Rhys looked up sharply. "The others. I have to - "
"You have to get Hope, Robyn and Adele Morrissey." Marsten appeared from nowhere. "As for the rest? What's done is done."
Harsher than Finn would have put it, but Rhys only pulled his ball cap back on and straightened. Then he dropped the vials and crushed them under his shoe.
"Those are stashed all over the property," he said. "Anyone who hasn't been captured will have already done what they were taught. They'll presume it's a Cabal."
"But these people had rifles," Finn said. "They could have fought back."
Rhys shook his head. "Then some could be captured. They wouldn't risk that."
"It's the Nasts, isn't it?" Marsten said, keeping his voice low. "I believe I suggested we switch cars in case they'd planted a tracking unit."
"And I said that my car has a device to scramble the signal. They'd be in North Hollywood by now."
"Whoever is here, I think it's my fault," Finn said. "I called for backup, and this is what I got. I have no idea how or why - "
"They diverted calls from your radio," Rhys said.
"That's not poss - "
"Believe me, it is. Cabal technology. Almost certainly the Nasts. As for why... I have my suspicions - "
"Unimportant." Marsten walked back from peering out the window. "We have a rescue to launch. Hope, Robyn and Adele's trail seems to lead to that building behind the barn. But the guards have already checked in there, so - "
"They're underground." Finn explained what Damon told him, as quickly and quietly as possible.
"Don't worry about Adele," Damon said as he returned. "There was a situation. Hope took her down. Shot her."
Again, Finn relayed. Seeming less pleased with that than Finn would have expected, Marsten frowned and walked to the window.
"What we'll do then is create a distraction," Finn began.
Marsten didn't turn from the window. "At this point, I'm not looking for a humane course of action, Detective. It's too risky."
As Rhys answered, Finn thought he saw a movement behind the dead couple. He peered into the shadows. A hand moved across the hay. A ghost? Finn took a step toward it. The ghost lay facedown, as if too shocked to stand. His hand was moving toward a rifle. The straw crackled and shifted under the man's fingers... and told Finn this was no ghost.
Finn slipped up over the man, bent and pressed his gun to his skull. "Stop right there."
Running footsteps pounded the concrete pad outside the barn. Finn looked up sharply, but the stall blocked his view. Rhys wheeled, gun rising. Two pairs of hands lifted over the stall. Women's hands. Rhys lowered his gun as Marsten strode over.
"There's a guy in the hay. He's - " Hope saw Finn with his gun trained on the man. "You found him. Good. Rob and I were running beside the barn when I caught a stray thought."
"Niko?" Rhys strode over, kicked the rifle aside and hauled the middle-aged man to his feet. "Playing possum, were you?"
"Th-the poison," Niko said. "It didn't work for me."
Rhys cold-cocked Niko and sent him flying into the hay pile.
"I'm not going to fight," Niko said, struggling up. "I claim sanctuary."His gaze swung to Hope. "With the council."
"The same council you've always sworn was in league with the Cabals?"
"You don't understand, Rhys. You never did. To give clairvoyants the community they need, we lie. It's a blueprint created by bulibas has long before my time."
"Lies? Like the one about hiding from the Cabals? Protecting the kumpania from them?"
"We do protect - "