A Gift of Ghosts (Tassamara) by Sarah Wynde

Akira answered, not looking away from the numbers on her monitor. “The
energy release might be too large, though.”
    “Um, yeah,” Zane said. “Do you want to watch me work or not?”
    “What?” That caught her attention and she turned her
chair—her brand-new, comfortable, ergonomically-correct, fully-adjustable
office chair—to look at him.
    He grinned at her. “You wanted proof. I’ve got a DEA case
that’s only thirty miles away. Want to come?”
    They’d met up with a frazzled-looking woman in a
business-casual black jacket that didn’t hide the shoulder holster underneath
it. “We know the drugs got here,” the woman told Zane. “But we can’t find them.
We’ve been searching for hours.”
    The house didn’t look like Akira’s idea of a drug den. It was
probably no more than a couple of years old, a stucco-colored McMansion in a
neighborhood that looked half-deserted. A surly Hispanic man was standing by a
police car, hands cuffed behind his back. Akira watched as Zane went over and
chatted with the man for a couple of minutes, touching his upper arm with a
friendly pat, before returning to the woman. “You’ve got the wrong house,” he
told her.
    “What?” Her shock was clear.
    He nodded at a house two doors up the street. “Get a warrant
for that place,” he advised her.
    “But we know the drugs arrived here, at this house,” she insisted.
    “Then look for the tunnel,” he suggested with a shrug.
    He and Akira waited. It was almost an hour before the new
search warrant arrived, but it took Zane less than five minutes after that to
find the drugs, along with a stash of assault weapons and some big bundles of
cash, and the entrance to a tunnel that led straight back to the far corner of
the first house’s backyard.
    Akira had been impressed. Also confused. The idea of a
paranormal ability that let Zane find random objects as long as they were
associated with a human being made no sense to her. “It must be some form of
quantum entanglement,” she finally told him, as they pulled into the parking
lot of GD.
    “Whatever you say.” His tone was agreeable, but she suspected
he was laughing at her.
    She narrowed her eyes at him.
    “Maybe you can research me after you finish with your
sonoluminy-light-up-stuff,” he offered with a grin.
    She shook her head and sighed, but she couldn’t help smiling.
    That had been the beginning of a fun several weeks. She’d quickly
settled into a routine. Most days, she read and researched in the morning, then
had lunch with Dillon. Although GD had a nice cafeteria, more like a pleasant
restaurant than a school lunchroom, Akira found it a little terrifying. It was
often crowded and rooms full of strangers were not her favorite thing. Instead,
she brought food from home and joined Dillon outside.
    Max had offered her another car, so that Dillon’s could stay
parked anywhere that was comfortable for him, but Dillon had told Akira that he’d
rather have some variety in his life, so he came with her to work most days. He’d
managed to increase the range at which he could roam, but it took effort, so he
usually hung out in the parking lot instead of following her into her lab.
    At first, she’d found a pleasant spot under a tree next to
the car. The sandy ground was dry, and sitting on it meant that she was mostly
hidden from sight from people in the lot. She ate her lunch and talked to
Dillon about the people she’d met and the work she was doing, and he told her
more about his family, General Directions, and Tassamara.
    During her second week at GD, though, she’d come outside to
find Zane in her usual spot, leaning against a brand-new picnic table. “Is
Dillon here?” he’d asked, without greeting her.
    “Yes,” she’d answered.
    “Great,” he’d said. “Ask him to tell you all about fire ants.”
    “Fire ants?”
    “Yep.”
    She waited for more but he didn’t seem to notice. He was
turning a small package over in his hand, looking