Steve laughed. "So no one else can use it?"

  "Nope."

  "And they don't know about this?"

  "Oh, I think they're going to learn about it real soon," Finn said and cackled again. "The problem with the bright boys who design these things is, they're all so impressed with their own genius, they never seem to think about the obvious problems."

  "Yeah, I've seen that more than once since I got here. So how do we get them to think the satellite's been compromised?"

  "Oh, that's easy! You just have to place a special jamming device in their communications dish. One that'll send out all sorts of spurious signals when they try to talk to their satellite with the current stream."

  "You have one of those for us to use?" Steve asked with a sigh.

  "Of course! Trust me; this is something I've been waitin' to do for years! But that's not the hard part."

  "Getting the document from the guy who's in the comms center is, right?"

  Finn sighed. "Yup, that's the hard part."

  "You know," Steve said, leaning back in his chair and toying with a pencil, "we don't need to steal it; we just need to copy it."

  Finn looked at him and frowned. "I don't follow you. If we don't steal it, they can try to retake their satellite."

  "They're gonna do that regardless of what we do. But didn't you just tell me you can mess with the satellite so it won't matter?"

  Finn nodded slowly. "Well, yeah, but the moment we mess with it, they're gonna see it. We need a good 10, 15 minutes of uninterrupted access. They might be able to get the code and retake the satellite before we can finish."

  "What if we use a dish on the other side of the world? One they don't have direct access to?"

  Finn puzzled over that a moment, then nodded. "Okay, yeah, that should work. Especially if they've got something else keeping them busy. But most of the kinds of dishes we want on the other side of the world are controlled by foreign agencies."

  "You let me worry about that," Steve said with a smile. Trisha had told him about Ceithir a while ago. As she was in an important government position in China, he'd bet he could get her to wrangle them a dish. "But before we even go there, how do we get our picture of this document, the one with the code on it, so we can use it?"

  "Yeah, that's the part I'm still working on," Finn said. "Maybe have your boss raid the CIA lookin' for more djevels and leave something behind?"

  Steve shook his head. "Too obvious. We need subtle. Look, you put together the instructions we need to send out so I can make sure, when we get someone to send them up to the satellite, it'll work. While you're doing that, I'm going to talk to some friends and see what I can come up with."

  "It's a physical device," Finn said. "You enter the key into it, then the code, to cause everything to shut down, restart, hook it directly into the feeds, and press a button. After that's done, you send the time offset code—but you need to get that device back, because its gonna be the only thing with the exact time sync until we can hook it up to our own satellite communications gear back in Las Vegas, where we're getting everything set up."

  "Just make sure you have it handy when I need it," Steve told him. "I think I can handle that, too."

  Finn nodded, got up, and gave Steve a card. "Have someone call this number when you want to talk to me. I won't answer it, but you're the only one with the number, so I'll come here after it rings. Should only take me about an hour."

  Steve nodded and took the card, then got up and showed Finn out of the room they'd been meeting in. That done, he went upstairs to talk with Terri and Tisha. Tisha could talk to Ceithir and see about getting her onboard with borrowing a satellite dish in China to talk to the one they wanted to steal, while he and Terri tried to figure out how they were going to get a copy of that code.

  #

  Sean was at the house of the man who'd turned into a betrayer when Tom had killed him. His name was Keith something or other, and one of the gals on his bodyguard team was holding the man's wife at gunpoint, while another strip-searched her.

  His two kids, a son and a daughter, were getting the same treatment from another pair each, but in separate areas, so they didn't have to see their mother pinned to the floor at gunpoint.

  "Why? Why are you doing this?" the woman sobbed; he could hear the kids crying in the other room.

  "Because your husband was a traitor, and we don't know if you're a traitor, too," Sean told her.

  "What, what do you mean, was?"

  "He's dead. He shot his boss twice when we showed up, then his boss killed him, and he turned into a djevel," Sean said.

