Part 19 (1/2)

”English.” He grinned at me. ”It's a foreign language to me.”

”G.o.d! I keep forgetting that.”

”Good. That means I'm speaking it properly.” He reached for the last pancake on the plate. ”I don't suppose you want that.”

”No. I'm saving room for my main course.”

”I'll hold you to that. Why did you ask about the languages?”

”It just occurred to me that the ones you know all have a bearing on Middle East politics. No Swedish or Irish for you.”

”True. That's a nice bit of logic.”

And a good thing about the Irish, too, but I kept that thought to myself.

CHAPTER 9.

ON THURSDAY, WHEN THE TIME CAME TO MOVE, my local relatives offered to help except for Father Keith, who had church duties. Kathleen and Jack, however, had to beg off. She called me early and explained that Jack had woken up ”sick as a human,” as she always modified the cliche. She took the dignity of dogs seriously.

”He says he's got a touch of food poisoning,” Kathleen said. ”I say he's hungover.”

”Did you guys go out last night?” I said.

”He did.” She put emphasis on the ”he.” ”But I'm real sorry, Nola. I wanted to help.”

”Oh, it's okay. I don't have a lot of stuff anyway. Was he out with you know who?”

”Yeah. Who else?”

She paused, and in the background I could hear Jack's baritone growling at her. ”My sister,” Kathleen's voice sounded as if she was holding her phone away from her mouth. ”I'm telling her that we're copping out on her.”

Jack growled again, a little louder.

”He says he's sorry, too,” Kathleen said into the phone. ”I thought maybe the sea air would-”

This time Jack spoke loudly enough for me to hear. ”Would you hang up that d.a.m.ned phone?”

”When I'm done talking,” Kathleen said.

I had never heard them sound on the verge of a fight before.

”I'll let you go,” I said. ”He probably needs some love and Alka-Seltzer.”

”I wanted to ask if you'd like a puppy.” Kathleen pointedly ignored both my offer and the remark. ”Or maybe a bonded pair. Tuesday, y'know? I took in some darling terrier mixes that some jerk dumped by the side of the road. I had the vet check them out, and they're in great shape.”

”No, I can't. The lease was real specific about that. No pets.” Actually, I was lying. I'd learned over the years that outright lies were the only way to fend off Kathleen's efforts to load me up with dogs and cats.

”I don't see how you can live in a place like that.”

”Er, well, y'know. I'd better go, Kath. I've got to pack up the stuff in the fridge.”

I clicked off to find Ari watching me. ”Caleb's back,” I told him. ”But I'll wait till he calls me.”

”You don't want to seem too eager, no,” Ari said. ”By the way, I've put in a request for detailed information on Caleb to the Ma.s.sachusetts Attorney General's office. They should get back to me soon.”

”You really must work for Interpol.”

”Of course I do, as I keep telling you. Would I lie to you?”

”Of course you would, if you needed to.”

Ari looked so annoyed that I dropped it. I had reasons for wondering. According to my own Agency's workup on Ari, he left Interpol for long periods of time to go off and do something for an Israeli undercover group that wasn't part of Mossad, unless maybe it was. Its true status was as mysterious as the ”something” Ari did for it. Our agent had run into the proverbial stone wall when he'd been trying to put together a report on Mr. Nathan. I doubted if Ari believed that sleeping with him gave me the right to ask outright for more information, so I didn't. I was, however, beginning to get some ideas.

Early on Thursday morning, Ari and I made one run over to the new flats with several boxes of fragile things like gla.s.sware and our laptops. It was a good thing we did, because the Chaos magic symbol had returned, along with some typical graffiti, the F-word, and a tag insulting everyone of Chinese descent.

”I'll go get the hose and those rags,” Ari said.

I threw a Chaos ward at the symbol with no result at all. Apparently, the paint was only paint this time around. Before we left, Ari washed everything off of the wall. Neither of us wanted Aunt Eileen to see the obscenities.

Aside from that nasty little incident, the move went as easily as moves ever do, which meant tiring and confused but possible. Even without the Donovans, we had enough warm bodies. Uncle Jim took Thursday off and allowed Michael and Brian to miss a day of school. Aunt Eileen, my older brother Sean, and his boyfriend Al also showed up. We got all the stuff out of the apartment, into the upstairs flat, and arranged in a single long day, except of course for the inevitable boxes of small items that only I could put away.

We even had a surprise helper. Around one o'clock, Itzak Stein turned up. He'd taken the afternoon off, he told me, to help Ari install the security system.

”Security system?” I said.

Itzak gave me his charming smile. ”Did you really think Ari could live without one? Mr. Suspicion Writ Large?”

”More fool me, yeah. Well, then, thank you.”

While the rest of us unpacked and fussed with furniture, Ari and Itzak scurried around, hammering insulated staples, stringing wires, placing routers, and generally putting together elaborate electronics inside and out. At one point I walked into the bedroom to find Ari frowning at my old camcorder. He was turning it around and around in his hands.

”Something wrong with that?” I said. ”It's not going to blow up or anything, is it?”

”No, it's just very unusual.” He set it back down on the dresser. ”I've never seen one quite like it.”

”That's because I got it from the Agency. There's a guy there who does stuff to stuff.”

”Interesting. Do you need me to move some furniture?”

”No. I think everything's pretty much in place.”

Toward the end of the day, Uncle Jim ordered pizza and soft drinks for everybody, and salad, too, at my insistence. While we waited for the order to arrive, I went into the bedroom to start hanging clothes in the closet. Michael followed me. With him came a little Chaos critter, a scaly blue cross between a lizard and a meerkat, with yellow claws and snaggly brown teeth. He called it ”Or-Something,” since we had no idea if it was male or female, alive or some sort of artificial construct. Whatever it was, it could walk the worlds and carry messages between them. Normally, the Chaos masters use them as spies, but this particular creature had come over to the side of the Balance, mostly because Mike fed it. It sniffed at the folded blankets and promptly p.i.s.sed on the mattress.

”Fail!” Michael said. ”Clean that up!”

Or-Something whimpered, and the puddle of green slime dried up and disappeared without leaving a stain.