"What's the emergency response?"

  "Liquid nitrogen."

  "Why that?"

  "Because they have it and understand how to use it, and it'll let them dissect the frozen corpse afterwards. They have a pretty involved imaging system for all that, and that's also their plan to kill it if it survives all the testing."

  "Well, just don't get too close when they do it. If anything's going to test the limits of the chamber, that's gonna be it."

  "And the wards?" Harmony asked.

  "If there's anything wrong with them, I sure can't find it," he admitted. "I just hope this all pans out. Would hate to do all this and not have the doc find something useful."

  "Do you really think he will?"

  Mihalis chuckled. "If anyone is going to find something, my money's on him. Which reminds me, let's go find him, I want to go over something with him."

  "You sure you need us for that? I mean, you're just going to ask him about the power, right?"

  "Oh, thanks for reminding me; yeah, that too."

  Leaving the lab area they were working in, Mihalis stopped one of the lab workers and asked to be pointed to the lab Dr. Ruxton was working in at the moment.

  When they went inside, Mihalis was surprised to see Dr. Ruxton currently involved in some sort of experiment on a råge that was very much alive and heavily restrained, using the very techniques Mihalis had suggested to him some time ago. They had to wait about fifteen minutes for Ruxton to finish up what he was doing, as neither Mihalis, Harmony, or Noje wanted to interrupt him.

  When he was finished, another researcher moved in to seal up the incision Ruxton had been working through as Ruxton cleaned up, got out of the gloves and other gear, and cleaned up a second time.

  "Ah! Michael! You haven't been waiting long, I hope?" Dr. Ruxton said, coming over and shaking hands with him, Harmony, and Noje.

  "No, not at all. How goes the program?" Mihalis asked with a motion towards the råge that was now being moved back into its cage.

  "Good, very good! Now that we can do repeated experiments on the same subjects over and over again, we're learning a lot about the healing methods their bodies use. We're seeing accelerated growth that up until now we've only seen in cancers. I'm hopeful in time I'll be able to figure out what mechanism is keeping this biological method from becoming cancerous like it does in humans."

  "Sounds promising."

  "It may be. Now, to what do I owe the honor of your visit this morning?"

  "Two things I wanted to go over. The first is, I'm having a natural gas line rerouted by a team of dwarves working underground so I can install a gas turbine generator or two to supply power to some of my projects, and I was wondering if you'd be interested in tapping into it for your power needs?"

  "A gas pipeline? Here?"

  "Turns out there's one that comes pretty close that can still be used. I've already got them working on it. Should only take a month to get it all set up."

  "I see. How much would this cost me?"

  "Whatever it costs me for your portion of the gas and maintenance on the generator. I'm not looking at this as a 'profit center', as one of my mothers likes to call such things. As we're going to be running a power line down here on the other side of your wall, I thought I'd offer it to you."

  "Then I'm most certainly interested, Michael. The costs of ferrying in the fuel for our generators have been high, I'll confess. What was the other thing?"

  "Now that my sisters here have finished the containment, we're working on a plan to capture and deliver a biskop."

  "Ah! Good!"

  "Yes, and I wanted to get your assurances that whenever you or Sheethal are in that lab, you'll bring one of my sisters here, or Cinnamon if they're not available, to act as your bodyguard should anything happen."

  Dr. Ruxton blinked and looked at him. "You're worried?"

  "Doc, of course I'm worried! You're a friend, and while I know Mark and his men are good, I know for a fact that any of my sisters can kill a biskop in single combat. So while I have faith in their work on the wards and the chamber, there's some things you don't take chances on."

  Dr. Ruxton nodded slowly. "I can understand your concern. Biskops are powerful, and I know you've tangled with them before, so you'd know better than anyone. I'll heed your advice, and I'll make sure Sheethal knows as well, not to go into the lab unless one of them is available."

  Dr. Ruxton turned to Harmony and Noje. "Ladies, I of course wish to retain your services, as your brother here has outlined. If possible, I'd also like for one or both of you to be present during the first week of our experiments, so I don't lose any of my personnel, should the unexpected occur."

