& Grinders. The four of us fell on the pies as if we were starving and the pizzas took a hurting in just minutes.
Maybe it was the fact that I’d only eaten donuts, coffee, and my protein bars all day, but I was pretty sure this was the best pizza I had ever eaten. Maybe the best meal I had ever eaten. In my life.
“So good,” I said midway into my third and last piece. Even my leaves, trying to curl into my hairline, were happy.
FireWind took a slow bite and chewed as he watched us eat, his gestures formal, a ritual, as if eating take-out pizza was a ceremony of breaking bread. Maybe in his world it was. Maybe I should ask that. Maybe I should have already asked. Had I insulted him? I concentrated on my slice, trying to figure out the proper social words. I settled on something that Mama might have said to the senior wife of a church elder. “I thank you for the meal, the drinks, and the cheesy goodness. It’s delicious.”
T. Laine and Occam chimed in with thanks and FireWind inclined his head, still formal but a bit less distant. “You are welcome.”
JoJo and Tandy, back at HQ in Knoxville, were on the Internet with us, their faces on FireWind’s computer screen in the middle of the table. It was PsyLED’s version of FaceTime but with added security. They were eating salads and grilled salmon with some kind of fancy sauce, and I didn’t know whether I was covetous or not. Considering my pizza-swollen belly, I decided envy was out of place.
I asked, “Why’s Tandy not here to help with the interrogations?”
“Dyson did the preliminary questioning of the victims sent to UTMC,” FireWind said, using the law enforcement SOP of last names only, which I still wasn’t used to, “and he experienced a negative reaction to the presence of the death working.”
I looked at the screen in surprise. The last time magic had affected Tandy he had misused his gifts to sway the thoughts of others. I wondered if that had been a problem this time. He shrugged uneasily and slid his eyes to JoJo, saying, “I had no ability to read emotions. It’s nice to not have other people’s emotions pressing on my mind, but it made me no more effective than a human.” JoJo’s expression didn’t change at all, but I had a feeling there was more to it than that.
“Death and decay energies,” T. Laine said, correcting her boss. “It’s not a witch working. All we know for sure is it’s directed paranormal energies.” She was using a tone of voice my mama woulda called sassy and swiped my bottom for using.
FireWind didn’t react to it, merely gave a single slow nod. “Interesting distinction. When Ingram returns to Knoxville, and the death and decay energies have been neutralized, Dyson may be joining us here, for a limited time, in situations where he isn’t negatively affected. I want two people available at HQ at all times.”
I didn’t look at Occam, but I figured that meant we’d have no more hotel alone time. While we were still finishing up the last bites of pizza, T. Laine opened the EOB by calling on Clementine to record and transcribe the meeting. Clementine was the software that saved us from having to take meeting notes, but it was confined to HQ and only available now because we were essentially live.
T. Laine gave the time, the date, and the names of all present, repeating to the group that she had been on the road to Bowling Green for a read when FireWind redirected her to Stella Mae Ragel’s property. Using one clean fingertip to page across the notes on her small electronic tablet, she walked us through the events of the day, and caught us all up on the condition of the transport vehicle that had been taking the body of Stella’s housekeeper to UTMC in the cooler. “It’s still stalled in the middle of I-40. The death and decay is working much faster in the vehicle than at the studio, probably because the concrete floor of the house is more substantial. The energies have eaten through the cooler, the floor of the vehicle, and the asphalt underneath it.” She licked tomato sauce off a finger and tucked her hair back behind an ear with it. “Traffic is backed up for a good seven miles and has been rerouted to back roads, which are bumper-to-bumper. The