“Your mystery mentor,” Kate said sarcastically.

“Yes.

“And the bomb was set in place while no one was looking. “

“It's not a single bomb, Kate. The two main towers of Vlad's citadel were rebuilt, as were the main hall, the south battlements, the old approach bridge, and the east battlements, where the actual ceremony will be held tonight. They're all loaded with explosives and wired with separate timers. The entire mountaintop is coming off.”

Kate held her cold stare but she felt her heart rate accelerate. “The strigoi security people will find it.”

Lucian shook his head. “They've been over all of the sites a dozen times. The explosives are sealed in the actual construction. Even the timing devices have been mortared up and shut away. They haven't found anything and they won't. There's no way to disarm it. If the strigoi are there tonight, they'll be destroyed.”

“With Joshua,” said Kate. “And O'Rourke.”

Lucian touched her hand. “I'm sorry, Kate. I'd hoped they might bring the baby with you today. But they must be flying him down tonight in the helicopter with Radu Fortuna and the other VIPs.”

Kate pulled her hand away. “You're lying there, Lucian. You didn't think Joshua would be in the car with me. You wouldn't have rescued us if he were. You need him there tonight, so the ceremony will proceed. So the assassination will proceed.”

He looked away and she knew then that he was lying about wanting to save Joshua, but telling the truth about the explosives. Her arms and legs literally ran cold at the thought. Outside, gray shadows moved through the industrial filth of Copsa Mica.

“Kate,” Lucian said softly, not turning to look at her, “you have to understand that there have only been three of these Investiture Ceremonies in the past five hundred years. There wilt never be a better rime. The entire Family will be there . . . all the strigoi who are important enough to count. “

Kate nodded. “And my baby and an expriest who never hurt anyone are a small price to pay for that chance to assassinate them. “

Lucian wheeled and his eyes were wide. “Yes! A hundred babies and a hundred priests are a small price!” He took her by the shoulders and shook her. “Do you realize how many centuries my people. have been enslaved by these monsters, Kate? Do you know how many babies and priests and ordinary people have died horribly because of their cruelty? Can you imagine a nation which has never taken a breath outside the shadow of totalitarian madness?” His voice was shaking. His entire body was shaking.

Lucian let go of her arms and put the car in gear. “It doesn't matter what you think, Kate. It will happen tonight. I'm sorry about Joshua . . . I truly am. And O'Rourke. They will be martyrs just as my adoptive parents were.” He drove slowly down the highway through the black city.

“Where are we going?” she said dully.

“We'll change to Highway Fourteen B here in Copsa Mica,” he said. “Then north on E Eightyone to ClujNapoca by nightfall, and then west to Oradea and the Hungarian border. “

“How will we get across?”

Lucian smiled. “I have ways better than your Gypsy smugglers. We'll be in Budapest by tomorrow night.”

“And Joshua will be dead.”

He looked at her. “Yes. Would you rather he be a full-fledged strigoi? He'll drink human blood tonight, Kate. But it will not turn him into one of them. It will all end tonight.”

She leaned across and seized the steering wheel. Startled, Lucian pulled into an empty market area near the factory gates. No one was in the broad, cinderblock area. The road west went on to the right. The road south to Sibiu and the citadel branched left just behind them. The sky rained black snow on everything.

“You know that Joshua can be saved from that,” she said. “With transfusions of the human blood substitute, his immunedeficiency disease can be alleviated but the shadow organ never has to be involved. He won't build a dependency on human blood . . . human life. The artificial hemoglobin will be like insulin: to him, nothing more. His body could give us the cure for cancer, for AIDS, and he never has to be strigoi. “

Lucian touched her cheek. “It's too late, Kate.”

She swooned then, allowing her eyes to slide up under her fluttering lids and sliding off the vinyl seat against the door.

“Kate!” Lucian leaned across and lifted her lolling head.

Kate slipped the target pistol out of his belt and set the muzzle against his chest. “Sit back, Lucian.”

“Kate, for Christ's sake . . .”

“Sit back,” she snapped.

He did so, setting his hands on the steering wheel. “You're not going to shoot me,.”

She waited until he looked at her so that he could see her eyes. “I won't kill you, Lucian. But I will shoot you. In the leg. Away from the femoral artery, but smashing a major bone. So you won't come after me.”

“Come after you? To where?”

“I'm going to get Joshua.”

Lucian laughed. It was a thin sound. “Kate, let me explain something to you, all right?”

She said nothing.

“It's not just the explosives or the usual strigoi security,” he said into the silence. “This is the important night. Strigoi from all over the world who were not at the first three nights will be there tonight. It's like Easter to ardent Christians. There will be at least five hundred people up there. All of them will have brought their own guards.”

Kate held the pistol steady.

Lucian ran his hand through his hair again. “Kate, we couldn't even get there. There is only one road to the citadel on the Arges . . . it's Highway SevenC and it makes this lousy road look like one of your American Interstates by comparison. Highway SevenC is closed in the Fagaras Mountains to the north of the castle because of early snows and rock slides. It's only open in late June to early August, and even then you risk your life on that road. Even the strigoi are flying or taking the highway through Brasov or Sibiu.”

Kate's finger was on the trigger.

Lucian held both hands in front of him, asking for time with his palms. “To the north of the citadel the road is closed and there are hundreds of troops stationed there because of the big hydroelectric project on the Arges River above the castle.”

“The strigoi have to get there,” said Kate.

Lucian nodded. “They'll drive up from Bucharest and Rimnicu Vilcea. Yes. But the highway will be closed miles below the citadel. There will be roadblocks and security checks from the town of Curtea de Arges on. No one who is not strigoi could get through.”

“How close could I get before the roadblocks?” asked Kate.

Lucian shrugged. “How the hell do I know? The village of Capalineni is only four or five kilometers below the castle.”

“If I get that far,” said Kate, “I could walk the last couple of miles.”

“Scuzalima, Domnul Politilt, puteti sami aratati cum sa ajung Poienara Citadel?” said Lucian in a falsetto. “Ma duc la plimbare.”

“What?” said Kate. “What about the citadel?”

“Nothing,” said Lucian. “I'm just imagining you asking directions and telling the strigoi guards that you're just going for a walk.” He shook his head slowly. “You couldn't get to the citadel, Kate. If you did, they'd just take you and make you part of their fucking Sacrament. There's no way you could get the baby away.”

Kate did not lower the pistol. “Perhaps it would be worth it just to make sure that they did not turn him into a full-fledged strigoi.”

He frowned at her. “You mean kill the child before they make him drink? But why, Kate? The Ceremony starts a little before midnight. The strigoi are a prompt race. The Investiture Ceremony is scheduled to take about an hour and a half. The explosives go off at twelve twenty-five. Chances are that they will not have gotten to the socalled Sacrament part of the Ceremony before . . . before it happens. “