The door to the warehouse was locked with an old-fashioned padlock, which surprised Wolfe. Fortunately, the nearby dead guard—the one who had died without mess—was in possession of the key on a small keyring with a few others.

  “Adam’s salaries don’t account for any more personnel here at night,” Fern was saying through the headset, her awkward breathing also audible. “But please be cautious, Wolfe. I would be at least a bit surprised if there wasn’t something as a backup to the guards. Also, until you hook up the laptop I gave you, I won’t be able to advise or help you, except to tell you if someone is coming.”

  “Got it,” Wolfe muttered as he placed the key in the lock and turned, half-expecting a trap right here after Fern’s little speech.

  But the padlock came open, and Wolfe pulled it from the door. There was a second lock, easily defeated by a different key, but nothing else happened. Wolfe entered the side of the warehouse. Next to him was a light switch, and he flicked it on.

  A series of hanging flood lights lit up the warehouse. It was almost empty, most of the space unused. The center had a few crates and wooden pallets, however. Wolfe whistled low as he saw the contents—much of it was boxes of weapons. Wolfe’s eyes widened, and he smiled. Perhaps it wasn’t much to occupy a warehouse, and it was almost certainly nothing for a company of soldiers, but there were a lot of weapons from the standpoint of Wolfe and Shel and their team, such as it was.

  Wolfe started to walk toward them, but Shel grabbed his arm and help the laptop up. “We should find any computer system they have and plug this in, so Fern can do… whatever she does.”

  With a quiet chuckle, Wolfe abandoned his beeline for the weapons and glanced around. There were stairs leading up to a small office overlooking the warehouse, as well as the door to the outside railing that ringed the building.

  Wolfe pointed, still slightly in quiet mode from earlier, and the two of them walked the narrow stairs to the tiny landing outside the office.

  Wolfe glanced in, finding a desk, chair, fan, and computer set-up in the otherwise empty room.

  Wolfe pulled the keys out, but Shel put her hand on his arm. “I don’t think the guards would have a key to the inner office.”

  “Will it hurt to check?” Wolfe asked.

  Shel shrugged, and Wolfe went through the keys quickly, confirming Shel’s suspicions. But he was wearing his new armored clothing, so he simply turned and smashed his elbow into the glass, hard. It broke ugly, large shards coming down, but he was able to reach in and unlock the door.

  Shel, despite being in steel-toed boots, walked gingerly across the glass-strewn floor. She put the laptop on the table, turned it on, and then plugged it into the usb port.

  “Got it?” she asked into her headset.

  “I’ve got a connection, working on getting in. It has a very—” Fern stopped and let out a dark chuckle, the first time Wolfe could remember hearing mirth from her. “—and we’re in, the password was Gabriel, one of the preloaded ones I made for my system to try first, right after ‘password.’ Alright, I’m looking around, you guys go check out the goods.”

  Alright, everything seems to be going well, please gods, don’t fuck me now.

  Wolfe headed downstairs, taking them normally rather than jumping off the edge like he had for the outside railing, as his mantle had faded. He reached the bottom and walked over to the pile of weapons.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  He whistled again as he got close. He could see a bunch of military infantry weapons, including a bunch labeled xm7.

  At that, Shel whistled. “Raphael reborn… that’s the rifle that is supposed to replace the m4 in the U.S. military. Looks like Adam got his hands on some early versions, somehow. This guy is even more connected than we thought.”

  “Then you thought,” Fern muttered darkly into the headset.

  But Wolfe ignored had eyes for something else. “He had multiple rocket launchers here, and a solid amount of ammo.”

  “And a bunch of grenades,” Shel said, pointing to another box.

  “And heads up displays, body armor, c4, mines…” Wolfe said as he slowly pointed from box to box. “This is illegal as shit, and way more paramilitary than anything we had when I worked for Big Man Grimm. Overwhelming firepower isn’t really a mob tactic ninety-five percent of the time.”

  Wolfe clenched his fist. “But Damian had it, right out the door. Second evening after Drop Night he hit us with a damned bazooka, remember.”

  “Like I was right there, because, spoiler alert, I was. I recall healing your eyes.”

  Wolfe shuddered. Of all the things that had happened to him, the time glass had exploded across both eyes was top five of ‘injuries that got to him the most.’

  “Right… I’m just curious, do you think Adam has been bankrolling the gangs all along?”

  Shel shrugged. “I have no idea, but why does it matter?”

  Fern’s voice crackled into their ears. “Stop doing hypotheticals. I found the sequence that would have alerted Adam—or his team at least. If the light switch was flicked and a code wasn’t entered with ten minutes, which I’ve done now.”

  This might actually work without issue? Wolfe thought with no small surprise.

  “I also shut down and erased the cameras, which were conveniently digital. So I’ll bring the truck around. I think we can safely take eight of the crates without being seen, what with the bed of the F150. But the longer we stay, the more chance for something to go epically wrong. Which, with Adam, is always a real possibility. So, pick what you want quick and then we’ll get out of here.”

  Wolfe nodded before realizing she couldn’t see. “Alright, we’ll do it.”

  Wolfe smiled again as he looked around. “This is better than an Overland Monster or Puzzle Room drop.”

  “What should me take?” Shel asked.

  “A little bit of everything,” Wolfe replied, and his smile went shark. “With a slightly higher focus on the explosives—rockets, c4, and grenades all. Nathan blew a wall up next to me last time we met. I want to return the favor the next time we do. But we should just move stuff until we can consolidate eight boxes we can at least get out of the warehouse and into the truck”

  Shel smiled, then bit her lip. Wolfe was worried she was getting sad or scared again, but she shook her head and stared up at him. “I’m going to summon the angels now that the light won’t give us away. You get Malviere out and then put on your mantle. Let’s do it.”

  Wolfe, Shel, and their companion cards spent the next fifteen minutes in a blur of activity. About five minutes in, Fern joined them, although she was almost useless at carrying things. But they managed to get eight crates of military gear loaded into Wolfe’s backup truck.

  Afterwards, Wolfe dragged the bodies inside the building, right to the center.

  Then he broke open the remaining crates, and carefully opened up some of the ammo containers and spread them around. Wolfe then dumped nearly everything out that might be flammable, cut pieces of body armor off, broke the crates for kindling, and piled up a bunch of packing material.

  Then he pulled some matches from his pocket and held them aloft.

  He grinned at Shel. “Kinda romantic for us, right?”

  She shook her head, grinning a tiny bit, but it faded quickly. Wolfe could see the worry in her eyes.

  He shrugged. “Well, never mind. You guys should go get in the car, and I’ll set this all off.”

  Shel nodded, and she and Fern fled.

  Wolfe waited till he heard a second door close outside, then lit the match on the floor. He tossed it into the pile of material he had assembled.

  He watched just long enough to see it catch, then ran from the building and leapt into the car. He shut the driver’s side door and pulled out—quickly, but not enough to squeal the tires.

  “Think we got away with it?” Wolfe asked as they drove away.

  “For now, yes,” Fern said, and he breathing was a touch steadier than before. “But I think it’ll become apparent to Adam what happened at some point. I’m terrified, truthfully. But it changes nothing about how Adam will respond. This gives us a tiny bit better edge to fight back, is all.”

  Her voice went ragged again. “Because he was always going to come for us.”

  Shadow Card Guardian!