"Dude, stop up by the compound one of these days and I'll give you a lycan necklace," Sean told him when they were settling up the bill.

  "Seriously?"

  "What kind of a Wolf Pack fan would I be if I didn't help out the team?" Sean said with a chuckle.

  "You know I'm not the only lycan on the team, Sean." Miles said, looking a little hopeful.

  "Yeah, bring 'em all by. I think we can hook 'em up."

  "Thanks, man! Are you two ever coming back?" Miles asked, looking at Roxy.

  "I don't think so," Roxy told him, "we both have much more important careers now."

  "Yeah, well, if I decide not to go pro, I just may come by and hit you up for a job myself."

  Sean nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

  #

  "So you haven't been able to find a single Vesti magic user to grab?" Chad asked Jace.

  Jace sighed and shook his head. "Red, Gray, and Beck have been watching the place, and no one of any importance has set foot out of their compound at all today."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yeah, that Fry guy, the one in charge of the local Sapientia, hooked me up with the head of his security, a wolf named Runner, and he's got pictures and descriptions on everybody. Guy's a bit of an overachiever. He even loaned us a couple of his folks to help with the spotting.

  "Well, just who has been going out?"

  "Mostly the low rankers and some of the bosses' wives."

  "Their wives are still going out?"

  Jace nodded. "You think maybe we should grab someone's wife and hold her until the husband comes and bails her out?"

  Chad shook his head. "I'm not sure that'll send the kind of message we're looking for here. Keep an eye on things, but let me try something else."

  Heading back to the van, Chad pondered his options, then getting his phone out, he called Steven Fry.

  "Yes, Chad?"

  "Hey, are any of the women in Sapientia friends with any of the women from Vestibulum?"

  "We're not going to be party to any kidnappings or reprisals, Chad," Steven warned.

  "Actually I was thinking if someone could go out for a get together or lunch tomorrow, or whatever, and just share some gossip over what happened."

  "Why?"

  "Because we want to see if we can't get some leads on where they're sending their lycans. If we knew how they were going to ship them out of the country, maybe we could stage a reception for them."

  "So you're not looking to kidnap or question anyone?"

  "Not anymore. I think what happened with us showing up last night and then the raid on the former Gradatim council has them a bit spooked. None of the leadership is setting foot off of the premises, and honestly it's not worth going to war over. But maybe if we're lucky enough and some people have talked to each other about it, maybe a few hints might come up in a casual conversation between girlfriends?"

  "Ah, I get your point. I'll talk to my wife and let her handle it. It's kind of late though, so I don't think you'll be getting any kind of a response before tomorrow."

  "Well, I'll take whatever I can get. If we can't catch them before they leave, maybe we can have someone there when they show up at least."

  "Okay, Chad. I'll do what I can."

  Max looked at Chad. "Are you implying that all women are gossips, dear?"

  "Everyone gossips, Max. But as you constantly remind me, Dear," Chad said with a smile, "women are just better at everything than men are!"

  Max snorted. "Very funny. But I think you might be right. You know what might help those tongues wag even more?"

  Chad shook his head.

  "If we very obviously left town. You know, moved on to Saint Louis."

  Chad smiled and, bending over, he gave Max a kiss, causing her to smile as well. "That's a great idea!

  "Ryan!"

  "Let me guess," Ryan sighed, "pack everyone up and move 'em out."

  Chad nodded. "Look for someplace nice to stop between here and Saint Louis so everyone can take a break. I want to know how things are going for Maitland before we tackle our next target."

  Tuesday Late Morning

  Sean stretched and looked around his workshop; he'd just finished up the third tag machine. Tomorrow he'd start on a fourth one, then he'd make two more necklace machines to get caught up on those as well.

  "Hey, Lion-boy! Time to start getting ready for the president!" Daelyn said, coming into his shop.

  Smiling, Sean walked over and, pulling her close, gave her a kiss.

  "So, finished another one?" Daelyn asked, looking over at the machine.

  Sean nodded. "How'd the move go?"

