“Entrance here,” he said, pointing to a door. “Loading bays along this wall. Emergency exits here and here.”
He pointed to the back corner of the building. “The admin area was set up here, along the front-left corner, and the rest of the space is divided into the loading and unloading area and the place they stored the goods between pickups and deliveries.”
“What’s the goal here?” Luc asked, looking to Ethan.
“I want to go in,” Ethan said. “I want to garner evidence of what McKetrick’s doing, and I want to end his ability to do it.”
“And the CPD?” Catcher asked.
“McKetrick is the ultimate slime. If we go in without them, he’ll claim we attacked, and chalk it up to more vampire violence.” Ethan’s gaze narrowed. “But I want my opportunity to chat with him face-to-face.”
“Ethan—,” Luc said, but Ethan held up a hand.
“No,” he said. “This isn’t about practicalities or safety. He has ordered assassinations, endangered my vampires, destroyed homes, nearly killed Chuck. And now he thinks he can play God? No.” His eyes flamed silver and green. “I will have a shot at him first. After that, assuming he survives, the humans can do what they will.”
Catcher and Ethan looked at each other for a moment, until Catcher nodded.
“A little late notice never hurt anyone,” he said.
Ethan nodded. “We have to assume he’ll have weapons, and many of them. Specifically, we know he’s got aspen guns, so I’m proposing the first wave be non-vampires.”
He looked at Mallory. “We need help tonight, and we’ll hire you to join our team for this mission if you’re willing. I’ve already checked with Gabriel, and he’s approved.”
Mallory had helped us before, including when we tackled a fallen angel and ended his reign of terror over the city. She’d done it to help, and because her magic had created the problem in the first place. So it wasn’t that Ethan had asked Mallory to assist us . . . but that he was hiring her to do it. She wasn’t being dragged into supernatural drama; she was being hired by Cadogan House as an employee and given the imprimatur of authority that went with it. Ethan was putting his stamp of approval on a girl trying to live with her magic—and that stamp would likely go a long, long way toward her having a real future.
By the expression on her face, she realized the boon he’d offered her.
“Absolutely,” she said. “Absolutely I will help. I appreciate the chance and the opportunity.”
“It’s dangerous,” Ethan said. “Very dangerous, especially if you’re the first line.”
“I’m not afraid,” Mallory said. And for the first time in a while, I think she actually meant it.
But Catcher was less than thrilled. He practically snarled at Ethan. “Do you have any idea how dangerous this is going to be?”
“I do,” Ethan said. “I’ll be fighting and sending my Sentinel into danger, and I realize precisely how frightening that proposition is.”
His voice flattened. “I also recall it was dangerous in Nebraska, and that night on the Midway.”
Ethan’s meaning was unspoken, but still clear—Mallory had put us in danger before, and we’d responded despite it all. It wasn’t any more unfair to ask her to pony up.
“You can be an asshole, you know that, Sullivan?”
Ethan smiled. “I do. We do what we must to protect our own.”
Catcher looked at Mallory. “It’s your call.”
She nodded. “I already said yes. It’s the right thing to do.”
“We go in in two waves. Jeff, Catcher, Mallory, through the front. Me, Merit, Jonah, Luc, Lindsey, through the back. We find him. We capture him. We preserve evidence as we can. And we nail his ass to the wall.”
“I assume you’ll want us to lay down magical cover for the rest of you?” Catcher asked.
“If you can do it?” Ethan said, a dare in his voice.
“You know I can,” Catcher said.
“You know what we need?” Jeff said, rolling up the map. “A rallying cry, like ‘Avengers, assemble!’ or ‘Regulators, mount up!’”
“How about ‘Bring back the head of John McKetrick’?” Ethan suggested.
“Grim,” Jeff said, “but I think it works.”
“For the sake of saying it, Liege,” Luc said, “do you really think you should go? You know, for safety purposes?”
The chilling look in Ethan’s expression left little doubt about his answer to that question.
“Alrighty then,” Luc said. “Earbuds for all.” He passed out the earbuds, which now rested in a jar on his desktop like the world’s worst candy. “Good luck, and do try not to get killed.”