  "What? He's dead? A traitor? Keith? No, that can't be…" She sobbed.

  Sean sighed. "Shut it. He sold his soul, and now he's dead. The only reason we haven't killed you yet is because your children are still alive."

  "Killed me? What do you mean, still alive?"

  "Djevels like to eat children," said Tess, the one searching her. "If both of you were traitors, they'd probably have been eaten already."

  "What! No! That can't be! None of this is true! You're lying to me!"

  "Dammit!" Tess said as the woman thrashed around.

  Mauve, who was holding the rifle on her, took a step back and got ready to shoot her in the head.

  "Wait," Sean said and hit her with a sleep spell. The woman immediately collapsed to the floor.

  "Hogtie her," he ordered, then checked her personal items. None of it was magical at all. There wasn't even one of his amulets.

  "Tie her up good and keep a gun on her. Wrap her in a blanket or something, so the kids don't see her naked."

  "I thought the possessed were supposed to smell?" Tess asked.

  "Yeah, but traitors aren't possessed. They've gone along willingly. So until they die, and their soul is collected, they're still human."

  "Why would anyone do that?"

  "Don't know, I haven't been able to ask one of them. Supposedly they get extra powers or abilities or something from it."

  Sean went by the other two rooms and slept the kids, one at a time. He realized he probably should have done that first, but he was trying to hoard his magic as much as possible.

  "Strip 'em to their underwear, hogtie 'em, and wrap them in a blanket. I want a gun on them as well as a second person watching. Put them in a room away from their mother."

  "You think they might be, well, whatever the hell that guy who turned into a djevel was?" Travis asked.

  Sean shook his head. "I have no idea. I'm gonna have to get Stewart to show me how to check 'em out. I don't know enough about mind magic, and I don't even know if that'll work."

  "I'll call Roxy and have her call Arthur; maybe he knows."

  "Do that. The rest of you, search the house and look out for traps. I'm going to check his home office."

  He was just about to head up the stairs when he heard two quick gunshots. Swearing, he ran to the room Mauve and Tess were in. Sure enough, there was a djevel melting into the floor.

  "Sonofabitch," Sean swore. "Join the watch on the kids."

  "Maybe we should just kill them, too," Mauve said, eyeing the melting djevel.

  "Fuck that. Infect 'em. If they're still human, they'll become wolves, and we'll take 'em with us when we leave. If they don't infect, then you can kill 'em."

  "I'll do it," Tess said. "I don't like the idea of killing children, either."

  Sean went back to looking for the man's office and found it almost immediately. It didn't take him long to hack into the system and look through the files. While he might not have had John's skills, he'd still been a comp-sci major, and hacking a home computer, even an NSA one, wasn't much of a challenge.

  After a little while, he knew whatever it was Keith was up to, he hadn't entrusted it to his computer. Casting a few spells to reveal hiding places, he looked for a notebook.

  He'd just found one when his comm back to headquarters beeped.

  "Sean," he said, answering it as he paged through the book. He almost laughed; it was written in demonic.

  "We've got problems," Roxy said with a sigh. "I've got the director of Homeland Security on the other line, and she said she's preparing a strike force to retake the data center."

  "Put her through. I'll talk to her. Then ping Carl and Vincent over at the Secret Service, fill them in, and tell them I may need to talk to the president."

  "Okay, here she is."

  "Hi, Jill," Sean said as he heard the line click.

  "Don't you 'Jill' me! I'm the director of Homeland Security and will be addressed as such!"

  "Well, maybe if I knew your last name, I'd call you that, but right now, I don't give a shit. We got trouble, Jill, and if you send a force to try to retake the NSA data center before I'm done there, I will have you killed. Do you understand?"

  "Who the hell do you think you are, young man?" she fumed back at him.

  "The guy who just killed another djevel down here at your main decryption facility!" Sean growled back at her as he headed for the cars they came in, waving for the others to go. "That's who the hell I think I am! Now I don't have time for this shit, Jill. I have a job to do, and I'm not leaving here until I know for sure that our intelligence services aren't being corrupted!"

