I tried to imagine him watching me from heaven or something like it. I tried to imagine his approval, but it didn't really work. Instead, I managed to remind myself that he was gone. I wondered what it would be for Kim to be here, in the place where she and Eric had been lovers or cheaters or however they'd thought of themselves at the time.

I didn't notice falling asleep again until the sound of wind woke me. The bedroom was dim as dawn, but the clock said it was ten thirty in the morning. I pulled on a robe and drew back the curtains. The sky was gray and low enough to touch. The window was dotted with raindrops.

"Well, that's just great," I said to n.o.body.

In the living room, Midian had more or less the same take. He was lounging on the couch when I came in, yellowed eyes fixed on the television.

"For a plan that really rests on motorcycles and small airplanes, there's just no better 'f.u.c.k you' than a good low-pressure system," he said.

"I was thinking that myself," I said.

"Didn't check the weather report when you put this whole thing together, did you?"

"I'm new at this," I said.

"It will be fine," Chogyi Jake said as he and Kim walked in from the kitchen, drawn by the sounds of our voices. Kim was dressed in some of Chogyi's spare clothes, tan pants cinched up with a braided leather belt, a shirt the color of sand. She'd had to roll up all the cuffs, and she looked small. The only sign of our conversation the night before was a barely noticeable reluctance to meet my eyes.

"The motorcycles are going to be new," Chogyi Jake continued. "They'll have good tread on the tires."

"Besides which, it's not like we've got time for a plan B," Midian sighed.

"That too," Chogyi Jake said. Then, to me, "Really. It will be fine."

"I hope so," I said.

I had hardly finished with my shower and pulling on my clothes when the doorbell rang. The dealership was there to drop off my new toys. I signed all the paperwork and took the t.i.tles and proof of insurance forms for both bikes, along with copies of the service agreements and owner's manuals. I hadn't thought to arrange insurance for them. I made a mental note to send my lawyer flowers or a thank-you note or something, provided I was still alive tomorrow.

The cycles themselves were gorgeous. We couldn't put them in the carport since the stolen Hummer was taking up all the air, so we had them pulled up onto the front walk. Black and red and set low to the ground, these weren't machines meant for touring or taking in the countryside. They were built to be hunched over, body forward, head into the wind. They both had matching helmets and complimentary leather jackets and chaps. I wondered how much I'd paid for them that the dealership was giving me all these extras. The rain beaded on the fibergla.s.s.

"Well, they're s.e.xy," Midian said, looking over my shoulder. "I'll give 'em that."

"Think you can handle it?" I asked.

Midian made a rough sound that might have been a cough or laughter.

"Biggest problem I'll have is keeping the girls off me," the vampire said. "Or, if not the girls, the teenage zit-faced boys who think motorcycles impress girls. One or the other."

"I don't know. I'm fairly impressed," Kim said. I raised my hand. We ate lunch, breakfast for me, making jokes about crotch rockets and wheeled vibrators. Midian and Chogyi Jake both tried on the protective gear-black leather and helmets. It was a nervous kind of hilarity, but it helped cover the fear.

Zero hour was eight o'clock, and it was a little after noon now. My stomach was starting to get knotted. The distant throb of a headache was climbing up the back of my skull. Kim played solitaire on the kitchen table with the cards from Midian's poker game. Chogyi Jake was meditating, gathering his remaining strength for the night's pursuit. I paced, drummed my fingers on the door frames, went to the front door every few minutes to make sure the motorcycles were still there and that the Invisible College wasn't. I felt stretched tight as a drum.

Aaron and Candace arrived at noon in Candace's car. While Kim and Candace prepared the backseat for the ceremonial Calling Malkuth, I showed Aaron the ammunition. Two bullets I'd recovered from our last failure. I hated handling them, but Aaron didn't seem more than amused by the engraved figures. He knew exactly how to clean my rifle and showed me in detail. The living room smelled of mineral oil and rain by the time we were done and he took both weapons out to the stolen Hummer. We all went over the plan again. The clock seemed to go slower just to spite me.

There were still holes. There was still chance and contingency and a hundred ways it could go wrong. What if Chogyi Jake and Midian's flight didn't draw Coin out of his meeting? What if he was in a different car from the ones my lawyer's report had identified? What if there were more people with him than Aaron, Candace, Kim, and I could manage?

What if some poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d who didn't know anything about all this got in the way and got hurt or killed or taken over by riders? It would be my fault. I distracted myself as best I could, but every minute that pa.s.sed was a weight on my shoulders. I told myself that everything would be all right. That this time it would be different. I almost believed it.

