Gus made a small woof in agreement.
I could use all of the backup I could get. “Thank you.”
I drove down the street, rolling over the speed bumps, pulled a U-turn and sped toward the Buffalo Speedway.
The Buffalo Speedway was crowded. The traffic was steady but moving at a decent speed.
“I paired the phone to the car. Your mother’s phone was already in contacts under Mom,” Cornelius reported.
“Call Mom.”
The car’s audio system obediently dialed. Ring. Ring. Ring.
“Your call has been forwarded . . .”
“Mom, I’m coming to get you. Call me.”
A sign flashed.
CAUTION
CONSTRUCTION AHEAD
The car in front of me put on its brakes. The caravan of vehicles compacted, slowing down.
“Call Mom.”
Ring. Ring. Ring.
LEFT LANE
CLOSED
500 FEET
“Your call has been forwarded . . .”
“Your mother is very capable,” Cornelius said.
“Yes.”
My mother was also a high-value target. If Arkan’s crew got to her, I would give them anything they wanted to get her back.
“Could you please look up the number for Margolis Autopsy Lab at the Woman’s Hospital and try that?”
“Of course.” Cornelius fiddled with the phone. “Here it is.”
He put the phone on speaker. Ring . . . Ring . . . “You have reached the Margolis . . .”
I waited until the tone. “This message is for Penelope Baylor. Please call me immediately.” I left my new phone number and Cornelius hung up.
The traffic funneled into a single lane. We crawled past the left lane blocked off with cones and white pickup trucks.
“Of course there is construction,” I said. My voice was so calm, it was almost robotic.
“Different cities are famous for different things,” Cornelius said. “San Antonio is known for the River Walk and the Alamo. Austin is famous or infamous for 6th Street with its bars and shootings. We have construction and floods.”
The lane narrowed, hemmed in by concrete barriers on the right. I steered Rhino with laser precision, caught between the nonexistent shoulder and the row of traffic cones.
“Catalina,” Cornelius said quietly. “Your hands have gone white.”
“Thank you.” I eased my grip on the wheel.
“You are exceptionally calm,” he observed.
“Alessandro got into a car with a man who is supposedly working for Lenora Jordan but could’ve been an illusion mage, because the Harris DA evidently has an emergency with strikingly convenient timing. Leon was supposed to shadow the FBI, but I didn’t see any sign of him at the Cabera mansion. My mother is outside of the Compound, and none of them are answering their phones. The Compound is under attack. I can’t afford anything but calm right now.”
“They separated us and are hitting us one by one?” Cornelius guessed.
“That’s how I would do it.”
“I’ll try Alessandro and Leon again.” He tapped the phone.
We passed Richmond Avenue.
“No response,” Cornelius reported.
If I thought about it for too long, I’d panic.
The phone lit up. An incoming call. “Accept!”
“Catalina?” Mom asked.
Finally. “Where are you?”
“I am in an office in Dr. Amandi’s lab.” Her voice was eerily calm. My mother had gone into that serene place she always visited just before she lined up a shot through her scope.
“Where are your guards?”
“Tyler called from the airport. His car didn’t show up.”
Tyler was Pete’s son.
“I sent the guys to pick him up. That was an hour ago. They’re not answering their phones and I can’t reach the house. My phone isn’t working. I am using their landline. There is an armored vehicle in the parking lot. They’ve been sitting there for ten minutes, and nobody has gotten out.”
They’d found her.
“It’s Xavier.” Xavier wouldn’t have passed up a chance to catch my mother. He would come in person and probably not alone. “Arkan is attacking us. Our phones are compromised.”
“Ah. That explains things.”
My voice was flat and calm. “Xavier will wait for you to come out, but he’s impatient. He will come into the lab to get you.”
“Staying put isn’t an option.”
“No.”
I crunched through our options. The Woman’s Hospital had a large campus, sprawling between Greenbriar and Fannin Street and cut off by Old Spanish Trail in the north. I was still at least fifteen minutes away. Even if she hid in the building, they would find her. And if I pulled into that parking lot, Xavier would hurl the nearest lamppost through my windshield. I had to get Mom and get out alive.