  "Fine. Got both of the machines set up in my old room."

  "Why there?"

  "Well, my parents' old room is now our room," she said with a grin, "so it's off limits. The other bedrooms are for the operators; Oak said he'll switch them out once a week. My bedroom was a big one, and I didn't want to set the machines up in the living room or the den."

  Sean nodded. "Well let's get the others and get ready. The invite said three o'clock and it's," Sean looked at his watch, "almost twelve now."

  "I just can't believe you got out of bed before the sun came up!" Daelyn laughed.

  Sean shrugged. "I figure the rest of the day is gonna be shot, and I want to get these machines done now. I just realized that I've been putting off a lot of things for way too long."

  "Well, ya' have been rather busy, fighting a war and all that."

  "Still, the tags and the necklaces are our biggest weapon in this fight, and we never seem to have enough. Now maybe we will."

  "Any word from Chad?" Sean asked Roxy when they got to the main house.

  Roxy shook her head. "He said Fry's people have tapped into all the gossip they could since they left town on Sunday. All they've heard is the bitching from the women about them losing their maids and servants. They don't know where they've gone, just that it was all done in a big rush with lots of secrecy."

  "Any word from Sawyer?"

  "Nope, he's just as stumped as the rest of us. Though he'll swear up and down they're not getting on a boat anywhere. He's got his people checking out all the ports. Apparently Sawyer and all the other goblins have a pretty serious smuggling operation at a lot of ship ports, and he's been using that to try to find out how they're getting out of the country."

  Sean blinked. "Sawyer's doing all of that, for us?"

  "Well, we are House Valens," Cali said with a giggle, "and I sort of hinted that we'd be in his debt if he could do us this little favor."

  "Damn! All these years I wondered if there was anything other than money that could motivate Sawyer, and it turns out vague promises were all it took!" Jolene laughed.

  "Being a dark elf household is what it took," Sean corrected her.

  "I'm just a little surprised it's such a big deal for Sawyer that we are one now," Roxy admitted.

  "Well, Sawyer is a prince," Cali said.

  Sean noticed the shocked looks on all of the other's faces. He suspected his own was just as bad.

  "Sawyer…" Roxy began.

  "…is a prince?" Daelyn finished.

  "What, among crooks?" Peg snickered.

  Sean looked over at Jolene, who was apparently having trouble breathing all of a sudden. He started to move towards her to see what was wrong, when she suddenly broke out laughing.

  "Sawyer's a PRINCE!" Jolene said between bouts of laughter.

  Cali nodded. "Yes, an important one too. Why's that funny?"

  "Oh, am I gonna get him!" Jolene said, continuing to laugh. Sean grabbed her as she was starting to sway back and forth a little unsteadily on her feet.

  "How the hell does the likes of someone like Sawyer end up a prince?" Roberta wanted to know.

  Cali smiled. "He's crafty, resourceful, and has ties to some of the most powerful people around. For a goblin, he's really quite the overachiever and highly respected. He came to this country with nothing, yet he's risen to the top of goblin society. His allying with us was quite an accomplishment too; we are the most powerful dark elven household in North America."

  "Aren't we the only household?" Sean asked.

  Cali shook her head. "No. There are two in Vancouver, one in Seattle, and two more in New York City. While they may be larger than us in numbers, we are by far the most powerful."

  "Why's that?" Roxy wanted to know. She was helping Sean with Jolene, who was now just giggling uncontrollably. Roxy suspected Sawyer was going to be in for a hell of a lot of ribbing the next time the two of them met.

  "Because," Cali grinned widely, "Sean is a lion!"

  Sean just rolled his eyes. "Let's hit the shower, maybe we can get Jolene to come back to her senses."

  "A prince! A small green prince! Hey! If I kiss him, will he turn into a frog? Maybe that's why he's afraid of me!" Jolene said, still giggling.

  "Think we should warn Sawyer?" Peg asked as she followed them to the shower.

  "Oh hell no," Roxy said with a laugh, "watching the two of them go at it is my favorite pastime!"

