coming off of Aidan in waves. I felt a sense of loyalty and duty from him. I wondered why he’d taken such an instant liking to me.
“Why did you volunteer to help me?” I asked. “Don’t you have an HR department like all global bureaucracies?”
“Because I wanted to meet you myself,” Aidan said. “It’s unprecedented for a human to work for the Council. Gabriel is impressed with your skills and hopes you will be able to increase our chances of winning elections.”
“I hope I can live up to everyone’s expectations,” I said. “What happens to people who lose elections?”
Aidan’s eyes twinkled. “We send them out with the werewolves.”
“I see, my fate will rest with Zoran,” I said jokingly.
Aidan’s smile disappeared, and I detected a momentary sense of loathing. “Oh, I do hope that is never the case, my dear, I do hope it is never the case,” he said. Then quickly he changed the subject by opening a drawer in his desk and pulling out a small device that I did not recognize.
“Is this going to hurt?” I asked.
“No, but it will be weird,” Aidan said. “I am going to embed a tracking device in your skin. No matter where you are, in this time or another, we will be able to find you.”
“Did you say ‘in this time?’ ”
Aidan smiled. “I did. You know about the portals. It’s possible that you will use them to go back in time one day. We all wear them. Well, most of us do, anyway.”
I held out my arm as instructed and Aidan used the device to stamp the skin on the underside of my arm, near my wrist. I felt pressure and heard the pop of air, but there was no blood, only a tiny blue dot where the device now sat under my skin. I glanced at my arm and then back at Aidan.
Aidan nodded, seeming to understand my thoughts. “It’s semi-permanent, but it can be deactivated if necessary. And it will convert to a homing beacon if you’re in trouble.”
“How can I get in trouble running an election for a congressional seat?”
“Olivia, you should know better than anybody that politics is a dangerous business.”
****
CHAPTER 15
Before leaving that evening, Aidan gave me several binders with information to read. It was mostly organizational charts of the various Council directors, as well as the Council’s mission statement. I gave him a slip of paper with my bank account on it and he promised that funds would be transferred into it almost immediately. Normally, I said, I did some work before I got paid. Aidan laughed and said that Gabriel had wanted to compensate me for the time I had lost in transitioning to my new life.
I knew my mother would be furious if she found out about the funds. It would only confirm for her that there was something strange about a group that was willing to pay me before I’d even been on the workforce a day. But I was happy to take the money. I wasn’t convinced that Levi Barnes would hire me. If this new arrangement didn’t work out, at least I would have extra funds in my account to support myself until I decided what to do next.
It was decided that first night at the Council’s offices that I would keep my firm open and use the same employees. Since I already had a track record running campaigns, it was a perfect cover for my work with the Council. Gabriel had returned to Aidan’s office and handed me a binder with information about District 15, the new congressional seat Levi would be running for.
Previously made up of two other districts, the new territory was enormous, encompassing two counties, all of Silicon Valley, part of the state’s farm basket near the city of Salinas, as well as the coastline near Santa Cruz. In my opinion, it was political suicide to try to represent such a huge district, the interests of urban, suburban and agricultural voters certain to clash over the years. I couldn’t wait to hear why Levi Barnes wanted to return to the House of Representatives.
The last thing Gabriel told me that evening as I prepared to leave was that we were having lunch with Levi the next day at the Four Seasons Hotel on Market Street.
“You work fast,” I said in response.
Gabriel smiled and said he would meet me in the dining room.
At home later that night, I read through the materials I had been given. After his