"We already had this argument. I won."
"You didn't win. I postponed the discussion."
"Which is how I win. The discussion gets postponed until it's too late to have it, and then I'm already there. I'll keep quiet unless something important needs to be said."
Petrov groaned. "Negotiating with an unknown and potentially hostile organization will be difficult enough without interruptions from the gallery."
"I said I'd keep it to a minimum. I'll only intervene when it's crucial."
"Your definition of crucial and mine may differ considerably."
"I'll defer to yours. Happy?"
"Ecstatic."
Dimitri looked at Dave, then at Petrov, then at Mattie, and made a decision that was born less from strategy than from decency. These were the people he was going to escape with, and they all deserved to be part of the moment that set that escape in motion.
"We'll put the call on speaker," he said. "All of us will contribute."
Petrov's head snapped toward Dimitri, and the look he gave him could have curdled milk. "Have you lost your mind? You just argued that the initial contact needs to come from us because we're known actors, and now you want to put the entire circus on speaker? How is that less threatening? Hello, we are two Russian scientists, an Australian barmaid, and eight enhanced soldiers with a hive mind calling from your enemy'sstolen phone. Please help us rescue two thousand women and children."
"Yes," Dimitri said. "Exactly that."
Petrov opened his mouth and then closed it.
"Think about it," Dimitri said. "The Brotherhood doesn't have women in its ranks, and I'm sure these other immortals know that. Having a woman on the call, participating and offering input, contradicts everything the clan knows about how the Brotherhood operates. It immediately signals that we're different. That we're not operating within the Brotherhood's power structure. It makes us more believable, not less."
Petrov stared at him for a long moment, his expression cycling through skepticism, calculation, and the reluctant admission that the argument had merit.
"He has a point," Petrov said finally, sounding as if the concession caused him physical pain.
Mattie's face lit up, and it was a look that Dimitri had seen before at the kitchen table on their first date, when he'd told her she was beautiful. It hit him in the same place now as it had then.
"So, we are all in agreement?" Dimitri asked.
"Yes," Number One said.
"Da." Petrov reached into his desk drawer and pulled out his bottle of vodka. "God help us all."
"Which god?" Mattie asked. "Yours or theirs?"
"Any god that's listening." Petrov took a long sip. "At this point, I'm not particular."
29
KIAN
"These daily phone calls to Losham have become routine," Mia said. "But today I feel anxious energy in the room. Is everything okay?"
Kian leaned back in his chair. "You must be very sensitive to other people's moods. My mother had trouble sleeping, and she called me at six in the morning to ask if everything was okay because she had a bad feeling."
Everyone in the room tensed. They all knew that Annani's gut feelings were usually spot on. She didn't have visions like Syssi, but her instincts were honed by millennia of survival, and when she said something felt wrong, something usually was.
He glanced at his watch. "We can probably place the call now. We don't need to wait for it to be exactly midnight over there."
Losham could have retired to bed earlier or later than that, and since they were all present, there was no reason to delay.
Toven reached for the phone, dialed Losham's number, and activated the speaker before placing the device on a stand.
