just one required extensive planning and training. Doing five? I whistled. "You ever do anything like this before?"

"No one has. So, we get to write the playbook on it. Your team has to avoid a political incident as well as find the bomb."

"You want us to do this on tippy-toes?"

"Correct. You'll infil during this evening's shift change. Once you're in position, you'll begin an unobtrusive search for the device. Floor plans and construction blueprints for the refinery were on the flash drive, and Aunt Sallie has mapped out several likely areas for such a device to be hidden. Given its nature, and based upon the image from Rasouli's phone, we are looking at a basement or subbasement. The construction blueprints of the refinery and the current surveillance layout are close matches, but they're not exact. There are some postconstruction additions and some things that apparently were never built. Or at least that's the CIA's determination. Your map will have anomalies indicated by red dots. Don't trust the Company's report. When in doubt get eyes on those anomalies. Abdul will rendezvous with you here and deliver you to the site. He has a workable plan prepared."

"Already? How's that possible?"

"It's a repurposed plan. Abdul was working with the Company to set up an operation at one of the nuclear power plants. He delivers heavy mechanical parts to refineries and the nuclear plant-turbines, generators, transformers, air purification systems, and so on. There's a lot of overlap with the refineries and the nuclear station, and Abdul is well known. The refineries operate twenty-four hours a day, though at night the staff is reduced by about half. Nighttime deliveries are common. Heavy equipment is often delivered at night to be ready for installation by the larger morning shift, so this won't raise any eyebrows. Abdul has been ordered to scrap the other plan in favor of this."

"What's our confidence in the infil plan? Can Abdul get us in?"

"Almost certainly, though this operation might compromise him, which means that his usefulness in Iran will likely end. He won't be happy about it, and the CIA is definitely not happy about it, but I don't particularly care about their feelings, Captain, and neither should you."

"I don't. Mission comes first, and our mission has a shorter shelf life than theirs, so it sucks to be them. End of story." I paused. "What about the last two nukes?"

Church shook his head. "We're nowhere with them."

I stared at him. "Damn."

"Yes.

"When do we roll?"

"Abdul should be here in twenty minutes. Figure two hours to the refinery, with a half an hour on either end for loading and unloading."

I looked at my watch. "We'll be hitting the place just shy of dawn. That doesn't leave us much time to prepare a mission plan."

"Figure it out on the fly."

"Rasouli could be lying about the number of sites," I pointed out. "There might only be five nukes. Or none."

"Or there could be twenty," said Church. "I'm aware of the risks; however, the overall threat increases the longer we let this play out. The president wants the sweep to focus on the known targets, regardless of additional intel."

"Yikes. There are a whole lot of ways this could go wrong."

"Yes, and very few ways to get everything right. And once this is all over there will be very angry people in several foreign governments, even among our allies. We're putting armed soldiers into play without seeking permission from any government. A lot of sovereignty rules are going to be bent or broken, and that's too bad. The State Department is working up several variations of a presidential response, no matter how this spins out. Best-case scenario is that we'll later claim to the world press that we were always working in concert with, and at the invitation of, these governments. If we find and de-arm the bombs, then those governments will have to stand by us publicly and agree that they invited us in as advisors."

"Armanihandjob, too?"

Church didn't respond. I was two for two with nobody laughing at that joke.

"We have to face the possibility that our enemies will detonate the remaining two devices as soon as they know about the hits."

"Well, you're just a ray of sunshine," I said. "I so look forward to our little chats."

"If you want something cheerier, I hear that Best Buy is hiring." He cocked his head at me. "Until you determine that the device is, in fact, at the refinery, you will be operating under limited rules of engagement. Avoid conflict but don't get taken. If fired upon, you are not authorized to use lethal force. We are not at war with Iran."

"So don't start one," I said, "yeah, I get that. You're asking a lot from Tasers and beanbag rounds."

"This order comes from the president, not from me. However, make sure the nonlethal weapons aren't all you are carrying."

"Something else," I said. "Khalid brought up the question of whether these dhampyri are vulnerable to garlic?"

"It varies. I know that some of them have been killed by Sabbatarians who attacked them thinking they were Upierczi. In heavy doses garlic is fatal to them too. But it's not a matter of simply being around garlic. The garlic oil has to be introduced into the bloodstream, or in powder form into the lungs. They will be wearing ballistic shielding and each of them carries injectable epinephrine. Every soldier knows there are risks."

He held out his hand.

"Good hunting, Captain."

Chapter Ninety-Eight.

Private Villa Near Jamshidiyeh Park Tehran, Iran June 16, 3:44 a.m.

After the call to LaRoque was finished, Vox was so charged with energy that he had to run around the house for several minutes just to calm down. His whole body seemed to be cranking out more energy than a nuclear power plant. He ran up and down the stairs twenty times. Finally, breathing heavily and bathed in sweat, he came back to his office and made the second call.

"It's the middle of the damn night, Hugo," Rasouli answered in an angry mumble. "This had better be important, or so help me."

