“Maybe.”
“We’ll have accomplished nothing.”
“We’ll have saved Harper.”
She thought about it some more. Gask would pick a place for the exchange that would favor the demons. He would have his companions hidden all about them. He would make certain she and Ross were rendered helpless in the event they tried to surprise him. Her mind spun out possible scenarios, all bleak and hopeless. Nothing she envisioned had a happy ending.
Then a dark realization swept over her. She wasn’t seeing this right. There wouldn’t be any trade. There wasn’t any reason for one. Why would Findo Gask leave any of them alive when he didn’t have to? It made perfect sense, in demon terms, not to let them go, but to kill them.
Don’t underestimate him!
She had to find a way to get one step ahead of him. Where was he now? Where was he hiding Harper and Little John? If she only knew that—
She caught herself. But she did know. She had known all along, even without realizing it. She knew exactly where they were.
The phone rang, interrupting her train of thought. She walked over and snatched it up. “Hello?”
“Nest, it’s Robert. I just heard about Bennett Scott.” He sounded shaken. “I’m really sorry.”
She put her hand over her eyes wearily. “Thanks, Robert.”
“I’m sorry about her dying, and I’m sorry for all the things I’ve said about her. And about John Ross. You didn’t need to hear that kind of junk from me. I wish I’d never said any of it, but I did, and it’s too late to take it back. That’s been a problem for me all my life.”
“It’s okay, Robert.”
“I know things must be tough over there, especially for the little ones. Amy and I want you to think about coming over here Christmas Day. All of you, Ross included. You don’t have to come for the whole day, just as much of it as you want. But it would be good for the kids to have other kids to play with. It would be good for all of you to be with other people.”
She didn’t say anything, her throat and chest tight with sudden grief and despair. All she could think about was losing Harper and Little John to the demons and not being able to get them safely back.
“Nest?” he said.
She felt everything break apart inside like deadwood and then come back together again, the broken pieces bound together by iron forged in the furnace of her determination. “You’re a good guy, Robert,” she said quietly. “Tell Amy how much your invitation means to me. Let me think about it, and I’ll call you tomorrow morning.”
She hung up the phone, stared off into space for a moment, and then looked at Ross. “What do you say, John? I’m tired of being pushed around. Let’s not wait on Findo Gask and his phone call. Let’s go get the children back right now.”
CHAPTER 26
It took a considerable amount of effort on Nest’s part to persuade Ross that she was right. If they let Findo Cask dictate the conditions of any trade, she argued, he would put them in a box. He would create a situation where they had no hope of freeing either Harper or Little John. Besides, he would not make the exchange in any case, not even if they revealed to him that he had the gypsy morph in his possession already. He would simply kill them. If they wanted to have any chance at all, they had to act now, while Gask thought them paralyzed and helpless. They had to go after the demons on their own ground.
Ross was not averse to the idea of a preemptive strike; it rather appealed to him. He had taken on a fatalistic attitude regarding his own future, and his sole concern was for the children. But he was adamant that their best approach was to keep Nest out of the picture entirely. He would go by himself, confront Gask, and free the children if he could. If there were any sacrifices required, they would come from him.
“John, you can’t do it alone,” she pointed out reasonably. “You don’t even know how to get to where you need to go. I’ll have to drive us. Listen to me. When we get there, one of us will have to distract the demons while the other frees the children. It will be hard enough with two of us working together. It will be impossible if you try it alone.”