WE KNOCKED ON PRADIP’S door. It creaked open enough for him to see out of—and enough for us to make out the bags under his eyes, as his form slouched against the frame. That didn’t bode well for us. “What?” he said, the word coming out half irritated and half exhausted. “I’m busy organizing Dr. Berti’s files for the conference.” Worse and worse.
“We almost die and she’s still going to the conference?” Carter asked. I elbowed him.
“Coffee?” I offered Pradip the cup. It was probably lukewarm at best, but in his current condition, I was hoping he wouldn’t notice. “We’ve got cookies, too.”
His expression turned suspicious. “What do you want?”
“Just to ask a few questions,” I reassured him, holding the coffee out to keep his attention on the enticement. “It won’t take much time at all.”
He hesitated a moment, but then let us in. “You have ten minutes.” He grabbed the coffee from my hand as I passed, taking a sip. From the look on his face, you’d think he’d gone to heaven. And though I’d been assured the coffee really was that good, I suspected his appreciation for it had more to do with being overworked and underappreciated.
I leaned against a wall, taking in the neat sparseness of the room. A tablet lay on a nearby desk, offering no hints as to the extent of the work Pradip had to do. Not that I had time to worry about that.
“Okay,” I said. “Dr. Berti’s political interests, and how they’re perceived in legend communities. Explain that.”
“Seriously?” Pradip asked. “That would take all day.”
“You’re wasting my ten minutes.”
He snorted, answering my question in a bored tone. “Think about it. She wants to reunify the country. She wants to document habitats of mythical animals, put up fences, get trains running regularly. She wants it to be safe for people to drive between cities again. To reclaim more pieces of the countryside.”
Okay, I knew all that. Since the sudden population boom of legimals, lots of communities around the world had condensed into smaller areas, physically cut off from other populations. It wasn’t so bad in Italy, but traveling between regions was still a serious undertaking. Plenty of people wanted to get the freedom to travel regularly back. That would make it easier for us to cooperate and support each other, especially with the high risk for disasters.
Nodding, I said, “Yeah, she wants everyone in Italy to be more connected, to be able to work together.”
“Not everyone,” Pradip replied, scornful. “Do you seriously think everyone in Italy wants a more connected world? What do you even use that oh-so-well-trained, scientific brain for?”
I reigned in a sudden burst of anger, as I remembered why I didn’t usually talk to Pradip. He was snarky, competitive, and acted like only the things that he knew were valuable. “Who then?” I asked, not entirely managing to get the sharpness out of my voice.
“Whoever decides to be part of the collective. So far, she’s been probing for interest subtly. Various cities, a good number of the townships, much of the farmlands. The only people she hasn’t been talking to are the legends.”
“Why not?” I asked.
Pradip shot me an exasperated look. “Think about it, will you? They were never part of the country before the Boom. They settled these lands recently, and they’re completely autonomous. Why would they want to be part of the larger community Berti wants to build?”
Carter frowned. “She’s not even going to ask them?”
“Fuck if I know,” Pradip said. “We aren’t exactly best buddies. All I know is, she’s skeptical that any arrangement with legend communities would be mutually beneficial.”
Well, that vague-ass statement could mean literally anything. Why was she skeptical? What was the problem?
But then, that probably wasn’t relevant to why someone had tried to kill us. I thought back to Hayley’s idea, that this was a border dispute. “So we’re planning on expanding our territory, whenever we get enough knowledge to make that workable. We’re already in negotiations for it, apparently. And we’re keeping this a secret from the nearby legend communities?”
If the local legends found out about it, I could see that causing an incident of some sort. Assassinating a research team seemed like a weird reaction, but what I did I know? A heavy-handed House, used to sovereignty and power, might react with force. This gave any legend House a plausible motivation. And I was on the Aventine, in the heart of the Remus’ territory.
“How public is this information?” I asked.
“Publically, she talks about how scientific innovation would make it possible to safely coexist with legimals, protect farmland, and make travel safer. It goes without saying that some of this will require the reclaiming of roads and railways. But this early on, there’s only vague hints about expanding our farmland.” He took another sip of his coffee, before pointing to the door. “Your ten minutes are up.”
“So who knows about it?” If the Remus found out, then he had a motive. I’d previously ruled him out, after the flood attack, but what was a little lost prestige when the future of his society was at stake?
“Out. Now.”
He couldn’t just give us this one essential detail?
But that was assuming he even knew. Like he said, he was just Dr. Berti’s assistant. Collecting background information for her, taking calls, doing menial tasks. How much did she tell him about the intricacies of her relationships with her associates, really?
Pradip hustled us out of the door and shut it behind us. “Charming guy,” Carter commented. I heard a lock click.
This was big. Regardless of whether or not Pradip knew, I needed to. But it didn’t look like we would get anything else out of him. Not without more bribery, and no one was going to let Carter and me have the pick-up after what happened to the other car.
Still, we got more than we bargained for. Dr. Berti had never mentioned to us that her vision for the future was so broad. It must have been a deliberate decision, to keep it from us. Not that her judgment was all that impressive given how quick her assistant had sold her out for coffee.
