“Excuse us,” Ethan said to the room, not waiting for a response before we stepped outside and closed the door.

“Something new?” he asked, scanning our faces.

“We think we’ve found Balthasar’s new home, and I’ve got Juliet and Brody on the location. They won’t move unless we say. But your Sentinel, who has a pretty good memory, made a connection between the Circle and the condos.”

Ethan looked at me. “Oh?”

“Both condos are owned by companies Malik found in the Navarre House records.”

“The Circle’s LLCs?” Malik asked.

“Yep. And the LLCs have comped both stays.”

Ethan looked at Luc. “Coincidence?”

“You know my position on those.”

Ethan crossed his arms. “So we think the Circle is funding Balthasar’s stay in Chicago. Why? Because they want him here? Because he’s part of their efforts to rule the city’s vampires?”

Luc nodded. “That’s what we were thinking.”

Silence, then, “I don’t know why that would surprise me. He loves power, but never sought to attain it through traditional channels . . . and yet . . .”

“They’re humans,” I said, voicing something that bothered me about the entire thing. Ethan glanced at me, nodded briskly.

“That’s it precisely. Balthasar thinks humans are weaker, less, than us. They are mice to his cat, things to be toyed with and discarded. I find it hard to believe he’d willingly partner with them.”

“Maybe he doesn’t think it’s a partnership,” Malik suggested.

“We’re missing part of the story,” Ethan said. “But it makes tonight’s negotiations that much more important. Let’s get to it.”

We all turned at the sound of footsteps in the hallway, found Jeff, Catcher, my grandfather, and Detective Jacobs walking toward us.

“The cavalry has arrived,” Ethan said, extending a hand to my grandfather and Detective Jacobs. “Gentlemen.”

“We understand the Navarre evacuation is complete,” Jacobs said.

“It is,” he said, “and Morgan’s in my office, ready to begin. And we’ve gleaned one additional bit of information. The Circle is apparently paying for Balthasar’s condo while he’s in town. The entities that own the two condos are on the Navarre list.”

My grandfather’s eyes widened appreciatively. “Isn’t that interesting?”

“We thought so,” Ethan agreed. “We don’t yet know how much they’re in bed together, but there’s certainly some connection.” He gestured toward the door. “Shall we?”

Morgan stood when we walked in. I gave him credit for not objecting to the CPD’s involvement, although the flash of irritation in his eyes was impossible to ignore.

But Ethan did a pretty good job of it. “Morgan, I believe you know Arthur Jacobs.”

Morgan nodded. “Sure. What’s the plan? Am I going to call him? Set up a meet?”

“That depends, in part, on the Circle,” Jacobs said.

“And the electronics,” Jeff added, who pointed to Luc.

“If you’ll follow me,” Luc said, “we’ll get to it.”

*   *   *

We convened in the Ops Room, vampires, humans, sorcerers, and shifters at the conference table, our collective gazes on Jeff.

“So, the Circle previously called Morgan’s cell or the Navarre office phone to make contact, yes?”

Morgan nodded. “Yeah. I’ve got a number, but I’ve never used it. I’m supposed to call it, wait for the return call.”

“Probably a throwaway phone,” Jacobs said. “But if you haven’t used it, the number should still be good.”

My grandfather clasped his hands on the table. “We know the Circle wants something. Hopefully, you’ve interrupted any immediate plans to take that payment in violence by getting your vampires safe. That was a very smart move, and a very impressive effort by the Houses.”

Morgan nodded.

“Now you’ll reach out to the Circle, find out what they want. As we’ve discussed, it seems unlikely that’s money at this point. It may be another job. It may be more House access. Considering the time that has passed since the unsuccessful attempt on King, I suspect they’ll be ready to tell you.”

“Okay,” Morgan said.

“Can I see your phone?” Jeff asked, removing a small black box from his pocket.

Morgan pulled out his phone, handed it over.

Jeff nodded, pried a tiny card from the side of the phone, then slid the card into a slot in the black box. The box’s glossy exterior began to glow.

“New toy?” I asked.

“A little multifunctional device I’ve been working on. Does a little of this, a little of that. A little telephony, among other things.”

After a moment, the box turned black again, and the tray popped open. At the same time, the Ops Room’s wall screen filled with graphs and charts.

“And there we go.” Jeff popped the card out, put it back in Morgan’s phone, returned the phone to him.

“I’ve borrowed your telemetry data,” Jeff said, spinning his chair around to look at the screen, bringing one chart to the center.

“All right,” he murmured. “I’m going to eliminate any calls that came from the same number more than once, and any that match your contact list.” That left a handful of plotted points on the screen. “You recognize any of those?”