contort at my goad. My faux smile had turned real, an impish grin rooted in my deep amusement at twisting his tail. His little piggy tail.
Zack laughed again, a wheezing cackle that made him stoop to slap a knee. Kurt’s face was ashen. “They don’t pay me enough to deal with your meta crap. They should have sent M-Squad after you; I’m not a retriever—”
I smiled at him. “You should add that to the list of things you’re not – a retriever, thin, a good shot, attractive, young, virile—”
He turned and stormed off in a perfect impression of countless divas I’d seen on TV over the years. I saluted his back as he walked down the path. “Don’t forget ‘possessed of a sense of humor’ or ‘gracious loser’!” He threw up a finger behind him as he continued his walk. “Oh! And ‘witty’! You’re not witty!”
“Damn,” Zack said in mild consternation as he watched Kurt walk away. “I’m gonna have to soothe his wounded pride later.” He turned back to me. “You really do pack a mean punch. Sienna, right?”
My smile went from mean-spirited to as pleasant as I could muster and I wasn’t quite sure why. I guess there was no point in being wicked to everyone, especially not when Zack was trying to be nice. Besides, I’d already proven I could drop him to the ground if need be. “That’s right. Sienna Nealon. You’re Zack…?”
“Davis.” He smiled. “You taken a tour of the grounds yet?”
I shook my head. “Saw the dormitory and the big building over there—” I waved in the direction that Kurt was heading—“that I woke up in.”
“Yeah, that’s our headquarters. But there’s other stuff, too, like a gym, a garage and a firing range.”
“A gym?” I cocked an eyebrow at that. The desire to work out was stronger than I would have guessed. I’d gone the week since Mom left without following the routine.
He shook his head, eyes wide. “I guess I shouldn’t be amazed, but I kind of am. We brought you in less than twenty-four hours ago and I had to hold a jacket around your neck to keep you from bleeding to death. And now you’re fine and looking for a place to work out.” He pointed down a path and started walking. I fell into step beside him.
“You’re not meta-human?”
He shook his head. “Just a normal guy. I work with them a lot, like M-Squad – they’re all metas, and normally they’d be the ones that would have come to get you, not Kurt and me, but they’re down in South America doing…something.”
“Ooh, ominous.”
He laughed. “Not supposed to be. They’re probably bringing in another meta, but I’m not exactly in the loop, so I don’t know for sure. That’s what they do though; bring in new metas that we identify, or bring down ones that are causing trouble.”
I eyed him. “And what I did yesterday, would that fit your definition of ‘causing trouble?’“
He laughed again. “Nah, I would’ve fought back too if strangers broke into my house. We were supposed to bring you in quiet, and you metas don’t typically do anything quiet if it’s against your will. Kurt told ‘em that, but Old Man Winter said to tranq you and be done with it.”
I stopped walking. “Old Man Winter?”
He stopped and his tanned face adopted a pinched “I-shouldn’t-have-said-that” look. “Ahh, I mean…damn. The boss.”
“I thought Ariadne was the boss?”
He shook his head. “Ariadne’s in charge, mostly, but she’s not the big cheese. Old Man Winter…we call him that because…you know, some people say ‘The Old Man’ and he’s kinda up there in the years, but he’s…I dunno, cold. Like he never shows emotion. Never smiles, never gets angry.”
“So you call him Old Man Winter. He got a name?”
“Erich Winter.”
I laughed. “That explains it.”
“Yeah. He’s a good boss, just…”
“Cold.”
“Right.”
“So how long have you been with the Directorate?” I cast a sidelong glance at him as we walked. Ahead of us loomed a building that matched every other in the complex. Gray concrete walls, squat and blocky with a section that extended well above the rest of the building. Glass doors marked the entryway, but like all the others I had seen, it was unlabeled.
“Couple years. They got me coming out of the U of M.”
“University of Minnesota?”
“Yeah. You gotta be close to college age. Were you thinking about going?”
I laughed. “You know my background, right?” He nodded. “Mom wasn’t big on the idea of me leaving the house. Ever. Said it