Damien nodded. “I think it’s clear that some war is between them now. There were others there, watching. Did anyone else see that?”
Orsala nodded. “And there were jackals. Scavengers. Waiting to see who the winner is? To pick at the bones of the defeated?”
“Is this what is happening in Oslo right now?” Lang asked. “Is all this Grigori activity a result of two of the most powerful Fallen angels in history fighting? That… can’t end well.”
“And I hardly think the council will be much help,” Damien said. “According to Leo and Rhys, there are increases in Grigori activity all over the continent and they are being ignored. Who knows what’s happening in the rest of the world?”
“Whatever is happening in Vienna, we need to deal with the problem in Oslo right now,” Rhys said. “Analyze Ava’s vision later. If so many Grigori are hunting in the city, they have a base. They stay together when they’re not feeding. They would have… a house. A warehouse, possibly. Somewhere that a lot of them could be hidden. We need to find it and destroy them in their nest. Fighting all these individuals as they attack is not solving anything.”
“So you’re proposing aggression?” Lang asked. “Not just defense, but offense?”
Rhys paused. “I know it’s not the official policy, but—”
“Just clarifying, brother,” Lang said. “You won’t get an argument from me.”
“Nor me,” Damien said. “And technically, I’m still your superior.”
“So we find them,” Leo said. “Take them out where they sleep.”
Malachi said, “And we do it now. It’s near dawn. They’ll be hunting right now, but they’ll be sleeping at dawn. If we pull everyone in, find where they’re taking shelter and strike quickly, we might be able to stop this.”
Orsala said, “They won’t expect it. This is one of the things the Irina have learned. The Grigori expect Irin to be defensive, not offensive. They won’t be expecting an attack from you because it’s not officially sanctioned.”
“And we are oh so very good at following rules,” Rhys said.
Everyone moved closer to the map. Malachi took Ava’s hand again, leaning in to survey the red and yellow dots. It was true, there were many. Too many. But somewhere in the forest of attacks, they would find a nest of enemies.
Which was good. Malachi was more than ready to kill something.
“An apartment building in the city center?” Sari said. “Would that be too conspicuous?”
“A hotel?” Leo offered. “If many of them have come in very recently, they might not have a house big enough. But a hotel…”
“It’s possible,” Lang said with a nod. “They would be inconspicuous. And there are many hotels near the larger tourist sites where they’ve been hunting.”
“A group of supernaturally attractive men all in one hotel would be pretty darn conspicuous,” Ava said. “I mean, it might still be an option, but I have a hard time believing they’d be able to hide for long. It would look like a convention of male models taking over downtown Oslo.”
Leo added, “I’ll try to get in contact with Max and his friend.”
Sari said, “We’ll start without them. Send out scouts. Find the Grigori. Find their base. We find it before dawn, and then we kill them all.”
Only three hours later, Leo received the call from Max.
“We’ve found them. It’s not good.”