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Ravi was in the midst of slicing a field full of orcs' heads off their shoulders—virtually, at least—when Major came in to watch, setting a bowl of potato chips down on the table. "Hack, slash, hack, slash. I mean, really, what's the point?"

"Oh, come on, the point is to use your wraith abilities to exact revenge on the forces of Sauron."

"In the larger sense," Ravi corrected impatiently. "In a world absent meaning and justice. In a world where Peyton, in front of you, and Liv, and my own eyes, actually defended Blaine for not wanting to take the memory serum."

He had a point. Major was about to agree with the point, but make his own argument in favor of Peyton's general good sense, when his phone buzzed in his pocket. Taking it out, he frowned at it.

"Who's it from?"

"Blaine."

Ravi rolled his eyes. Loudly. And turned over so he was facing the back of the couch.

"He got a brain order from Osborne Oates. That's the guy who bought Natalie out of the basement of Max Rager. He's back in town." He looked over at Ravi. "You want to come help me stake out his place? Look for Natalie?"

"I hate sex slavery as much as anyone, but I don't feel like going out in public at the moment."

"Ravi, it's a stakeout! All right? We'll hunker down in my car. You don't even have to have pants!" He regretted the suggestion the moment it was out, and hoped that his roommate would, indeed, wear pants.

But Ravi slowly rolled his head to face Major, his interest piqued by the offer. He gave an exaggerated, and sulky, shrug, muttering, "Why not?" Major grinned as his roommate sat up with a groan, holding out his arms in a gesture of martyrdom. "I've got nothin' else to live for."

"And we know you're good at waiting in cars." Major got to his feet before that last dig could sink in properly.

Osborne Oates lived in a very nice neighborhood. So nice that Major's beat-up old car—with the Chaos Killer graffiti painted over, at least—stood out like a sore thumb. He pulled in on the street anyway, watching the house as best he could over the brick walls and through the iron gate.

"What's this Osborne Oates do, anyway?" Ravi asked.

"He's in the diamond biz."

"Ohhh. A Bond villain. Good. You think Natalie's somewhere in there?"

Major had thought about it, but decided it was unlikely. "He's got a wife and kids. I doubt he'd want his mistress living here. I figure Natalie's in a second location, which Mr. Oates is going to lead us to. All we have to do is affix this GPS tracking device to his car."

"The one parked behind those massive gates?"

"Don't pitch problems, all right? You're the brainy sidekick! The guy with answers as sharp as his wit is dry."

Ravi leaned against the headrest and closed his eyes, giving a minute shake of the head. Apparently the answers had dried up as his wit had dulled. Major sighed, looking toward the house again. It was going to be a long stakeout.

By the time he saw movement outside the house, Ravi had been out cold and snoring for hours, and Major's eyes were irritated and dry from staring across the street. He was only grateful that everyone's lawns in this neighborhood were big enough that no one could see past them to tell how long his car had been there with two men sitting in it. They weren't exactly subtle … and he imagined you could probably hear Ravi snoring from the top of the Space Needle.

Two men came out of the house—Oates must be the older man in the suit, and his security the younger man in all black who opened the door of the waiting car for him.

"Hey," Major whispered. He hit Ravi in the chest and his roommate jumped and snorted himself awake. "Go time."

"Then go already."

The car in front of the house moved off, pulling smoothly out of the driveway.

Ravi frowned at him. "Do I really need to be awake for this part?"

"There's that dry wit." Major put his car in gear and followed, carefully keeping a reasonable distance between them.

The car led them down a dark, winding road in the midst of a fairly wooded area. It was hard to stay too close for fear of being too noticeable, but hard to hang too far back because the road twisted enough that Oates' car could pull off and be lost entirely if Major got too far behind.

"Damn it," Major said tensely, "we're losing them."

"I told you to drive faster."

He glared at Ravi as they came around a curve—and looked back toward the road just in time to slam on the brakes. The other car was stopped just ahead, and the security guard was standing in the middle of the road. He approached the car with a handgun drawn, and tapped on Major's window with the barrel. "Get out. Both of you."

The two of them muttered at each other for a moment, but it was clear they weren't getting away from this situation without getting out of the car, so they did, Ravi with his hands held exaggeratedly high above his head.

"Over here." The guard gestured with the gun to a spot in front of him, lit up by Major's headlights. "Now, grab some hood."

They both did so, hands spread on the top of the car, Major tense and ready to spring into action the moment things looked like they might be going south. He strongly regretted getting Ravi involved in this situation in the first place.

The guard grabbed their wallets out of their back pockets. He tossed Ravi's aside, but looked at Major's with interest. "Major Lilywhite. if we ever see you again, I'm going to kill you with this gun." He tapped the side of Major's head with the barrel for emphasis.

"Got it?"

"Got it," Ravi said immediately. "Loud and clear."

Major, on the other hand, wasn't sure he did have it—and he was damned if they were getting away and he was losing his chance to find Natalie. He took his hands off the car and rushed the security guard. His best tackle, and the guard wasn't even phased. Whatever Oates was paying him, he deserved every penny. Major sprawled on the ground in the middle of the road while the guard kicked him in the ribs. For once, Major was grateful to be a zombie.

The security guard turned around to look at Ravi. "Now he's got it!" Except that it was the guard who had it—Major had shoved the tracking device in his pocket when he tackled him. The guard walked away, climbed into the car, and it drove off. Major got to his feet, groaning with pain.

Ravi retrieved their wallets from the ground, frowning at Major in confusion as Major started to laugh. "You look awfully pleased for a man that just got kicked in the kidneys. What on earth were you—" He stopped short, realizing what had just happened. "Oh, god, the tracking device."

"Slipped it in his pocket."

"Are you mental? He just threatened to kill you."

"If they see me again. We just have to make sure they don't."

"Listen to me, Major. You're not responsible for Natalie!"

Major stared at him. Of course he was. "I made a promise."

"Of course you did! She was going to kill herself. But now you're the one acting suicidal! You're not Galahad questing for the Holy Grail! You're Don Quixote, tilting at windmills. These guys are zombies. They know how to eliminate zombies."

His roommate wasn't wrong. He did see himself as Galahad … or maybe Lancelot, rushing in to save Guinevere from the flames. But there was no reason to freak Ravi out any further about it. "You're right. I'll stay away. Let's get out of here."

He followed Ravi to the car, already thinking through how he would keep Oates from seeing him when he followed where that tracker would lead.