  #

  "Here's your coffee," Jared sighed and passed Tate a styrofoam cup. "Damn, this job is boring."

  "Then why did you volunteer?" Tate asked.

  "Claudia volunteered me," Jared grumbled. "Apparently there weren't enough people signing up from our pack, so she just started appointing us."

  "She does that?" Tate asked, surprised.

  Jared nodded. "There are no free rides in our pack. You pull your weight, or she'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget."

  "Sounds harsh."

  Jared shrugged. "Life's harsh. At least if something bad happens, she's always the first one there to help you get by it. Besides, we've got the biggest and most successful wolf pack in the country. Can't argue with results."

  "I wonder how well she's taking Sean giving her orders?" Tate asked.

  "He's a lion. She's taking it the same as Clyde, the leader of your," Jared paused a moment, "what do you horses call it anyway? A herd?"

  Tate laughed. "We call it a family. Original, I know…" Tate paused a moment. "Uh oh, look at that!"

  Jared looked up and saw that a reefer truck had just pulled off the scales. The scales were blinking, but the guys at the weighing house just waved it by. Looking closer, he could see there was a man standing there, obviously doing some sort of incantation.

  "What the hell?"

  "Our medallions are protecting us," Tate told him. "They stop all mind spells. Watch that guy, see where he goes. I'm going to go get the plates off that truck."

  "Be careful, it looks like there are a few more lined up behind it!"

  "Call the office; let them know we've got a live one!" Tate said and left the small construction shed they'd been using to watch the trucks coming through the weigh station for the last few months. It was supposed to be part of an upgrade project, but by this point, everyone had just learned to ignore it.

  Jared got out his phone and called the watch commander back at the office in Reno.

  "No, you can't come home early," was the first words out of the girl manning the phones. Jared sighed, Marsha was an ex-girlfriend he still got on rather well with.

  "Hi, Marsha. I think we got a live one."

  "A live what?"

  Jared explained what they'd just witnessed. As he watched, three more tractor-trailers drove through the weighing platform. The last one caused the display to blink again, but it was also waved on as the magic user was still doing his thing.

  "Damn, that's at least four of them, there may be more."

  "Shit," Marsha swore in a very typical manner for her. "I better call Oak and Claudia and tell them we've got a problem."

  "Seeing as there's about a dozen trucks that all look the same, I think we've got a very big problem."

  "I'll keep this line open so Tate can give us some plate numbers when he gets back."

  "I just hope he doesn't do anything stupid," Jared said and started to uncase his rifle.

  "Why?"

  "'Cause I'm the one who's going to have to save his ass if he does."

  #

  "Sean!" Oak said, running into the bathroom.

  "Damn, man! Can't you wait until we're dressed?" Daelyn grumbled.

  "No! Sean!"

  "What?" Sean said. Looking over at Oak, he saw the panicked expression on the man's face. Suddenly the fact that he was in a very compromising position didn't seem to matter.

  "We've got twenty, twenty tractor-trailers coming down interstate 80 from the east! And they're being driven by magic users! Our sentries picked them up at the weigh station in Fernly!"

  "Shit!" Sean swore, all ideas of having fun in the shower suddenly quashed. "That's only thirty miles from here! Get everyone geared up! Get the choppers going! Have the other leaders been alerted yet?"

  "Minnie is calling them."

  "Get Troy on the phone, and find me when you do," Sean said and let go of Roxy, who'd put her feet back on the floor of the shower as he ran out of the bathroom.

  "Where are you going?"

  "To find a map! We need to try and block the highway before they get into Reno!"

  Sean looked at the clock as he ran into his office and dropped into the chair at his computer; it was almost two. Maybe he shouldn't have gotten so carried away in the shower.

  "Going to be putting any clothes on?" Deidre purred from the other chair in his office.

  "Be a dear and call Sawyer, tell him we found those missing lycans," Sean said as he called up Google Earth and started looking at highway to the east.

  "Oh? Where were they?"

