Out in his backyard, reclining comfortably on a chaise lounge, Losham unfolded the morning newspaper and prepared to read the headlines when Rami rushed out from the house looking all excited.

“Gommed called.” His assistant sounded breathless as if it had been Lord Navuh and not the commander of a small unit.

“Yes, Rami. And what news did he have to share to make you so happy?”

“Grud escaped captivity. Gommed asks if you would like to question the warrior personally.”

Well, that was certainly exciting news. To date, no member of the Brotherhood had ever managed to escape the clan’s captivity once captured. That was why it had always been assumed that whoever had gone missing was dead, executed by the Guardians.

Losham put the newspaper down and straightened up. “Of course I want to question him. But we need to make sure he is not being followed and that there are no bugs on him or his vehicle. I find it hard to believe that he managed to escape from Guardians.”

“Maybe he was held by humans? It could have been one of the gangs we put out of business.”

“You forget that he was captured before we took over the drug distribution.”

“Is it possible he was detained by the police?”

“He would have been allowed a phone call.”

“True.”

Losham smoothed his palm over his beard. “Did Gommed give you any details?”

“Only that Grud called saying that he’d escaped and asking to come home. He called from an unsecured line, and Gommed said that he preferred to wait with the questions for when they were face to face in a secure location.”

“Good thinking. Gommed is not stupid. Tell him to double and triple check that Grud is not wired or followed and only then bring him to the warehouse.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We will go there when Grud arrives. Tell Gommed to call you when he has him in the office.” Losham didn’t like to spend any more time at the warehouse than absolutely necessary, but that was where all the meetings were being held.

The apartment building, which served as the men’s lodging, was a short distance away from it, but the place had no facilities available for conducting meetings or anything else. The decrepit building’s only redeeming quality was its low price.

Losham was perfectly happy with the arrangement.

The budget that had been allotted for office space had gone toward the purchase of the house he and Rami lived in.

Gommed’s wasn’t the only cell currently operating in the Bay Area, there were several, and Losham liked to keep them as separate from each other as possible.

He conducted most of his work from home and traveled to the various locations when meetings with the commanders couldn’t be avoided.

Naturally, none of them had been given his house address, so if any of them ever got caught, they couldn’t tell where he lived.

Losham loved the place too much to risk compromising its location.

Rami came back holding his phone. “Gommed is meeting Grud at a supermarket parking lot first to make sure he isn’t followed and to check him and his car for bugs. After that, he is bringing him to the apartment building for a more thorough search.”

“Good plan.”

If the location of the apartment building got compromised, it wouldn’t be a big loss. The warehouse, on the other hand, was full of expensive equipment and even more expensive stockpiles of drugs. Not to mention the humans working on the assembly line, who after being subjected to repeated thralling were nearly brain dead.

“When does he think he’ll be done with all that?”

“He says forty-five minutes to an hour tops.”

“Very well. We will leave in an hour.”

Rami bowed. “Yes, sir.”

It was a forty-minute drive, but Losham wanted to finish reading his newspaper and have another cup of coffee before heading out. Grud could wait.