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It elve noon when Xcor&039;s cellular device went off, and the soft chiht sleep With aard jabs, he hunted and pecked around for the green send button, and after he hit it, he put the thing to his ear

In practice, he hated the das In practical terms, they were an incredible benefit, one that made him question why he had ever been so resistant

"Aye," he dehty voice answered hiht of the baseentlemale How fare thee this day, Elan?"

"What what" The aristocrat had to marshal more breath "Whatever have you sent h voice to begin with; the care package that had obviously just been opened lifted the male&039;s tone into the stratosphere

"Proof of our work" As he spoke, heads began to lift off of bunks, his Band of Bastards waking, listening "I did not want you to think that we had overestiin preserve us, been untruthful with respect to our activities"

"I I Whatever shall I do with this?"

Xcor rolled his eyes "Mayhap so your fellow Council ine your carpet will need to be cleaned"

Inside the three-foot-by-three-foot cardboard box he&039;d had delivered, Xcor had put some of the souvenirs of their kills, all manner of bits and pieces of lessers: ar He had been saving theht moetting done

The gaift" would backfire and they would be viewed as savages The potential payoff was that he and his soldiers would be seen as effective

Elan cleared his throat "Indeed, you have been rather busy"

"I realize that it is grisly, but war is a grisly business that you should merely be the beneficiary of, not a participant in We need to save you - " Until you are no longer useful " - from such unpleasantness I should like to point out, however, that that is but a s of the very many we have killed"

"In truth?"

The bit of awe there was gratifying "Aye You ht for the race, and we are highly successful"

"Yes, clearly, you are and I would stipulate that I require no more &039;proof,&039; as it were I will say, however, that I was going to call you late this afternoon anyway The final appoint has been scheduled"

"Oh?"

"I called the me a gathering - keeping it informal, of course, so that there is no procedural requiree Assail has indicated he cannot attend Clearly, he- or he would come unto my home"

"Clearly," Xcor drawled Or rather, clearly not Given Assail&039;s nightly pursuits, which had only intensified since the suh "And I thank you for the information"

"When the others arrive, I shall exhibit this display," the aristocrat said

"Do that And tell them that I am ready to meet with them at any time You just call upon s In fact," he paused for effect, "it shall be an honor to associate with theether, you and I may ensure that they understand adequately the vulnerable state they are in under the rule of the Blind King, and the safety that you and I can provide for theentlee - which was precisely why it had been used "And I a when calculation was mistaken for that

"And I for your support, Elan" As Xcor hung up the phone, he glanced over his soldiers and then focused on Throe "After sunset, we coalesce upon Assail&039;s property once again Mayhap it will corowled their readiness, he mutely raised his cell phone and inclined his head to his second in command

"Sire, we have arrived The door is shutting behind our vehicle"

As Fritz&039;s voice cah the van&039;s intercom, the butler&039;s report wasn&039;t a news flash, even though Tohr couldn&039;t see anything of where they were froe point in the back

"Thanks, ers on the floor&039;s Duraliner, he was still buzzed from all those beers he&039;d had with Lassiter, and his stomach was a sour pit thanks to that ain, maybe the nausea was more about where they were

"Sire, you are free to extricate yourself"

Tohr crab-walked to the double doors, and wondered why the hell he was doing this to hie to John McClane, the angel had taken off to go crash, and Tohr had coreat idea, for no apparent reason

Opening the way out he stepped into his darkened garage and closed things up behind him

Fritz put his n "Sire, o I&039; until sunset"

"Are you certain the drapes are pulled indoors"

"Yup That&039;s protocol, and I trust h and double-check?"

"That&039;s really not - "

"Please, sire Do not sendyou are safe"

Hard to argue with that "I&039;ll wait here"

The doggen hustled his old bones out from behind the wheel and headed across the ith admirable speed - probably because he orried Tohr would change his mind

As the butler slipped into the house, Tohr wandered around, inspecting his old lawn equipray convertible had been relocated to the ht Wellsie&039;s gown over for Xhex

He hadn&039;t wanted to return here to drop off the dress after it had been cleaned and pressed

Wasn&039;t sure he wanted to be here now

"All is secure, sire"

Tohr pivoted away from the empty space where the Corvette had been parked "Thanks,for the butler to leave before he went in - too e doors So with a final wave, he pulled hiether and walked into the back hall

As the door cla he saw in the mudroo up on pegs, his, Wellsie&039;s, and John&039;s

John&039;s was tiny, because he&039;d been just a pretrans back then

It was like the daain

"Good luck with that," he , entering the kitchen that had been Wellsie&039;s dreahts on, and the shock of seeing everything for the first time since the deaths made Tohr wonder if it wouldn&039;t have been better to coether, and that massive Sub-Zero she had loved so ht online at 1stdibscom, and the set of shelves he had put up for her cookbooks all of it was on display, glea and clean as the day it had been installed/delivered/asse was exactly as it had been the night she had been killed, his doggen keeping after the dust and that was it