Part 12 (1/2)

”I don't know. I a.s.sume he wasn't looking to recreate the n.a.z.i Party, though.”

”Are we a hundred percent that the hog-swarmer was what got bound? Could it have something else?”

Ex shrugged.

”Not a hundred, but high nineties.”

”Any chance they could have been working with a hog-swarmer to tie something else down? A common enemy?”

”Possible,” Ex allowed. ”Politics in the Pleroma aren't something any of us understand.”

A tapping sound caught my attention; it was my own fingers dancing nervously on the file with Kim's name. I forced myself to stop. Ex watched me, his pale eyes gentle and challenging at the same time.

”Well, I don't know either,” I said.

”We'll find it,” Ex said. ”There's a plan in here somewhere. All we need to do is find it.”

The tone of his voice was ambiguous, but I was pretty sure he was talking about G.o.d as much as Eric. I'd lost faith in religion before I'd ever met Ex or Aubrey, but whether G.o.d had a plan for all things or not didn't matter. Ex was still right. There was a plan, because Eric had made it. I could tell myself that the hard part was done. Once I knew what to do, doing it was easy. The thought was almost enough for me.

Almost.

”Hey,” I said. ”Once we figure what Eric was up to, we're going to have to talk to this thing. Strike some kind of deal.”

”Looks like, yeah.”

”So it's probably not all that bad, right? You're not scared of it?”

Ex actually grinned. I waited for him to say No or We can do anything or even just G.o.d is with us. Something motivational and upbeat that I could half believe.

”Petrified,” he said.

THIRTEEN.

I expected that, when I finally did fall asleep a little after three in the morning, I would be troubled by nightmares. Or at least disturbing, unpleasant dreams. As it happened, the only dream I could remember involved trying to get the right dog out of an Italian groomer's that was also a public library. I kept getting the wrong dog and having to go back in and try to explain the mistake in Italian without raising my voice. I woke up late and tense. Aubrey had already gotten up, but the bed had a small depression where his body had been. My back felt tight, wounded muscles bracing themselves as if bunching up would keep the pain away. I checked the clock-nine thirty-and made my way to the bathroom and a long, hot shower.

The whine of the pipes and the splash of the water drowned out any other sounds, and for the few minutes I stayed there, I could almost pretend I was alone in the condo. My mind unfocused, I wondered what it would be like to live by myself the way David Souder did. The way Kim did.

I'd never tried it, going from home and the family to the dorms to my traveling occult circus without any real gaps in between. I couldn't quite imagine waking up without having anyone to wake up to. I thought of David going quietly insane in his house. Would that still have happened if there'd been someone there to see it? Not even a lover, necessarily. A roommate. A friend. That was an extreme example, maybe, but other things could happen. Slip in the shower. Get a really bad round of the flu. Being alone that way didn't make the chances of something bad happening any better or worse, but it made recovering from them harder. More dangerous.

When I finally did kill the water, I could hear Kim laughing out in the kitchen. I patted myself dry with a big, fluffy white towel, the cut on my back leaving a little red on the nap. I put a fresh bandage over the little puncture where the nail had gone in. The flesh around it didn't look red or feel hot. I was going to get away with my little IKEA vaccination after all. My seared palm didn't hurt as much as I'd expected either. By the time I was dressed and my hair mostly dry, it was after ten.

”Hey, boss,” Aubrey said as I came out into the kitchen.

”Hey,” I said. ”There's still some coffee, right?”

Kim poured a fresh mug for me. She was swimming in one of Chogyi Jake's s.h.i.+rts. I always forgot that I was taller than her. Ex was in the living room, almost in the same place he'd been when I went to sleep. His skin had a waxy look and there were dark smudges under his eyes, but he looked content as he read, so maybe the abuse made him happy. Chogyi Jake himself sat at the table between Aubrey and Kim, fresh as if he'd just woken up too, though he'd probably been up for hours.

”Calling in sick again?” I asked Kim as I took the coffee from her.

”It's Sat.u.r.day,” she said. ”They do let me off for the weekends.”

”Guess days kind of run together when you don't have that work structure thing,” I said. ”Do we have a plan?”

”David called for you,” Chogyi Jake said. ”We told him you'd call back after you woke up.”

”Did he sound all right?” I asked.

”He did to me,” Aubrey said. ”Better than yesterday, anyhow.”

”Right,” I said. ”Besides that?”

”We are going to get through these files,” Ex said, making it sound like a death march.

”I've tracked down a couple of the walk-aways,” Kim said. ”Huge privacy violation, but they've agreed to be interviewed, so a couple of us should do that. And I was trying to find someone else who had heard one of the people coming up post-op speaking in tongues. A recording's too much to hope, but the hospital's a pretty cosmopolitan place. Lots of multilingual staff. Someone might have recognized something.”

”Good thought,” I said.

”Declan Souder left his personal papers to the Illinois Inst.i.tute of Technology,” Aubrey said. ”I was going to go take a peek at them. See if there was anything useful.”

”More obscure books of German magic?” I said.

”For instance.”

”So two interviews, a research visit, and everything Eric left,” I said. ”Doesn't leave much time for shopping?”

”Doesn't,” Ex said, failing to appreciate the joke.

”How about we split up, then,” I said. ”Kim and I can take the walk-aways. Aubrey does the Souder recon. Ex and Chogyi plow through as much of the local stuff as possible. Plan?”

”I can drop Aubrey at the inst.i.tute,” Kim said. ”I know where it is, and one of the people who agreed to talk lives in Bronzeville.”

That shouldn't have given me pause, so I hid it.

”Great,” I said. ”Gimme the other guy's address, and we'll hit it.”

”Don't forget to call David,” Chogyi Jake said, which was good since he'd already slipped my mind. I took my phone to the new room to keep the background chatter of the other four planning to a minimum. While the phone rang, I wrote my name in the dust on the window.

”Jayne!” he said. ”Thank you. Thank you for calling. I slept last night. I really slept.”

”No dreams?”

”Nothing like before,” he said, ”but I was thinking. Maybe I should go down there. To the hospital you were talking about. That's where this is all coming from. If I go down close to it, knowing what I know now, maybe I can find out something more.”

”Bad idea right now,” I said. ”We're making some real progress, but you shouldn't jump the gun until we have a better idea what we're looking at. Just hang tight, and I swear I'll let you know as soon as we've got something solid.”

”I want to be part of it,” he said, and the happy tone of voice seemed a little strained. ”I mean, you're not just breezing in here and then I never hear from you again, right? This was my Grandpa Del. Whatever's going on, I'm part of it.”