Rook

all their papers and found some documents.”
    Christ, have I just given a brilliantly detailed lie, only to get totally busted?
Myfanwy thought in horror.
What did these documents say?
    “They were financial records. Mum and Dad had been receiving regular payments. Jonathan traced them through his work and found out that they were from the government. Some obscure department. We tried to track you down, but it was miles of red tape. And we had no idea where you were, what was happening. It just turned out easier not to think about it either. But the payments kept coming. They’re paying for my university,” said Bronwyn shyly.
    Compensation from the Checquy,
thought Myfanwy.
I wonder how much I’m worth.
    “What are you studying?” she asked.
    “Fashion,” said Bronwyn.
    “Oh, fantastic! Maybe you can educate me,” said Myfanwy. “I’m completely ignorant about all aspects of fashion.”
    “What? Look at the suit you’re wearing!”
    Myfanwy looked at herself. “Yeah?” It wasn’t a suit that screamed
Look at me!
In fact, it looked like it would prefer if you didn’t look at it at all.
    “Well, it’s really good quality,” said Bronwyn, fingering the cloth appreciatively. “And it costs more than I make in three months of work as a waitress.”
    “Yeah, well, my general approach is that if I pay a horrendous amount of money for a garment, people will overlook the fact that it looks terrible on me,” said Myfanwy.
    They stayed up late, and Myfanwy found out a great many details of her sister’s life. She still lived with Jonathan. The only reason she hadn’t brought their brother to Myfanwy’s was that he was in Japan for a few weeks on business. Bronwyn wanted to be a designer but doubted both her talent and the possibility of finding employment.She’d made only a few friends since moving to London and had no boyfriend.
    “I know how that goes,” said Myfanwy. “I’ve
never
had a boyfriend.”
And no time even to think of having one,
she thought dispiritedly. Thomas’s written explanation of her lack of a social life had been short, mildly regretful, and awkward. Much like Myfanwy imagined Thomas herself had been. That whole aspect of her life was going to require some thought. She’d found a battery-powered item in the drawer of the bedside table but was somewhat wary of using it.
Admittedly, it is mine. And it’s only ever been used on my body. But not by me. This is an aspect of amnesia that people don’t normally talk about.
    After she’d shown Bronwyn to the guest bedroom, Myfanwy went back down to the living room and finished the last of the brandy. She scooped up Wolfgang and put him in his night hutch. Then she lifted up the pillow on her end of the couch, took a gun from where it had been hidden, and locked it away in her office desk.

18
     
    Dear You,
    Well, I have hit an extraordinary amount of pay dirt. You know, there’s a reason the FBI employs accountants and computer geeks. It’s always about the money. And the whole electronics revolution has caused a tremendous amount of trouble for the illegally minded. Used to be, you could just take a handful of doubloons and spend them. The authorities couldn’t really trace a doubloon. Now, however, there’s always a trail. Especially if you’re dealing with big bucks. That irregularity I mentioned earlier? Yeah, well, it turned out to be a lot of money. And I’ve figured out where it was redirected.
    Tracking the missing money was actually kind of fun, especially compared to all those records of corporate credit card transactions that I had to wade through. That shit was just tedious. There’s a reason that there’s no TV show called
CSI: Forensic Accounting.
Although I will say that I now really, really know the Checquy, inside and out. And I know where the missing money went.
    Compared to the total budget for the Checquy, the amount that was missing over the years wasn’t that much, but it was enough to buy up a lot of land in the south part of Wales, throw up some buildings, and set about building a small army of superkids.
    That’s right: there’s a second Estate.
    Maybe that doesn’t strike you as terribly astonishing, but I couldn’t have been more surprised if there’d turned out to be a second royal family stashed away in the back valley where this second estate is. That’s how big a deal it is. The first Estate represents the real core of the Checquy’s power. Paranormal ability isn’t what makes