read through that kind of material. Why? What’s wrong?”
“I was hoping you’d want to bargain for a second look at it.”
“Nope. Sorry. No more of that fancy stuff.” I was half-sincere, half-teasing him, because the entire experience with the handcuffs and so on had turned out to be much more pleasurable than I’d anticipated. “You’ll have to wait until I want some more classified information out of you.”
“I’d better do well on that exam, then. Nothing like a little motivation.”
“If you pass, will they give you more data?”
“So Spare14 gave me to understand. Which reminds me. While you were off communing with the saints, I told Spare about our burglar and that bluish sphere. He confirmed that the device had transport capabilities.”
“Does he think that guy will come back?”
“No. He admitted that the transport type of orb is very rare.”
“Which means there are other types.”
“I can’t confirm that.” He was grinning at me. “You don’t have the right clearance.”
“Very cute, Mr. Nathan.”
He laughed, then kissed me. “I love you,” he said.
“I love you, too.” It felt surprisingly good to say. “I really do.”
“Then why won’t you marry me?”
I suppressed a snarl. “Because you’re a stubborn bastard who doesn’t know when to stop badgering me about it.”
“That should be a recommendation, not a drawback. It shows I’m sincere.”
I groaned and slipped out of his grasp. “Let’s get something to eat,” I said. “After all that exercise, I’m hungry.”
C HAPTER 5
A FTER A BRIEF EXCHANGE OF E-MAIL , I received Y’s permission to turn Belial’s consciousness over to TWIXT. By contrast, the TWIXT offer of liaison presented difficulties. In a trance meeting late on Wednesday morning, Y tried to explain.
“For one thing, I’m worried about security,” Y said, “since TWIXT has psychics. The threat you call the Cryptic Creep is bad enough, and now you tell me that this Spare fellow managed to get information that Nathan thought was classified.”
“That’s true, but if we liaise with TWIXT, they’ll be our allies, not another threat.”
Y’s trance image crossed its arms, stuck out its lower lip, and sulked, but only for a few seconds. The image blinked out. Hiding your emotions in the trance state sometimes requires an image reboot. In a second or two he returned to his usual august self, a Japanese-American man of middle age, his thick hair streaked with gray, but still a good-looking guy, really, even with his wire-framed glasses.
“Don’t forget,” I said, “that Saint Maurice vetted Spare14.”
“Yes, that’s true.” Y heaved a dramatic sigh. “At times we must throw the fishing line of truth into the waters ofdarkness and see what takes the bait. I’ll admit to being relieved at having Belial off our hands.”
“So am I. And I think you’ll find Spare easy to talk to, if you decide to arrange a face-to-face meeting.”
“All in good time, Nola.” His image betrayed him with a scowl, and he changed the subject. “About this Cryptic Creep person, any more visitations?”
“None so far.”
“Good. Where do you get these names, anyway? You must have read comic books when you were a girl. Batman, things like that.”
“I did. I was obsessive about the X-Men. But, look, Spare14 will be here in an hour to pick up Belial. What shall I tell him about the liaison?”
“That his proposal is under advisement. We’ll be having a top-level meeting about it tomorrow.”
With that, Y closed down without even a good-bye. The sulk baffled me until I mentioned it to Ari.
“He’s afraid of losing control of his unit,” Ari said, “or of having to share the control. I saw a lot of that in the army. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t want a military career.”
“You mean he’s jealous of Spare?”
“No, not personally. He merely sees Spare as a threat of sorts to his power base within the Agency. Or so I’d
“I was hoping you’d want to bargain for a second look at it.”
“Nope. Sorry. No more of that fancy stuff.” I was half-sincere, half-teasing him, because the entire experience with the handcuffs and so on had turned out to be much more pleasurable than I’d anticipated. “You’ll have to wait until I want some more classified information out of you.”
“I’d better do well on that exam, then. Nothing like a little motivation.”
“If you pass, will they give you more data?”
“So Spare14 gave me to understand. Which reminds me. While you were off communing with the saints, I told Spare about our burglar and that bluish sphere. He confirmed that the device had transport capabilities.”
“Does he think that guy will come back?”
“No. He admitted that the transport type of orb is very rare.”
“Which means there are other types.”
“I can’t confirm that.” He was grinning at me. “You don’t have the right clearance.”
“Very cute, Mr. Nathan.”
He laughed, then kissed me. “I love you,” he said.
“I love you, too.” It felt surprisingly good to say. “I really do.”
“Then why won’t you marry me?”
I suppressed a snarl. “Because you’re a stubborn bastard who doesn’t know when to stop badgering me about it.”
“That should be a recommendation, not a drawback. It shows I’m sincere.”
I groaned and slipped out of his grasp. “Let’s get something to eat,” I said. “After all that exercise, I’m hungry.”
C HAPTER 5
A FTER A BRIEF EXCHANGE OF E-MAIL , I received Y’s permission to turn Belial’s consciousness over to TWIXT. By contrast, the TWIXT offer of liaison presented difficulties. In a trance meeting late on Wednesday morning, Y tried to explain.
“For one thing, I’m worried about security,” Y said, “since TWIXT has psychics. The threat you call the Cryptic Creep is bad enough, and now you tell me that this Spare fellow managed to get information that Nathan thought was classified.”
“That’s true, but if we liaise with TWIXT, they’ll be our allies, not another threat.”
Y’s trance image crossed its arms, stuck out its lower lip, and sulked, but only for a few seconds. The image blinked out. Hiding your emotions in the trance state sometimes requires an image reboot. In a second or two he returned to his usual august self, a Japanese-American man of middle age, his thick hair streaked with gray, but still a good-looking guy, really, even with his wire-framed glasses.
“Don’t forget,” I said, “that Saint Maurice vetted Spare14.”
“Yes, that’s true.” Y heaved a dramatic sigh. “At times we must throw the fishing line of truth into the waters ofdarkness and see what takes the bait. I’ll admit to being relieved at having Belial off our hands.”
“So am I. And I think you’ll find Spare easy to talk to, if you decide to arrange a face-to-face meeting.”
“All in good time, Nola.” His image betrayed him with a scowl, and he changed the subject. “About this Cryptic Creep person, any more visitations?”
“None so far.”
“Good. Where do you get these names, anyway? You must have read comic books when you were a girl. Batman, things like that.”
“I did. I was obsessive about the X-Men. But, look, Spare14 will be here in an hour to pick up Belial. What shall I tell him about the liaison?”
“That his proposal is under advisement. We’ll be having a top-level meeting about it tomorrow.”
With that, Y closed down without even a good-bye. The sulk baffled me until I mentioned it to Ari.
“He’s afraid of losing control of his unit,” Ari said, “or of having to share the control. I saw a lot of that in the army. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t want a military career.”
“You mean he’s jealous of Spare?”
“No, not personally. He merely sees Spare as a threat of sorts to his power base within the Agency. Or so I’d
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