Carter and I looked at each other, and for all his usual nonchalance, he was serious now. “So what exactly are we involved in?” he asked me.
“No idea, but we’d better find out.”
If the local legends weren’t being told anything, then they could be jumping to all kinds of conclusions. Even the perception that Dr. Berti was a voice against legends in Roman politics could give someone a reason to mess up her plans. Going after us would kill any progress we made, progress that could help everyone. But if they didn’t believe they’d ever get to benefit from that progress anyway, then they might do it.
I needed to know if the Remus knew about this. If he did, he had a motive. If not, we had to keep him from finding out—at least while we were staying on his territory. The last thing we needed was for him to have a change of heart where our wellbeing was concerned.
THE ONLY THING WE COULD reasonably do was confront Dr. Berti. Going to Pradip was one thing. He hated her as much as he hated us. But probing her associates behind her back? She’d know we were up to something in minutes. And this was too important to play games with.
We headed back to park where we’d seen her last, my mind turning over how all of this might fit together. I only vaguely registered Carter’s large frame walking on my left, the sound of our footfalls crunching against the gravel, a coolness against my skin from a shadow on my right that kept pace with me, blocking out the sun...
“Gah!” Carter yelped, startling me.
I turned my head frantically, searching for whatever it was he’d seen. My eyes passed over Jessie standing alongside us—and I did a double take, as I realized she was walking with us like she’d been there all along. “Hey, you weren’t here before.”
“Where did you come from?” Carter said, an agitated bafflement filling his voice. Which, in turn, reminded me of how unusual it was for Carter not to notice som
eone’s approach.
“Oh, relax. You guys are so jumpy.” She took headphones out of her ears, attached to a phone sticking out of her pocket. Seriously, whatever happened to the stereotype about technologically backward legends?
“I just forgot to tell you something, and I promised I would,” she continued. “Apparently, you two have somehow managed to miss everyone else who was supposed to inform you about it. There’s something of a meeting starting on the Aventine, now-ish. Just some representatives here from other Houses, talking out their differences and making agreements, blah, blah.”
How did anyone forget something like that?
“Let me get this straight,” I said. “We’re being targeted by a powerful mystery attacker—and you’re telling me you forgot to mention that we were going to be surrounded by a bunch of unknown legends?”
She rolled her eyes. “I think what you meant to say was, ‘Hey Jessie, we’re so thankful you saved our asses earlier today. We totally understand if in the course of protecting us from a raging flood you forgot to mention a minor detail about the guests you were having over.’”
Carter raised a finger, indicating he wanted to interject. “I just want to point out that in this case, ‘minor detail’ translates to ‘suspected of trying to assassinate you.’ No big, just clarifying.”
“You two are so dramatic. Even if your aggressors are here—” which they probably were, because we’d literally just been attacked half an hour ago “—they won’t try anything in public, with several Houses there to witness. And they can’t get to you through us. Come on, where’s the duo that escaped that flood earlier today? The adventurers from the American frontier who travel outside the safety zone every day to study legimals?”
There were so many inaccuracies in her statement, I didn’t even know how to start addressing them. Instead, I ended up gaping at her, completely confused by the picture she’d painted.
Undeterred by our total lack of enthusiasm, Jessie maneuvered behind us and lightly shoved us forward—which, by the way, I was totally not okay with. “Get out there,” she said, “and show them you’re not afraid of them.”
By the time I turned around to confront her about how I hadn’t given her permission to touch me, she was nowhere in sight, gone as suddenly as she’d arrived.
What. The. Fuck.
“Flakiest bodyguard ever,” Carter observed.
Taking a moment to let my brain move past the disappearing woman, I made myself refocus on our next task. “What are the chances that Dr. Berti’s not conversing with several legends right now?” I asked.
“Small. Guess you don’t want to make anyone suspicious?”
“Not if they all have a reason to hate us, no.” So what next?
I couldn’t help a tinge of frustration, knowing I shouldn’t have to do this at all. I wasn’t an investigator. If Dr. Berti had to do something with her political clout, how about empowering the police to carry out investigations outside the safety zone?
“Hey,” Carter said, pointing towards where we were going. At Luca, headed straight towards us. “So he still looks pissed.”
Studying Luca’s approaching form, I decided that he hadn’t taken the time to cool off. Tension radiated from him, and there was a hint of something restless in his eyes. He stopped in front of us, visibly taking a calming breath.
“Jordan, Carter. This is maybe not the best place to be right now.”
“I’m in the Aventine. What is going to happen here?”
“You’re in the Aventine,” he agreed, with a composure that seemed forced. “Along with dozens of legends, one of whom probably attacked you earlier.” So he’d figured that much out, too. “When you slipped out, I thought you were being sensible by avoiding the gathering. Why did you come back out here?”
“To be fair, we only just found out about the meeting.”
His veneer of calmness dropped long enough for his gaze to turn into a pointed glare. Which meant I probably shouldn’t have said that. Whoops.