"Shut up and listen," said Vox in a deep growl. "We have problems. The thing about using the phony flash drive to get the DMS to take out the Red Order-that worked like a charm. Church and his crew are ready to swat that psychopath LaRoque. You'll come out of it looking like a hero. Rah, rah, we can all celebrate the new president of Iran. But," Vox said, leaning heavily on the word, "there's a wrinkle and it's a big goddamn wrinkle. Those nukes are real. No, don't say anything. I know what I told you, but it turns out LaRoque is even crazier than I thought he was. He didn't just buy cases for them; turns out he had no intention of just using the photos as blackmail. No, this sick fuck bought real nukes from some black-market thugs in Kazakhstan."

"Beard of the prophet..."

"And there really is one under the Aghajari refinery."

The noise Rasouli made sounded to Vox like someone was choking a turkey. He jammed his mouth into the crook of his elbow to stifle a laugh. Then he took a breath and said, "Here's the kicker. That agent you met, Captain Ledger, he's going after the nuke. Yes, the one at Aghajari. And he's doing it with a full American Spec Ops team. Right now. Today or maybe tomorrow at the latest. If you're going to do something, you had better do it right goddamn now."

He hung up before Rasouli's head could explode. And because he couldn't hold back his own laughter a moment longer.

Chapter Ninety-Nine.

Outskirts of Tehran June 16, 3:52 a.m.

I left the warehouse and began walking back to where Echo Team was waiting. Ghost trotted along beside me. He was still a little off his game from the Taser and the fights yesterday, but he was coming back.

Before I was halfway there, I heard a familiar voice.

"Joseph!"

I turned and, despite everything, I smiled.

Ghost, the big furry flirt, wagged his tail.

Violin ran through the shadows to catch up then slowed to a stop five feet away. We looked at each other and my smile faltered. So did hers.

"Wow," I said, "you really know how to show a guy a good time. Best first date ever."

Violin laughed.

She had a good laugh. A genuine laugh, and given everything that I now knew about her I wondered how it was possible for her to have any trace of a sense of humor. It said a lot about the person she was. It was that indomitability of spirit that made me believe that women like her and her mother and the others would not only survive their own history but one day rise completely above it. I wanted to say that to her, but now was in every way not the right time.

"I don't know where to put all of this in my head," I admitted.

"I know," she said. "I'm sorry you have to."

Her voice was a little sad. She knelt down to pet Ghost, who immediately lost his damn mind and rolled on the ground like a puppy. So much for the impressive dignity of the military trained dog. She even found his happy spot that made him kick his leg.

"Over the years," Violin said as she stroked Ghost's thick fur, "different groups have deliberately clouded the public's perception about vampires. First it was the church, labeling them as actual satanic creatures. Then it was the Red Order, building a mystique around them so that they would be feared, but also misunderstood. The Order were the first ones to distort the powers and vulnerabilities of the Upierczi. Many of the classic writings about vampires were influenced by the Order. Leone Allacci, Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, Dom Augustin Calmet, Reverend Montague Sommers, Walter Map, William of Newburgh, and even Bram Stoker either worked for the Order or were heavily influenced by them. It was more useful to have people believe that vampires were supernatural. Like the hate crimes the Order and the Tariqa committed, such beliefs drove people back to the protection of the church."

"It's disgusting," I said.

She nodded. "Over the centuries, though, even the Upierczi have come to believe some of it. Their leader, Grigor, believes himself to be a true immortal, a kind of dark angel. There have been Upierczi who have gone mad because they began believing that they were actually monsters. They collapsed in terror at the sight of the cross or the Eucharist. Propaganda is a powerful weapon."

"Yes, and that's the sort of thing Vox loves to play with. God help us all if he ever starts working directly with the Upierczi. It's bad enough he's screwing around with Rasouli and LaRoque."

"I agree. If he was with Grigor, we'd be doomed." She glanced down at Ghost. "Do you know why the knight who attacked you in your hotel room did not simply kill your dog?"

"I've wondered about it."

"The knights are afraid of white dogs. There are many legends about the magical powers of white dogs. Vampire hunters have used them for centuries to find the graves of vampires. A lot of cultures, especially the Greeks, have always believed that dogs can foresee evil. And of course there's the legend of the fetch dog."

"The what? I keep hearing that word. What is it?"

She looked up, surprised. "I thought you knew about that. The Sabbatarians of legend had magical powers and they traveled with a dog called a 'fetch' who lived wholly or partly in the spirit world. The fetch dog could sniff out evil, which the Sabbatarians would then dispatch using various magical means. A white fetch dog would be exponentially more powerful than any other kind. This legend has been heavily reinforced over the years by Sabbatarian hit teams bringing trained attack dogs with them. The Upierczi-even the ones who do not believe themselves to be evil-know of many cases where a fetch dog was used to kill one of their kind."

"So why didn't the knight kill Ghost?"

"Oh," she said, flexing her fingers in Ghost's fur, "they can't do that. Fetch dogs belong to God. They are to dogs what saints are to humans. To harm one is to incur the wrath of God and all his angels."

I smiled. "Great, now that Ghost's heard that he'll be insufferable."

Violin gave Ghost a final pat and stood up. The shadows around us seemed to create an opaque screen between us and the reality of what we were really facing. Or about to face.

"When this is over..." I said, and let it hang.