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He shows me what he’s packing. There are about fifty little pockets sewn into the inside of Vidocq’s big coat. Each pocket contains a potion vial that he can throw like a mini hand grenade.

I get up and manifest my Gladius.

“Let’s go.”

I pull him through a shadow to the flying saucer house.

When we get there, it looks like we got worked up for nothing. It’s not that Samael was wrong about the Stay Belows—judging by the wreckage, they’re gone now. All that’s waiting for us in the flying saucer house is rubble. The spooks have had all day to get out their frustrations on the place and it looks like they took their work seriously. There isn’t a single piece of furniture left in one piece. The walls are torn open in places and the insulation pulled out. The Blu-ray player is in a million pieces and the smashed TV is in the bedroom on the slashed mattress. The only good news in the mess is that the DVDs I borrowed from Max Overdrive are safe under the splintered sofa. The kitchen, however, looks like a bomb went off.

Vidocq puts away his vials and I let the Gladius go out.

“At least Samael was telling the truth,” says Vidocq. “It looks as if he might have saved your life today.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know what I’m going to tell Abbot. How many times can I destroy this place before someone on the Sub Rosa Council gets annoyed and boots me out?”

“Abbot is the Augur. The leader. They will have to listen to him.”

“Not if I can’t do something for them. And so far, all I’ve done is wave my hands, shout theories, and get three people killed.”

I find a relatively intact sofa cushion and sit down on it. Vidocq perches on the ledge where the TV used to be.

“At least you weren’t here,” he says. “As long as you’re alive there’s hope.”

“You think so? I’m having my doubts.”

He gives me a concerned look.

“You’re not thinking of doing something rash, are you?”

I pull some stuffing from the sofa cushion I’m sitting on.

“It’s nothing like that. It’s just that, after this—and knowing what Abbot is about to do—I think the only useful thing left for me to do is go to Little Cairo and wipe out every single goddamn Stay Below I can find.”

“Perhaps, but I think Abbot will forgive you long before you forgive yourself.”

I throw a chair leg at the TV and miss.

“If you have any better ideas, please shout them out.”

“We leave this for now. We’ll go to Bamboo House of Dolls and you’ll stay with me tonight. Tomorrow, we will figure out what to do next.”

I think about it for a minute.

“I can’t. I’ve put it off long enough. If I clear out Little Cairo myself, maybe I can save some of the civilians. If the Council does it they’ll nuke everything and everyone.”

We both get up and as I’m about to pull Vidocq into a shadow, he moves away.

“Is this yours?” he says.

“What is it?”

“A courier envelope.”

“I don’t know any couriers.”

Vidocq looks it over.

“There’s a return address. The sender is Janet Lawton.”