  Both of the girls nodded.

  "Of course, Doctor," Noje said. "I'll let our sister know about this as well."

  "Thank you! Oh, I see it's almost time for lunch; would the three of you care to join me today?"

  "Why, we'd be delighted!" Mihalis told him with a smile.

  "Well, then, let's go see what my chef has come up with for today. Sheethal will meet us there, I'm sure!"

  Lunch was, as always, quite enjoyable, and he could tell his sisters both enjoyed the cuisine, as well. The conversation was mostly light, discussing Mihalis' plans for the coffee shop and the small sandwich shop he was building. There'd be a nicer restaurant, eventually, but that would only be open in the evenings. Of course, there'd be a couple of private conference rooms, as well, attached to it.

  When they'd finished eating, Dr. Ruxton left to return to his work, as Mihalis bid his sisters goodbye and headed off to Biggs' shop. There wasn't much traffic down the alleyway that led there, and he nodded hello to Trudge at the door as he entered Biggs' shop. The only real difference between Sawyer's shop and Biggs' was that Biggs didn't have to hide that he was a fence. Several of the items on the floor were flat-out illegal, and probably stolen. Things on the floor also got sold, so the display did change over time.

  "Biggs!" Mihalis said as he walked towards the counter in the back. "What have you got for me?"

  "I got us three stalls in three separate 'districts' your councilors have."

  "Great! Who'd you get to run 'em?"

  "Some of those Fey you got working the gates brought their wives along, and they was gettin' bored." Biggs shrugged and smiled. "They were more than happy to have something to do."

  "Great! Have you heard anything from Sawyer on those djinn we wanted to hire?"

  "Yup. He's got ten who're more than willing to help out, and another dozen or so who're interested. They've already started putting together some custom bottles for transport."

  "That's good. Did Taid and Wayan agree to help with building the transport carts?" Taid and Wayan were two of Daelyn's sons, Taid a year older than Mihalis, and Wayan two days younger. Wayan and Mihalis had developed a good friendship, and Mihalis knew how much he loved building enchanted toys, so he figured this would be right up his alley. He'd been the one to suggest Taid's help.

  "You have to call Sawyer and ask him yerself; I didn't ask who was building things out at that end. He did say, however, that once Oluf got the pipeline finished, he'd be sending a couple dwarves out to build the station at the other end."

  "Guess I need to pay him a visit soon. I'm gonna see about hauling a gas turbine generator out here once we get everything finished."

  "Hope you're not planning on stringing power cables overhead?"

  "Gonna have to, I suspect," Mihalis said with a shrug, "but I'm gonna see if Oluf can run an underground cable down to that shop we're taking over for the coffeehouse. We can run any cables from there to the other places we want to power."

  "Gonna sell power to Doc Ruxton?"

  "Yeah, but I'm gonna do it at cost."

  "Cost? You're not feelin' ill, are ya' Mike?"

  Mihalis laughed. "Hardly. Getting him to buy power covers the real reason I put in the gas line. He'll be using so much, folks'll figure I'm making bank off him. Besides, he's a friend, and you know how humans are when it comes to friendship; they just don't understand the money side of it."

  Biggs snorted and nodded. "Yeah, you got that right."

  "Plus, he did build this place, so I gotta do something to show my appreciation!"

  Biggs laughed, "Sure you do, riiiight! So are you going to tell the doc about the tunnel route?"

  Mihalis frowned. "I'm not sure. I guess it'll come down to whether he wants to do any special business here. If he tells me he is and he needs some things on the down-low, I'll tell him. But I won't be offering any deals on that. Which reminds me, how many guest rooms do you think we're gonna need?"

  "I think six or eight at first, though I'm thinking we only put the real high-end types in there. For the more average types, we can probably work a deal with your mother-in-law over at HoJo's. I did have a thought, however; maybe we should start thinkin' about the tourists?"

  Mihalis stared at Biggs. " Tourists ?"