  "They're about twenty miles east of us and will be hitting us any minute," Sean growled and realized he was dripping onto the keyboard. At least it was waterproof.

  "Oak!" he called and Oak stepped into the room. "I've got Mr. Troy on the phone."

  "Great." Sean pointed to a spot on the map. "Get the helicopters off with armed troops in them. I want those trucks stopped before they get to Lockwood. If they have to open fire in broad daylight in front of everyone, they're to do it! Understand?"

  "Yes, Sean," Oak said and handed him the phone.

  "Arthur!"

  "Sean, what in the world is going on?"

  "We found those missing lycans the Vestibulum were shipping out."

  "That doesn't sound good. Lockwood is just outside of Reno! How many of them are there?"

  "Twenty tractor-trailers' worth," Sean told him. "And it gets worse."

  "How can it get worse than that?"

  "Guess who's coming to visit?"

  "Won't they be gone by nightfall?"

  "What's that got to do with it?"

  "Surely Adams and the Vestibulum can't be planning an attack in the middle of town in broad daylight? They're not that stupid!"

  "Desperate men do desperate things, Arthur, and I can't take that chance."

  Arthur paused a moment before continuing, "I agree with trying to keep them from coming into town, but it's a holiday weekend. The roads are going to be crowded, please Sean! Try to maintain some sort of decorum here! Send one of your helicopters over here, I'll have a bunch of our people ready to go to help with the silence."

  Sean blew out his breath. "Fine, I'll do what I can." He turned towards Oak. "Ask Claudia to send a helicopter to Arthur's place."

  Oak nodded, grabbed the phone and left.

  'What do you think?' Sean asked the First.

  'Hell of a coincidence, don't you think?'

  'You don't think it is, do you?'

  'Do you?'

  'Hell no, but then I'm a very suspicious person with trust issues. Something I have both you and the Ascendance to thank for.'

  'It's always nice to see you're paying attention.'

  'So attack?'

  'Obviously.'

  'But what about the silence and all that?'

  'Let the mages worry about it. Right now, you have more important things to deal with. Namely a couple thousand lycans who are probably not going to wait for nightfall. I'm guessing the Vestibulum definitely does not want the president on your side.'

  Sean sighed and looked at the map again.

  "Oak!" he called out again.

  "Yes, Sean?"

  "Load the choppers up with rockets and tell them not to be afraid to use them!"

  Sean was sure he heard Oak gulp.

  "Yessir, Sean."

  George and his team were the first on the scene, and he started to orbit the area, looking for the tractor-trailers that had been reported.

  "Anybody got a visual?" George called out to the rest of the men in the helicopter.

  "On what? There's lots of trucks down there today! Couldn't they have marked them, or something?"

  "We got license plate numbers, for all the good that'll do us up here," George told them.

  "Over there at five o'clock," said Jon, who was sitting in the copilot's seat, pointing.

  George spun them around. There was a line of trucks, and they were all pulling off the highway at the McCarran exit.

  "What the hell are they doing? There's nothing up there but the motor sports park!" Gray asked

  "Making it easy for us?" Dirk laughed.

  "Wait, they're splitting up," Jon said as the trucks continued up into the hills. "Shit! I only count fourteen of them!"

  "Damn, follow the highway and see if we can find the other six!" George said.

  "I see 'em! They're pulling off into Lockwood!" Kev called.

  George got on the radio to Wilma Two, who had just shown up with the magic users from Sapientia.

  "Go watch the ones up on the hills by the concrete plant!" he ordered them.

  "The ones in Lockwood have stopped," Jon told him, "and the drivers are all bailing and running for a van. What the hell?"

  As they watched, the backs on all the trailers opened and troops started to disgorge out of the back.

  The two helicopters from Sean's compound showed up at that point, and they started immediately shooting up the trucks that were heading up the two roads by the concrete plant. Apparently Sean's people had a couple of rockets, too, which surprised the hell out of George and Jon when they hit the lead trucks in the two convoys now heading up the hill, destroying the tractors and bringing all the trucks behind to an immediate halt.