  "What do you mean, another?"

  "One of Tom Matthews people—some division head, I think, named Keith—shot him. Twice. Tom killed him, then he turned into a forræderen djevel, one of the betrayer demons…you know, like your old pal Walker did when he tried to assassinate the president?"

  Sean almost laughed as she said some very unladylike things.

  "Who was the second one?" she asked.

  "His wife. We went to his house to look for evidence, and she changed after I slept her."

  "Did you find anything?"

  "Yup, but it's written in demonic, so other than lions or dark elves, I don't think you're going to be able to read it. Now, are you going to call off that strike force? Or are we going to have a war down here in Utah?"

  "Who's left in charge there?"

  "Tom is. I've got him questioning people."

  "I thought you said he'd been shot!"

  "Apparently Tom got himself infected at some point and is now a werewolf," Sean said, "thank the fates. So he survived."

  "I need to talk to him!"

  "As soon as I get back there, I'll have him call you. Now, are you going to call off the attack, or should I be talking to the president?"

  "How long are you going to be there?"

  "Until we've vetted every person working there. Probably their families, too. Then there's the main NSA building back in DC. Probably gonna have to check that as well. Maybe run through some of the other agencies, too."

  "I already did that, after Walker!"

  "Well, maybe it's time we did it again? Now, Jill, are you going to follow orders, or am I going to have to get mean?"

  "I don't answer to you, Sean."

  "In this case, you do. This isn't politics, this is djevels, and I'm in charge of dealing with them by both law and treaty. Now stop being a stubborn bitch! I got work to do, dammit!"

  "Fine!" she replied, barking it out angrily, "but I still want to talk to Matthews!"

  "I'll tell him."

  "And one other thing, young man!"

  "What!"

  "It's Murrow! Jill Murrow!"

  "Miss, Mrs., or Ms.?"

  "Mrs. Goodbye!" She clicked off the line. Roxy came on immediately.

  "Well, I see you're getting better with your people skills!" Roxy said with a laugh.

  "Uh-huh. Where's Stewart?"

  "He landed at the main building a few minutes ago. He told me that Taite was dominated and had been messed with almost as much as Jessie."

  "Great."

  "And there's a big ass bomb in her house, and you might not want to send anyone over there just yet."

  "Better still." Sean sighed.

  "Jack's on his way."

  "Why?"

  "Because he's got two stars on his shoulders, he can run up to the local base, raise all kinds of hell, and stop anyone from getting in your way."

  "Huh, good idea. Wish I'd thought of it."

  "Have fun."

  "I'll try."

  #

  Sean looked around the table. Cali was seated on his right, and Estrella was on his left. Roxy had neglected to mention that they'd flown in with Stewart. Seated next to Estrella was Tom, who was now in a fresh suit and looking troubled. Across from him and next to Cali was Stewart, then Rachel. April was sitting in a chair by the wall with a large machinegun, not unlike Travis, who was on the other side of the room.

  Apparently, sweet little April had developed a love of fully automatic weapons and, according to Stewart, was now a qualified marksman.

  Next after Tom was Jack Kennedy, and while Tom was in his human form, General Kennedy was in his cougar lycan form. Across from him was the lieutenant colonel, Grimes was his name, who was in charge of the paratroopers. Then came Hunter, the former Alpha Team leader from the Gradatim, who was now effectively a major in rank and reported directly to Sean. He was in charge of the second wave, and while he was nominally ranked by Grimes, Sean wanted him here because he was a natural lycan, while Grimes wasn't, and even Grimes recognized that the natural lycans had different views on things, which could be helpful.

  Half of Sean's bodyguards were inside the room; the other half were standing guard outside.

  "So, Colonel Grimes, what's the status of the compound?"

