key:
Danny could be pretty bullheaded, and Stosser had told me to go gentle. “We can
work more contacts that way. If you find something…” I paused. Danny couldn’t
ping me, and I didn’t carry a cell phone, for obvious reasons. I’d gotten really
spoiled, working only with Talent.
Luckily, Danny was used to it. “If I find anything, I’ll call
the office and they can ping you.”
“Yeah.” I paused, looking over the paperwork. My throat
tightened at the black-and-white reproductions of those faces. Three girls, one
of them only a few years younger than me, one of them still a baby. Missing for
weeks now. “Danny.”
“I have to believe they’re alive,” he said, somehow knowing
what I didn’t want to ask. “I couldn’t do this job otherwise. You do the same,
Bonnie. Believe.”
I carried that with me, the belief in his voice, all the way
back down to the street and the next stop along the gossip network. It didn’t
help shake the feeling of an onrushing train that had started prickling up and
down my arms the moment I picked up all three files, though.
Kenning. It wasn’t quite foresight or even precognition,
nothing that precise or useful. But the weird shimmer of current let me know
there was something building. Something that involved me. And it was rarely
good.
* * *
On the train heading toward Philadelphia, Ben Venec felt
a twinge of unease. Bonnie, he identified, and then frowned. No, not Bonnie. She
was worried. The Merge and his own abilities told him that through their brief
contact, but she was focused on the chase, whatever Ian had set her on earlier.
It was something else prickling at him.
He touched the briefcase on the seat next to him, his unease
making him need to confirm, physically, that it was there and safe. He didn’t
have even a touch of precog, or Bonnie’s kenning, but his instincts were good,
and something felt wrong, off. He just couldn’t figure out what.
He ran down the mental list of possibilities. Ian? No, he was
accounted for. It wasn’t the pups themselves; when he’d left, the office was
humming along at a mad but steady pace, and if anything had gone wrong, he would
have heard the yelps. The job he was heading for? Unlikely. It was bog-standard,
more a distraction than a challenge.
“All right. Apprehension noted and filed,” he said out loud, as
though that would make whatever it was shut up. Much to his surprise, it did, a
palpable sense of the unease backing off, like a cat settling back on its
haunches to watch, rather than leap.
Interesting. Possibly it was his own nerves, reacting
to…something. There were a limited number of things—and beings—that could cause
that reaction. He considered the idea of another trickster imp in town, and
dismissed it. This was more personal, more…direct.
“Aden, what are you up to?”
Ian’s little sister, Aden, had made it her personal mandate to
shut PUPI down, to keep her precious Council from being held accountable for
their actions. She had been banned from approaching them directly, after her
earliest attempt got an innocent Null killed, but she hadn’t given up. Not by a
long shot.
Not too long ago they—he and Ian—had been the focus of a Push,
a current-driven emotion, intended to doubt themselves into making mistakes.
With a touch of the Push himself, Ben had recognized it easily enough, but not
before it had done some damage they couldn’t afford. Aden had been behind that,
and while Ian said he had dealt with her…
“There’s nothing more stubborn than a Stosser on a crusade. The
only question is what level of crazy will she bring, and from what
direction?”
Since this twinge seemed intent on being a helpful warning
rather than a distraction, Ben was willing to let it sit there and wait. He
would be alert—but he would have been on alert, anyway. That was his job.
Popping open the brown leather briefcase, he extracted the file
marked Ravenwood in thick black lettering, took out a
Danny could be pretty bullheaded, and Stosser had told me to go gentle. “We can
work more contacts that way. If you find something…” I paused. Danny couldn’t
ping me, and I didn’t carry a cell phone, for obvious reasons. I’d gotten really
spoiled, working only with Talent.
Luckily, Danny was used to it. “If I find anything, I’ll call
the office and they can ping you.”
“Yeah.” I paused, looking over the paperwork. My throat
tightened at the black-and-white reproductions of those faces. Three girls, one
of them only a few years younger than me, one of them still a baby. Missing for
weeks now. “Danny.”
“I have to believe they’re alive,” he said, somehow knowing
what I didn’t want to ask. “I couldn’t do this job otherwise. You do the same,
Bonnie. Believe.”
I carried that with me, the belief in his voice, all the way
back down to the street and the next stop along the gossip network. It didn’t
help shake the feeling of an onrushing train that had started prickling up and
down my arms the moment I picked up all three files, though.
Kenning. It wasn’t quite foresight or even precognition,
nothing that precise or useful. But the weird shimmer of current let me know
there was something building. Something that involved me. And it was rarely
good.
* * *
On the train heading toward Philadelphia, Ben Venec felt
a twinge of unease. Bonnie, he identified, and then frowned. No, not Bonnie. She
was worried. The Merge and his own abilities told him that through their brief
contact, but she was focused on the chase, whatever Ian had set her on earlier.
It was something else prickling at him.
He touched the briefcase on the seat next to him, his unease
making him need to confirm, physically, that it was there and safe. He didn’t
have even a touch of precog, or Bonnie’s kenning, but his instincts were good,
and something felt wrong, off. He just couldn’t figure out what.
He ran down the mental list of possibilities. Ian? No, he was
accounted for. It wasn’t the pups themselves; when he’d left, the office was
humming along at a mad but steady pace, and if anything had gone wrong, he would
have heard the yelps. The job he was heading for? Unlikely. It was bog-standard,
more a distraction than a challenge.
“All right. Apprehension noted and filed,” he said out loud, as
though that would make whatever it was shut up. Much to his surprise, it did, a
palpable sense of the unease backing off, like a cat settling back on its
haunches to watch, rather than leap.
Interesting. Possibly it was his own nerves, reacting
to…something. There were a limited number of things—and beings—that could cause
that reaction. He considered the idea of another trickster imp in town, and
dismissed it. This was more personal, more…direct.
“Aden, what are you up to?”
Ian’s little sister, Aden, had made it her personal mandate to
shut PUPI down, to keep her precious Council from being held accountable for
their actions. She had been banned from approaching them directly, after her
earliest attempt got an innocent Null killed, but she hadn’t given up. Not by a
long shot.
Not too long ago they—he and Ian—had been the focus of a Push,
a current-driven emotion, intended to doubt themselves into making mistakes.
With a touch of the Push himself, Ben had recognized it easily enough, but not
before it had done some damage they couldn’t afford. Aden had been behind that,
and while Ian said he had dealt with her…
“There’s nothing more stubborn than a Stosser on a crusade. The
only question is what level of crazy will she bring, and from what
direction?”
Since this twinge seemed intent on being a helpful warning
rather than a distraction, Ben was willing to let it sit there and wait. He
would be alert—but he would have been on alert, anyway. That was his job.
Popping open the brown leather briefcase, he extracted the file
marked Ravenwood in thick black lettering, took out a
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