  Biggs laughed. "Yeah, I know, right? But come on, you know humans! Once the word starts makin' the rounds, some of those folks with more money than sense are gonna hear about it, and they're gonna wanna come here and visit, just so they can say they have! And you know what they say about people with more money than sense?"

  "That we need to take as much away from them as the market will bear, plus twenty percent," Mihalis said, shaking his head while grinning. "You know, if we do get tourists, we're gonna have to stick them someplace well away from the 'businessmen'," he said, making air quotes with his fingers.

  "Probably going to need some bodyguards for them, too, to keep them from gettin' themselves killed."

  "Yeah, but we can make them pay for it." Mihalis thought about that for a moment, and then snorted. "Four. We'll allow up to four tourists at a time, if it ever comes to that. We'll stick 'em in HoJo's, then Shaylee can charge 'em an arm and a leg and make some money as well."

  "Sounds like a plan."

  "Now, how about we go back to your office and go over the last week's receipts from the auction?"

  "Sure thing, oh! We made another deal with the Black Eyes; your wife Taeria got them to bring in a large shipment of some really good quality merchandise. Some of it'll go up at the next auction, but most of it's gonna get shipped out to a number of Sawyer's connections."

  "Sounds good. Oh, that reminds me, I need to get those two helipads built out by the north gate, so people can land there and not on the other side of the ridge."

  "That'll make people happy. Some djevels have been preying on the folks traveling from the current landing zones to here."

  "Oh? Well, after we go over the books, tell me where, and maybe a few of us'll run off and see about some dinner ," Mihalis said with a toothy grin.

  Biggs just sighed and shook his head as he led Mihalis into the back to go over the books. Lions could have a weird sense of humor, he'd learned.

  By the time Mihalis got back to the Auction House, his new home, the day's business was just getting packed up. This was the end of the current three-day cycle, and tomorrow he'd go over the books with Biggs again, but things were still looking a lot better than either of them had expected. Apparently the Black Eyes had gotten the word out to everyone that the auction was no longer being run by djevels, and love 'em or hate 'em, goblins dealt square, because they made more money that way.

  Right now, he was looking forward to a three-day period of peace and quiet. Or at least what passed for peace and quiet in his life now.

  "Oh! There you are!" Talin said, coming over to him as he walked through the rotunda.

  "Hi, Tal, what's up?" he asked, giving her a hug.

  "Dinner at my mom's tomorrow night. Make sure your sisters know; your grandmother wants to see them, too."

  "Okay, I'll let them know if I see them before you do. Anything going on that I need to know about?"

  "Nope. Everyone behaved themselves at the auction today. But…"

  "But?" he asked with a sigh.

  "Hess showed up with a few of those shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, and well…" Talin grinned ruefully. "Jade bought 'em."

  Mihalis sighed. "How many is a 'few'?"

  "Three."

  "How much did that cost?"

  "Umm, ninety-three thousand dollars?"

  Mihalis blinked. "He sold them to us for thirty one thousand? Each?"

  "Is that cheap?"

  "I think they normally cost a hundred thousand a piece. Did he say why they were so cheap?"

  "Apparently somebody had to 'dump' some 'evidence' before they got caught 'holding the bag,'" Talin said with a shrug. "Jade thinks these are leftovers from whoever sold the ones to the folks who shot down that Secret Service helicopter."

  "Uh-oh. I guess I need to talk to my father."

  "Taeria sent a note over to Biggs to send to Sawyer. Jade asked if he could get more, but he told her these had been dumped on one of their fences, and after they heard about what happened in Florida, they decided to move them out fast. None of us think there'll be much of a trail there."

  "Ah, okay."

  "So," Talin said, putting an arm around his waist and leaning into him as they walked through the entrance to private part of the building, "Cinnamon tells me that cambion is hot to get you in bed?"

  Mihalis snorted. "I warned her that if I slept with her, I'd be bending her will to mine and making her a faithful servant. I'm sure that changed her mind."

  Talin snickered. "Cinn thinks it made her even hotter for you."

  "You're kidding me?" he said with a heavy sigh.