“I don’t want to fight with you guys,” Luca said. “I’m just worried. This is dangerous and I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”
“That’s nice, Luca,” Carter said. “But we’ve been traveling outside of safety zones for most of our lives. Jordan grew up in the American frontier. I’ve spent half my life all over the world, photographing legimals on par with the chimera. We’ve made our choices long ago, and I know that you’re new to this, but you can’t ask us to change in order to make yourself feel better.”
Whoa. I’d thought Carter would have been too flustered by the driving-a-pick-up-at-a-chimera thing to school Luca like this. It was good for me he was here, because I certainly couldn’t have done it myself.
Luca paused, taken aback. “I’m sorry,” he managed. “I didn’t mean—no, what I should say is, I’m afraid that something will happen when I’m not around to do anything about it. I’d like to be included.”
“Better,” Carter said. “But you can’t make everything about you. You have to learn to trust your team, and to defer to their experience. Especially Jordan’s—there’s a reason she’s in charge. You’ve got good instincts, and I don’t want to discourage you. Tell you what,” he said, turning to me. “Jor, how are you handling the next step?”
“Just talking to people,” I told him. No excursions beyond the Aventine yet, not when there were legends all over the place, in a safe environment where they couldn’t try to kill me. The least I could do was take advantage. “If you’re thinking we start him off with something that’s unlikely to get him hurt, it’s a good idea.”
Which meant however I decided to handle this next step of the investigation, I’d have Luca at my side. Luca, whose latest stint at back-up had ended with him driving a pick-up at a chimera. Either I would be as safe as possible, or we were both going to die. My parents would definitely not have approved.
“Okay.” Carter shifted his gaze back to Luca. “I’m not great at the talking thing anyway, so you back her up on this one. Follow her lead, and figure out a way to contribute instead of doing your own thing.”
Luca nodded, with a gravity more appropriate to a chivalric knight charged with hunting a dragon than what he actually was—a guy with a psych degree helping me talk to people, while we were both surrounded by bodyguards. But at least he’d put away the strangely combative side of his personality.
Carter moved to leave, but stopped when Luca addressed him. “At the risk of overstepping my bounds,” he told Carter. “Will you at least tell me that you’re going someplace safe? You won’t be wandering around alone while the place is filled with unknown legends?”
Carter passed an assessing gaze over Luca’s hesitant figure, then sighed in resignation. “This once, sure. But you need to get over whatever this is.”
After laying that smackdown, he took off, and I was left with a newly-determined Luca. Carter’s speech had brought out the professionalism in me, by turning this into a team-building exercise. So it was easy to get to business.
“We’re going to try mingling with the legends here,” I told Luca. “There’s no need to push them or make them suspicious—I just want to get a sense of their reactions to us. See what kind of interest they take in us.”
“I understand,” he responded. “And I’m sorry that I was out of line before. Carter’s right, that someone who hasn’t traveled outside the safety zone as extensively as you two shouldn’t criticize your choices. Although I wasn’t expecting him to be the one to say it.”
“He has his moments,” I said. “Sometimes people forget that under that careless attitude, he usually knows what he’s doing.”
Luca let out a deep breath. “I just don’t like the prospect of people getting hurt around me.”
“Then you took the wrong job,” I told him with a total lack of tact.
It got a rueful smile out of him anyway. “I did, didn’t I? But even if I hadn’t, you and Carter would still be here. I just wouldn’t kno
w about it.”
How I was supposed to respond to that, I didn’t even know. The professional thing to do was to leave it, to let him sort out his own emotions. As coworkers, his feelings weren’t my problem. But a part of me wanted to ask him why it would matter, if he didn’t know about it. It was a personal inquiry, one that meant I wanted to know more about him.
That I wanted to ask it at all made me uncertain about where we stood—were we friends? Colleagues with the potential to become friends? Was Hayley right about us starting a light flirtation? Because a week ago, we hadn’t even been on speaking terms. Now I felt like I was plunging into the deep end, with no idea how to deal with him.
Especially given my inexperience—romance was like a foreign country I wouldn’t know how to visit even if I wanted to, and it was incredibly rare for me to want to. I wasn’t even sure if I did want to, or if I was misinterpreting my reactions because I didn’t know any better.
There wasn’t anyone I could turn to for reliable advice, either. Hayley wasn’t the relationship type. Carter’s circumstances were...unique. And Tony was presently in a long-distance relationship, which changed the dynamics somewhat—though my understanding was that he and the other guy were trying to change that.
My family wouldn’t have been useful, either. Dad would probably laugh at me if I asked him for advice. Sorry, honey. You picked the boy, and it’s up to you to figure out how to deal with him.
Mom wouldn’t have been much better. You don’t need me to tell you not to let a guy push you around. What else is there to know?
Tommy would have told me to think about it from Luca’s perspective, which was no help whatsoever. I had no idea what he wanted, or what he was thinking, so how was I supposed to understand his perspective?
“Let’s move,” I told him, putting an end to that nonsense for the moment.
I could worry about it all I wanted, but what would be the point? None of it would matter if I didn’t survive the month.
Chapter Nine
Terrestrial Magic (Jordan Sanders, #1) Page 11
