Lupi 08 - Death Magic

Martin.”
    Croft shrugged. “I’m hoping Ruben can come back soon. For his sake, of course, but also selfishly. I miss fieldwork.”
    “You’re very much needed here.”
    “I’m a decent administrator, but I was a damn good investigator. I want to get back to what I’m best at, but . . .”
    “But if you weren’t doing this job, someone with less understanding of the Unit would be. Or one of the Gifted agents would be promoted to a desk, and they’re needed in the field.”
    “Exactly.” He ran a hand over his hair. “With your people, Rhos face the same problem, don’t you? There has to be distance between the Rho and everyone else, plus they have to stay denned up at their clanhomes. Except that you don’t. Stay denned up, I mean. How do you pull that off?”
    “Two clans,” Rule said. “Two sets of duties. And I can’t be the public face for my people if I never leave Clanhome.”
    “Hmm. Rule, I won’t ask if Lily has told you anything about the investigation she’s been on. I do need to make it clear that the order for silence on this one came from the director himself.”
    “I see.” That was a clear enough signal for him to stay out of it . . . which wasn’t what Lily had in mind. “If one of my people just happened to be in the park across the street from the senator’s house, would you be interested in hearing about any unusual smells that he notices?”
    Martin shook his head. “You’re as stubborn as she is, but more diplomatic. Hypothetically speaking, yes, I would.”
    “I’ll keep that in mind. I hope to see you again soon, Martin, when things are less difficult for all of us.”
    Croft walked out with them, stopping at Ida’s desk to give her instructions for the form he needed to sign concerning Lily’s leave.
    Rule and Lily started down the long hall. “That’s a good idea,” she said, “having someone sniff along that trail I followed.”
    “I thought of it while we were headed here.” He glanced at her. “You look relieved. Glad to get that over with?”
    “Oh, yes.” She lowered her voice so only he would be able to hear. There were others in the hall. “And damn glad Croft isn’t going to be too upset when he finds out what we’re about to get up to.”
    “And yet he made a point of bringing up the order for silence.”
    “He made a point of it being the director’s order. That means he doesn’t agree with it. He has to enforce it, but he doesn’t like it, and maybe he suspects I’m not going to spend the rest of the day in my sickbed.”
    “Ah.” Was this convoluted, don’t-say-it method a purely human style of communication? One common to cops? Or one used by bureaucrats in any large organization? “How would he have signaled that he supported the director’s order wholeheartedly?”
    “He’d have said it to me, not you. And he would have restated it as his order. If he . . . later,” she muttered. “We’ll talk about it later.”
    They’d reached the elevator. Three others were waiting: a tall woman with rimless glasses, a short Asian man, and a bald, middle-aged man, possibly Pakistani. Lily greeted the bald man and pushed the down button. Quite unnecessarily, since it was already glowing, but if you provide humans with a button, they will push it.
    The doors opened. A short blond woman in red-framed glasses and a severely tailored black suit got out. Her mouth was a perfect cupid’s bow. “Lily!” Anna Sjorensen’s delight was obvious. “I haven’t had a chance to thank you properly. I guess you don’t have time to chat now.”
    “A minute or two, maybe. We need to make time later to grab coffee or something.” Lily smothered whatever impatience she felt and stepped aside, letting the others enter the elevator. It was a kind move, especially because Rule was sure she didn’t realize Sjorensen had a bad case of hero worship. “But no thanks are necessary. You needed training.”
    “Which I would never have gotten if not for you.” Sjorensen paused and said civilly, if coolly, “Hello, Mr. Turner.”
    “Make it Rule, please.” He doubted that she would, but that wouldn’t matter, because she didn’t want to talk to him anyway.
    Sure enough, Sjorensen’s attention zipped right back to Lily. Rule listened as the two talked about the training the younger woman was receiving for her minor patterning Gift. He listened, but that wasn’t the only sense he used, and he had the satisfaction of solving a small