  "Mike, she's evil. The nastier demons and devils, they do that kinda shit to each other. Or more to the point, they do it to their servants . She's coming to realize you're what Kerrie or Jade call 'major league'. For cambions, sooner or later, they're going to end up dead or owned. Well, the males tend to end up dead, and the females owned."

  "And you think she wants me to be the one holding her leash?" he said, frowning.

  "Tamerin did, and you took hers," Talin reminded him.

  "But Tamerin isn't evil. She's actually quite good. What would I do with an evil cambion?"

  "Oh, I don't know, make her good?" Talin said with a giggle. "Talk about your torture!"

  He just shook his head. "I don't even like her."

  "You can always turn her over to Ruxton for experimentation if you get tired of her."

  "Talin! Really ?"

  Talin laughed. "You seem to forget that two of your wives and their sisters are just a bit on the Unseelie side of things. Cynthia is evil. The only way she's going to be less evil is if you get inside her head and 'bend her will to yours,'" Talin said with a chuckle. "Even then, how long will that last after you're done with her? I guess you could keep her as a secretary after the DEZ goes away, and your father has you shut down Bartertown."

  "That's two hundred years from now," he reminded her.

  "Cambions live a long time. Almost as long as the Fey."

  Mihalis sighed again. "Not. Helping."

  Talin laughed again and leaned into him. "I'm sorry, but the idea of a demoness—well, a cambion in this case—just going around like a cat in heat and begging you for some is just too funny for me not to laugh at it."

  "Will you still be laughing afterwards?" he grumbled.

  "Oh, even more so, because she'll be below Tamerin on the list of who gets your time, and I won't allow her to live here."

  "Oh? Is that so?"

  Talin grinned. "Yes, it is so. Senior wife, remember? I make the rules. Not that I think you'd make her anything more than—well, than whatever Tamerin is. She'd be beholden to you, and possibly even infatuated, but I don't think there'd ever be any love there."

  "And that's the reason I don't want to sleep with her," Mihalis admitted with a grumble. "I don't like being used, and I don't like using someone like that."

  "Oh, I'm sure you'd have fun."

  He shook his head slowly. "No, I wouldn't. Now, let's change the subject."

  Talin sighed, realizing she must have hit a sore spot. "Let's go to bed."

  Suddenly, all was right with his world, just like that. "Yes, bed. I like that idea!"

  The next morning, he actually got out of bed early, as he had a fair bit to do. It started off with checking on Oluf's progress, then going down to what the council called the 'Housing District' to check on the two buildings he'd recently acquired. The coffee shop was coming along well, and Biggs had suggested driving a tunnel through to it, too, but Mihalis didn't like the idea of having yet another backdoor into his home, and once he'd put it into those terms, Biggs had agreed it wasn't worth it.

  But now that he was going to be putting in power, they were going to have to drive an underground cable to the basement of the building, a basement Oluf now had a small crew excavating.

  "So what about the restaurant?" Kerrie asked after they'd finished going over the coffee shop.

  "What about it?"

  "Where are you going to find a cook for it?"

  "And a wait staff, kitchen workers, all that other stuff," Caitin added.

  "I haven't a clue," Mihalis admitted. "I don't want to even try to match the level of what Doc's got inside his place. I don't think we could afford somebody that good, or the level of security to protect them."

  "Hire those djinn girls Troy saved to be the waitstaff and the kitchen staff," Kerrie said. "Hire them to work here as well."

  Mihalis frowned. "Why in the world would any of them want to come here ? I'm surprised Sawyer was able to find enough to do the bottles."

  "What else are they going to do?" Kerrie said, looking at him. "They can't go home, and sitting on their butts back at your parents' place is probably leading to all sorts of mischief. Here, they're free to do whatever they want, and you can probably pay them peanuts. Just be sure to lay on some good security so they're protected, give them limits as to what kind of trouble they're allowed to cause, and tell the patrons if they want to try and bed any of the 'little hotties' working here, they're all djinn, and you're not responsible for any embarrassing circumstances they end up in."