I groaned at the thought, then felt Mzatal’s touch and smiled. “I have something to take care of,” I told him. “I’ll leave you two to get acquainted and catch you a little later. Need to pick your brain a bit.”
“Might be some slim pickings,” he said with a smile. “I’ll get started with some ideas for the camera system. It’ll keep me out of trouble.”
• • •
Mzatal knelt on the mini-nexus, head lowered and hands splayed in front of him as though sensing. A road atlas lay on the ground before him, open to a map of Texas. A faint tingle of potency flowed to him as he drew upon the resources of the convergence. I remained still and waited for him to complete whatever he was doing.
After about a minute he lifted his head, gave me a smile. “Zharkat.”
I gestured to the map. “Did you find something?”
“Great disruption in the flows here,” he said as he traced a wide circle around the Austin area. “Precipitated by an event that occurred the same day you arrived back on Earth.”
“Idris was near Austin when he called me,” I said, narrowing my eyes in speculation.
Mzatal nodded. “I sense an echo of his arcane signature amidst the tangle of flows, yet I have not yet located the cause or point of origin of the event.” Frustration darkened his eyes, and I reached for his hand to give it an encouraging squeeze.
“It’s still huge progress,” I told him, then smiled. “You’re too used to having the world at your fingertips in your plexus.”
He exhaled, gave my hand a return squeeze. “Yes. Here, it is as if—” A whisper of amusement pierced the frustration. “It is as if I am forced to use a mere calculator after utilizing the full scope of the Internet.”
I blinked at his use of such an Earth-centric analogy, then laughed. “You have been talking to Paul.”
Mzatal’s mouth twitched in a faint smile. “He sought me out during one of his breaks when no others were awake, and I spent a pleasant hour conversing with him.”
“Sounds like you needed the break as well.”
“I did, though I knew it not at the time.” He touched the map before him. “Yet it was after I returned to my search that I found the trace that eventually led me to the disturbance.”
“Excellent. I’m adding ‘Make Mzatal Take a Break’ to his job description.”
The screech of a power tool had us both wincing. Mzatal glanced toward the mobile home and the workers then back to me. “Tell me of the events of the morning,” he said, expression serious again.
“Farouche killed the trigger-happy security guard from the warehouse and dumped the body on Jill’s lawn a little after four a.m.,” I told him with a scowl. “He’s letting me know how tough he is and that he knows where my people are.” Anger swept through me again, but I didn’t pygah. I wanted to be mad about thi
s crap for a while. “On the plus side, Jill’s finally agreed to move in.” I gestured toward the mobile home. “Of course now I’m worried about Tessa. Shit!” I smacked my forehead. “It’s been so crazy around here I totally forgot to tell you. I’m almost positive Tessa’s been manipulated.” I proceeded to fill him in on my odd visit with her and the way her responses felt programmed. His expression darkened as I spoke and was positively black by the time I reached the bit about Zack’s micro-nod confirmation that Tessa had spent time in the demon realm with Rhyzkahl.
Though the anger on his face pretty much told me what I needed to know, I still had to ask. “Do you remember her being in the demon realm?”
“No,” he replied. He stood, body stiff with tension. “However, with Katashi’s associations at that time, she could have been brought in undisclosed.”
In other words, Katashi had been betraying Mzatal for over twenty years, at the very least. It made a sick sense. The other lords wouldn’t have been content to sit back and let Mzatal have full access to Katashi—the one summoner who pretty much controlled all the other summoners. Perhaps Katashi had been utterly loyal and well-intentioned at one time, but that wouldn’t have stopped the Mraztur. They would have found his weakness, his price, and done everything possible to swing his loyalty and cooperation to them.
Not that it made a difference now, except to remind me that the Mraztur were playing a long game, and treachery could come from any direction.
“Will you assess her and help me figure out what the hell happened?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he replied, muscle in his jaw twitching. “We must go to her.”
I put a hand to his cheek, gave him a reassuring smile as I silently willed him calm. “I’ll call her now.” I pulled my phone from my pocket as I stepped a few feet away.
Tessa answered on the second ring. “Hello, sweetie!”
“Hello, yourself,” I said, smiling at the buoyant sound of her voice. “Are you at home? I’d like to swing by for a bit.”
“Nope,” she said, sounding a bit breathless. “I’m at the airport boarding my plane.”
Worry spiked. “Airport? Why? Where are you going?”