been whitish but more often in the Tri-Cities was brownish with dust, was an astonishingly bright orange.
Staring at the orange air filter, I answered my cell without checking ID.
“This is Tory Abbot,” said Senator Campbell’s assistant, who smelled like the zombie-making witch. Darn it, “zombie witch” was easier and it flowed off the tongue better—even if it left the impression that the witch was a zombie. So “zombie witch” it was.
“What can I do for you?”
“I have some documents for you to take to the fae. We need a complete list of which fae will be there—names, attributes, and all of that.”
I pulled the phone away from my face and gave it an incredulous look. “Paperwork for the Gray Lords to fill out,” I said slowly. “Huh. That’s an interesting proposition. But they won’t do it.”
“They will if they want a meeting,” he said. “I’ll drop them by your . . . place of business this afternoon.” He said the last as if he just noticed that my place of business was a garage and not, say, a lawyer’s office.
“You can if you want to,” I told him. “But I won’t pass them on.”
“I’m afraid this is nonnegotiable,” he said.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll tell them that the meeting is off. And I’ll tell them why. You can explain to the president and the secretary of state why this meeting that they were so hot to have was canceled by your grandstanding. But maybe they will agree with you. That without some pieces of paper—that your side would have filled with lies if you were the fae—this meeting should not be held. Even though it is the first step in a process that might keep our country from being at war with the fae. You can start, maybe, by informing Senator Campbell.”
A short silence fell. I think he was waiting for me to continue my rant.
“Ms. Hauptman,” Abbot began, “I know that you are overset by the bombing. Maybe you should pass on your duties to someone more experienced and less obstructionist.”
“Okay,” I said. “Give me the name of someone the fae won’t object to.”
“Adam Hauptman,” he said.
“Someone made sure that Adam had a job for this meeting,” I said. “He won’t renege on an agreement he has already made.” I decided I wasn’t really interested in helping him with his hunt for my replacement. “And if you think I am an obstructionist, you should try him. Good luck with your search.”
I hit the red button and went back to the mystery of the Rabbit’s air filter. Experimentally I brought it to my nose because it looked like someone had dusted the whole filter with cheese powder from a macaroni and cheese box. But it didn’t have a smell.
I took an air hose and used it to blow off the filter, half expecting orange powder to fill the air—but nothing happened. The substance looked powdery, but it clung to the filter as if it were glue.
I poked at it with my finger. I was still wearing gloves when I worked, though Adam’s ex-wife was back in Eugene and not around to make little pointed remarks about the grease I couldn’t get out from under my nails. I hated the way my hands sweated in them. But that was made up for by the way my skin was less dry and cracked because I wasn’t using as much caustic soap on them to get the grease off. Christy had done me a favor.
There was no orange residue on my gloves.
“Hey, Zee?” I asked, holding up the filter.
“Was,” he said, perched on the edge of an engine compartment with a limberness that belied his elderly appearance. “I am busy,” he added.
“I have a bright orange air filter,” I singsonged. “Don’t you want to give it a look?”
There was the buzz of hard rubber on cement and Tad slid out from under Zee’s car, a flashlight in his hand. “Orange?” he said.
“Bah,” said Zee. “You’ve distracted the boy, Mercy.”
“What is orange and keeps air from flowing—and why would someone dump that all over an air filter?” I asked.
Tad took the air filter and stared at it. He looked at the Rabbit.
“What was supposed to be wrong with the car?” he asked.
I looked at the repair sheet I’d filled out while I’d been in exile on the front desk. “Sputters and dies,” I said.
“I guess I know why,” Tad said. And then he dropped the filter like it was a hot potato and jumped back.