I thought about taking it off, leaving it behind, but I could just imagine what Alena would say if she saw me remove it. She'd call me a fool, and ask me if I wanted to die, and if I answered that things, for the moment, seemed to be safe, she would have snorted that near-contemptuous snort of hers and left it at that.

Natalie had given me a pistol before my meeting with Oxford, and that I did remove, setting it on the table. If I was going to be catching a plane anytime soon, it'd be best to go light. The vest could be ditched easily enough at the airport, if needed; the gun would be harder to dispose of, and since I didn't know where she'd acquired it, I didn't want to risk it being traced back to her. Better to leave the problem for Dan and Natalie to solve.

"There are three," Dan was telling her, indicating a rough drawing he'd made on a piece of paper that rested on the table. The drawing was a map of the house and the immediate area, and it looked quickly done, but more than serviceable. "Not counting Vadim on overwatch. He's got a rifle up there, and night-vision."

"And hopefully a blanket," I said.

"You've got coms?" Natalie asked Dan.

Dan reached into the outside pocket of his jacket, held up a Nextel mobile phone. Natalie nodded slightly, and he dropped the phone back where he'd found it.

"What about the other three?"

"Illya's on the door, you saw him as you came in. We loaded his shotgun with the Brenneke rounds, better for dealing with vehicles if a vehicle should come. Yasha is covering the back door, and Tamryn is sleeping upstairs, in the room next to Tasha's."