I told myself that Aaron knew the traffic patterns of Denver, where and when something could be done with as little attention as possible. And Kim and Chogyi Jake both thought that damping out Coin's powers could give us the edge we needed. I hoped that the confidence they felt came from the strength of the plan itself, and not because they had faith in me.

At about four o'clock the rain started coming down harder, with flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder. I stood in the open doorway, watching it and willing the clouds to separate. It was such a stupid, petty thing to have overlooked. Chogyi Jake's and Midian's escapes could be thrown off by something as stupid and simple as summer rain.

"Don't sweat," Midian said. "It'll be gone in time."

"Your special vampire senses tell you that?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "That and I've been watching the local news. Doppler radar, all that. Streets are going to be wet tonight. The driving'll be tricky, especially with the new tires. But it's not the biggest problem you're looking at."

"I know," I said.

We were silent for a few seconds, looking out into the gray. I could smell Midian's weird, cold nonscent. He shifted, crossing his ruined arms.

"You did a h.e.l.l of a job, kid," Midian said. "I mean I wouldn't make a habit of this, but for improv, you're doing great. And...h.e.l.l. I know I came down on you pretty hard after the whole thing went south last week. I didn't mean to kick your a.s.s."

"We were all stretched a little thin," I said. "No harm, no foul."

"Good."

"You think Eric would have done it this way?" I asked.

"h.e.l.l if I know. He wasn't the kind of guy you could predict. Always something going on in his head. Why? You worried about it?"

"I'm worried about pretty much everything," I said. "It's just that you knew him. I think everyone here knew him better than I did. He was just this force for good that swooped into my life when things got bad and then swept back out again. And then I find out about the money. And then you and riders and magic. And...and it just seems like every time I turn around, there's more."

"No one knew Eric," Midian said. "You saw part of him. I saw part of him. The three musketeers saw part of him. No one was in on the whole show. It wasn't who he was."

"I guess," I said.

"You miss him?"

"I miss the part I knew," I said. "I just regret that I didn't meet the other parts."

"Deep," Midian said. "You should write a poem."

"Smart-a.s.s."

"Glad you noticed. A lot of the time my sense of humor goes unappreciated," Midian said. "So look, I've got the fridge pretty much filled. There's dinners in the freezer. If you need to hole up for a few days after this comes down, you'll have something decent to eat. I wrote out instructions on how to reheat it all and what goes together on the tinfoil. Just look for things written in the same color pen. That way you know it'll all fit. I leave you poor f.u.c.kers to yourselves, you'll have all the starches in one meal together."

"Thank you," I said. And then, softly, "Ah, f.u.c.k."

"Yeah," Midian agreed. "This is pretty much good-bye."

"We don't know that," I said. "This whole thing with Coin may work. You get away, I break Coin. Maybe we'll meet up again sometime. Down the road."

"I don't think that'd be such a good idea."

I shifted to look at him. The desiccated flesh of his face and neck, dark as old meat. The white shirt and high-waisted pants. He hitched up his shoulders in a pained shrug.

"Don't fool yourself, kid. This has been great. We've been friends. But next time you see me, we aren't going to be on the same side. I'm one of the bad guys, remember? People like you and Ex and tofu boy? You hunt down things like me. Like Coin."

"Yeah," I said. I could feel tears coming into my eyes. The rain pattered hard against the pavement, thousands of tiny gray explosions like something from Fantasia. "You're right."

"Don't take it hard," he said. "It was good being friends. So it didn't last. So what? It's not like it ever really does, you know?"

"I know," I said.

A thin, wasted hand rested on my shoulder for a second, squeezed gently, and moved away.

Twenty-four.

A little before six thirty, the rain stopped. By seven, the clouds were breaking apart, a sky of fresh-scrubbed late summer blue showing for the first time all day. Aaron handed me a ski mask and I folded it into my pack. Chogyi Jake and Midian were in their riding outfits. I nodded to them both as I slipped my backpack over my shoulder. I couldn't deal with any more emotional good-byes.

"Are we ready?" I asked.

"Guns are in the car," Aaron said. "We've all got masks, right?"

"I'm ready," Kim said. She looked perfectly calm. I had the feeling I could have known her for years without learning how to read her expressions.

"Okay," I said. "Let's do this."

