Tricks of the Trade - By Laura Anne Gilman Page 0,56

incoherent – as I’d ever heard Bobo, considering his usual mode was to slip into “you white man, me play dumb” routine when confronted.

“We gathered that much.” Venec had turned on the icy sarcasm. “But why does it worry the Ancients so much? And why is it following one of my people?”

Yeah. I was wondering that last bit, too.

Bobo shrugged his massive, furry shoulders. “I don’t know. I saw, and I came to warn. But... ” He frowned, which on him was a very odd look. “You investigate paranormal. It causes paranormal. You are opposed to each other, before you even do anything.”

Like I said, Bobo only played dumb.

The Big Dogs looked at each other, and there was a humming in the air that wasn’t really there, the way it always was when they were doing the not-quite-pinging thing they did. Telepathy was a myth – the closest I’d ever even heard of was the tight-wound connection Venec and I could have when we both let the walls down and reached – but those two weren’t even using magic, just years of knowing each other really well.

“Anything that worries both our visitor and Madame worries me,” Stosser said finally. “Especially if it is taking a specific interest in one of us. Ben, tell the others, tell them we’ve officially bumped this from casual observance to high priority. I want them alert for anything even slightly out of whack. No matter if it is in reference to one of our jobs, or life in general – I want to know everything.”

“Will you alert the Council?” I couldn’t tell, from Venec’s voice, if he thought Ian should or not.

“You know I have to.”

Like J – like me, technically – Ian Stosser was Council. The rest of our team were lonejack or, more formally, unaffiliated. They didn’t understand the obligations even nominal Council membership put on you. Or, actually, they understood just fine, and wanted no part of it.

We – meaning Venec and myself – showed Bobo out. He rested one of his massive paws on my shoulder again, and shook his head at me. “I will be there. Even if you do not see me.”

“I know,” I said, and touched his hand with mine. J had hired Bobo originally, but he hung around for friendship. That meant a lot to me, even if I sometimes forgot to say so.

The door closed behind him, and it was just me and Venec in the break room. The office was, for once, utterly silent. Everyone else was either running late, or had gotten to work already, and Stosser was likely Translocated to the nearest Council office by now. I knew why he felt obligated, but there was a growing part of me that agreed with the others: the Council repeatedly refused to grant us approved status, meaning their members would not easily or officially come to us with cases, so why should we do anything gratis for them?

“Massive unease?” Venec asked me, referring to my earlier description.

I put aside questions of Council and loyalty, and focused on the more immediate problem. “Unease and discomfort, yeah. Like big test and you didn’t study kind of thing.”

“But not dread like you realized you studied for the wrong thing?”

That made me laugh, a little. “You did that, too? No, not like that. Venec, a couple of days ago, I saw a pigeon fly by. Backward.”

“Uh-huh.” He gave me one of Those Looks. “And you didn’t think to mention that little detail?”

We had been a little preoccupied with other things at the time. “I figured... okay, fine, all right, I fucked up. If I see something that makes me wonder if I’m hallucinating from lack of sleep, I promise, I’ll file an immediate report.” I was joking, sort of, but also sort of not. The tension was weirdly thick in the room, and I could feel something almost like it was pushing me forward, like a hand between my shoulder blades.

Taking that one step forward would have put me square inside Ben’s personal space.

I’d been that up close and personal once before. Downtown, the night I’d confronted him about this thing between us. We’d been off-hours then, both dressed for the occasion, and I’d danced with him, just long enough to get his attention. I wondered if he was remembering that, now, the way I was. From the way his breathing had gone shallow, and his eyes had gotten heavy-lidded, and the way he suddenly reached up and shoved