  "We've got them all fed, and we're running bathrooms in shifts. A few people tried to act up, and we had to make a few examples. Tom and I"—Grimes motioned towards Matthews—"believe they were foreign spies worried about being exposed. But I think all the workers here now understand that this is serious, and we won't hesitate to use lethal force if any of them act up.

  "As for the perimeter, Hunter's boys have got that sewed up tighter than a drum. I'm not at all worried about anybody getting out, and with the security patrols General Kennedy got the Air Force base to provide riding out in the local town, I think we'll see any external troubles well before they can reach us."

  "How many did we lose securing the facility?"

  "Nobody. Though I'm sorry to say, the same wasn't true for Tom's people. We've got thirty-eight fatalities, and another fourteen wounded. Our sappers found a few incendiary devices, which I've since learned are supposed to be used to destroy documents in case of an attack, but as we came in through multiple holes in the roofs of all the buildings on campus, we were able to overwhelm them before they could be employed.

  "Plus, the fact that we're all in US Army uniforms helped us. There are enough people working here who were in the military that recognized us, gave us no resistance, and told the others to surrender."

  Sean nodded. "Tom?"

  Tom sighed. "I don't know where to start, in all honesty. Keith Henry was obviously a traitor. I've asked Jill to run a background on him and see if he and Walker crossed paths at any point in their careers. Needless to say, there's a lot of shit hitting the fan in DC. I called Vincent, and he's putting everyone he's got on it."

  "Vincent?" Hunter asked.

  "Vincent Kensington," Sean said. "He's the head of the Secret Service, and they have primary jurisdiction over magic users, lycans, and all things magical, which includes djevels."

  Hunter nodded, and Tom continued.

  "As for the people here? Your man Stewart there has gone through the rest of my executive staff, my division chiefs, and secretaries, and I'll let him tell you about the ones he found, but there's been some shit going on here, and it's coming from the CIA. Apparently you may have cleaned out the possessed who were working there, but from the looks of things, they have more than a few people who are either holding a grudge because of your killing Walker, or aren't loyal to this country, but to someone or something else.

  "Whether or not they're in league with the djevels like Keith was"—Tom threw his hands up in the air in disgust—"I have no idea. Right up until the moment Keith turned into one of those forræderen things, I thought it was just the kind of political shit you get early retirement for because some senator with a grudge is pushing it. Anyway, I'll be looking for work soon, so if you want a washed-up analyst, I'm available."

  "They'll fire you for this?" Estrella asked. "Even though this obviously started before you came?"

  Tom nodded. "Someone has to take the blame, and it happened on my watch. Though I suspect my predecessor is about to get the proctological examination of the century."

  "Proctolig…" Estrella said, looking at Sean.

  "They're going to crawl up his ass so far, they'll know what he had for breakfast ten years ago," Sean told her with a grin.

  "Ah."

  "Tom, I'll take care of you regardless of the outcome, so don't worry about it," Sean told him. "Now, Stewart, give us the bad news."

  "All of Keith's staff were mentally dominated. Same for all the executive secretaries. I suspect we're going to find quite a few of the rank and file have been dominated as well. Also, we're going to need to check all their families. All of them. I talked to Vincent—Powers that is, our magical rep—who had me talk to Arthur, Joseph, and Deanna. Tomorrow morning, twenty magic users who are experienced with mind magic are going to show up."

  "What about checking for people who've made one of these deals with the djevels? The ones turned traitor?" Tom asked. "We can't smell 'em, so how do we find them?"

  "That's actually fairly easy to determine, using mind magic. Which is why my wife April has that gun of hers. Either they'll change when I probe, or they'll tell me about it when I ask."

  Sean sighed. "How many did you find?"

  "Just one. Keith's executive assistant. She changed as soon as I used mind magic on her."

  "Thought I heard gunfire," Grimes muttered.

  "Yeah, you're going to have to assign at least two soldiers to each magic user, so if they trip over anyone or give the high-sign, the soldiers will act accordingly."