He was thinking about that.

And then they saw one of the Assassins come out the back door, and down into the orchard, and start looking around. He came close to the patio. And instead of looking up at the tower— Cajeiri watched him through the crack below the window—he kept looking back at the house and up at the roof.

They were starting to do another search, though: he doubted this would be the last. It was getting dark, and they would probably get out the night scopes, which could actually spot them better by dark.

Cajeiri wriggled a little to see better. The slingshota poked him in the ribs.

It was what they had.

If they had rocks. Which had made it useless.

Antaro and Jegari had no idea what was going on. But he could hear that man moving around on the patio pavings.

That was that. The men inside the house were getting curious. They had to get out of here.

“Toby,” Bren said, entering the suite. He was still in bloody clothes. There was going to be no time to change, he feared. Toby stood there by the table; Barb came in, both of them quite sober. “Toby, I’m sorry. This would probably be a good time for you to go back to the boat and just get out of the bay while you can, way clear of the coast.”

“What are you going to do?” Toby asked, worried-looking, slipping an arm around Barb.

“I’m going after the boy,” Bren said, “in about ten minutes, if that long. We want to get into position, get in there around dark—and take the place.”

Barb put her arms around Toby. They looked like two figures in a cold wind. She looked at Toby, looked at him, and Toby patted her shoulder.

“Bren,” Toby said, “can we help? Is there any way we can help?”

“Not in this,” he said. “This is going to get wider. It’s a Guild operation. This wasn’t the neighbor’s idea. This was the South behind what happened. An attack on this house isn’t impossible, and it may already be underway. They’d like to lay hands on my relatives. They wouldn’t as likely take after the staff as hostages—at least I hope not. But it’s definitely going to be a lot safer for you two to get out of the bay.”

“Look,” Toby said, “Bren, we can’t just cut and run. You’re in trouble. The boy’s in trouble.”

“You can get yourself out of harm’s way and relieve me of one worry.”

“We can manage,” Toby said. “If you’re worried about the house—”

“Don’t argue with me, brother. This is no time or place. You don’t know the rules. Tabini-aiji’s involved, no question in my mind. His men will be here. The dowager’s men are going in. So is she. This isn’t going to be small-scale, much as we’re trying to finesse getting Cajeiri out in one piece. We’re hoping he hid. But we don’t know that. I’m frankly real upset right now.”

“We can help,” Barb said. “Bren, don’t be stubborn. We can take care of ourselves. We can help here.”

“Not a thing you can do,” he said. He didn’t even say, to Toby, Go back to Jackson and take care of that kid of yours. He didn’t want another Barb incident. “Just get out of here.”

“We’ve got a radio,” Toby said. “We’ve got communications with the mainland, hell, we can radio Shejidan if you have phone troubles. We can radio Jackson and get you air support if it’s that bad.”

The Brighter Days, with its radio, was, in fact, an asset. “You’d be a target. There are those that would want to shut you down.”

“We dodged them for months on end while you were gone,” Toby said. “Trust me. This is an old game for us.”

“Get out of the bay. Get out at sea. The bay is a trap made to order. I’ll accept your running communications if you just get out into open water.”

“Got that picture,” Toby said.

“Then you go ahead, get down to the boat,” Bren said, “as fast as you can while you still have some safety doing it. We have no guarantee Guild Assassins aren’t moving on this estate, or moving to close off the harbor. Don’t take safety for granted. Just pack up the essentials and get out of here, well out, as fast as you can. Contact Mogari-nai.” There were Mosphei’-speakers manning that post, in the Messengers’ Guild. “Figure we’ll contact you if we need any help from the Island. And I hope we don’t.”

“Done,” Toby said, and disengaged from Barb to come and embrace him. Hard. “Bren, I know you take care of yourself. I know they take care of you. But for God’s sake, don’t take chances. My regards to the kid. Deepest. I’m so sorry this happened.”

“You be careful.” Barb put her arms around him and for once he didn’t flinch. Even hugged her back, even took a kiss on the cheek and hugged her tight. “Take care of yourself, Bren. Toby and I will be all right.”

“See to it,” he said, and slipped free and left, out into the hall, where one of Ilisidi’s young men was carrying a heavy bag toward the outer doors. The doors stood open, with Ramaso and several of the staff waiting there.

He made a brief trip to his room, delved into his top dresser drawer and drew out the gun staff always packed. He had not had it with him this morning. Now he did.

He went out into the hall and picked up Tano and Algini as he passed the dining room hallway. Banichi and Jago were already outside, loading gear on, and the tire had been replaced— the bus, battered as it was, was sitting more or less level. He was about to get on board when Ilisidi, Cenedi, and Nawari came out of the house.

He stopped, bowed, gave Ilisidi precedence in boarding, and delayed for an anxious look at Banichi.

“Jago and I shall ride with you to the village, first, Bren-ji,” Banichi said, “and from there, we shall take the village truck overland, along with Nawari and Kasari. The estate here is secure: two of the dowager’s men are on the roof, one inside, two standing guard over Baiji-nadi in the basement.”

He didn’t like it. He never liked knowing Banichi and Jago were going into action, but they were the hand-to-hand experts. Send Tano and Algini into a situation and things exploded—no asking what was in theirgear at the moment, and God knew he didn’t want things blowing up with the youngsters unaccounted for. So Banichi and Jago were the ones for getting into the estate on a surgical strike, taking out just the enemy, and getting the kids to safetyc

But—

“You take care, ’Nichi-ji,” he said. One didn’t touch, ever, especially not here. His human instincts were raw-edged at the moment, but Banichi’s and Jago’s minds had to be utterly on business. No distractions. Suggest they take Tano and Algini for backup? Twice divide their forces?

Neither half of that set would leave him without assurance the other would be protecting him. Wouldn’t. Banichi and Jago were free to do what they proposed to do becauseTano and Algini were with him, and Bren just shut up and climbed onto the bus, taking his seat near Tano and Algini. He caught a glance from Tano that said “all business” and ready for anything.

The sun was touching the horizon—they’d have well and enough time to get to Kajiminda around dark, even with the detour to drop Banichi and Jago down at the village, but he had a notion, as the bus started to move, that they would hardly slow down at the village, that Banichi and Jago and Cenedi’s two were going to go out that door before the bus had quite stopped rolling, start up that waiting market truck, and they wouldn’t see anything from that team until this business was done.

Baiji, taking on marriages with the Marid, for God’s sake. If Ramaso had ever heard that tidbit of information and once, just once hinted of that dealing, he’d neverhave taken the boy over there, nor would the dowager have let her great-grandson come near a man even on the outskirts of such a bargain.

But nobody at Najida had been in regular contact with Baiji. Not even indirect contactc since the Troubles. He knew about the unpaid bills. He’d seen the unmown grass. He’d had a bad feeling about Baiji and let his relationship with Geigi rule his thinking.