Candace and Kim took off in her car first. Aaron and I followed about five minutes later. The traffic was thicker than I'd pictured it, but Aaron seemed pleased. We parked on the street near the Marriott on California Street, then went to the Starbucks for overpriced lattes and down to the bar. I turned on the laptop, connected to the network, and started up the chat program under a screen name I'd built just for this. True to form, Extojayne was on and waiting for Jayneh.e.l.ler to show. It was seven forty. He wouldn't have to wait long. We were three longish blocks from the convention center. MapQuest said it was about a third of a mile. It felt like a thousand miles away until I imagined Coin there. Then it seemed way too close.

Ten minutes later, Candace called.

"He's there," Candace said. "We're by his car. I saw him going in."

"Did he notice you?"

"No," she said.

"Okay," I said. "Hang tight. We'll be right there."

I dropped the call and dialed the house. Chogyi answered before I heard it ring.

"Jayne?"

"Yeah," I said. "Spark it up. I'm pulling the trigger now."

"I understand."

"Chogyi?"

"Yes?"

"Live through this, okay?"

"I'll do my best," he said, and hung up. I put the cell phone in my backpack and signed on as Jayneh.e.l.ler.

JAYNEh.e.l.lER: Ex! Are you there?

EXTOJAYNE: Yes. I'm here. What's up?

JAYNEh.e.l.lER: Change of plan. Coin's at the convention center right now. We're going with plan B. The U-Haul with the fertilizer bomb is on its way. We can take out his house now while it's unprotected. You should meet us at the airport ASAP. We're scrambling now.

EXTOJAYNE: Wait. I don't think this is a good idea. Can we talk about it?

JAYNEh.e.l.lER: No time, babe. Fortune favors the bold.

I closed the laptop, took a deep breath, and nodded.

"Hornet's nest now officially kicked," I said. "Let's see what happens."

Aaron actually grinned and slammed down the rest of his coffee. I put my cell phone in my backpack and left my cooling latte untouched on the table. We walked fast out to the Hummer. The stolen Hummer. With the rifles. I had to pull myself up into the pa.s.senger's seat. Aaron started the engine. I put on the seat belt like I was strapping in to drop from a plane.

If I'd guessed right, there were about a hundred things happening right now. Extojayne, whoever he was, was raising the alarm about an imaginary truck bomb cruising toward Coin's house and the enemy-meaning us-meeting at the airport. Whatever resources the Invisible College had watching for Chogyi Jake and Midian were also getting action for the first time, the two of them heading fast in opposite directions. And, with any luck, someone was calling Coin.

We pulled out into traffic. I plucked my cell phone out of my pack and called Candace. Kim answered.

"They're out," Kim said. Her voice was a tight whisper. "They're getting into the car now. I think it worked. It's just the two of them. Coin and the other one. The driver. The driver's huge."

Candace's voice came over Kim's, talking loud.

"They're pulling out. We're going after them."

"Tell Kim that's great," I said. "Just let me know where you guys are, and we'll fall in behind you in a couple minutes. Just don't follow too close. I'm going to put you on speaker here. Let me know if the background noise gets too bad."

"Okay," Kim said.

Aaron gunned the engine, cursing under his breath. The downtown traffic was thick. We pa.s.sed the Sixteenth Street mall, turned right on Fifteenth and then left again on Champa. I tapped my foot anxiously. We'd been right not to try taking him out down here. Too many people. Too much traffic. Someplace else would be better. I hoped that the right place existed. Kim reported in breathlessly. Coin was on Fourteenth, going the opposite direction. I cursed.

"It's okay," Aaron said. "He's heading to Colfax. We'll get there ahead of him. We're going to be fine."

We pa.s.sed over the two separate streets of Speer and the creek running between them, water high from the day's rain, and curved to the left. At the intersection of Colfax, two cars kept us from turning right. Aaron murmured something under his breath and reached toward the dashboard. Looking annoyed, he pulled his hand back.

"Miss having a siren?" I said.

"h.e.l.l yes," he said, and Coin drove through the intersection ahead of us. I didn't recognize his car so much as feel its presence in my gut. My eyes tracked it as it flowed away to my right. Candace's car flashed through the light just as it shifted yellow, speeding after Coin. Aaron leaned forward as if he could push the cars before us out of the way by force of will. We got onto Colfax, Aaron gunning the engine as we turned.

The voice that came from my cell phone was Candace's.

"We're past Eighth," she said. "I think he's getting on I-25."

"He'll be going south," Aaron said. "We'll do this on the loop. Get in behind him and get ready to put on your hazards when we come past you."