“Gone?”

Jane turned a bit more serious, and pushed her salad to the side. “Up and disappeared. Flew the coop or something…” She sipped at her wine then dabbed her lips with the napkin. “There’s a ridiculous rumor circulating that one of the filing cabinets consumed her, body and soul, but that’s just crazy talk. As if!”

She laughed, but I didn’t. Having recently been the survivor of an assault by a rampaging, carnivorous bookcase, I thought the rumor was most likely true.

Dinner arrived and Jane fell quiet until the waiter stepped out of earshot. “At least itseemed crazy until the Big Boss requested a meeting with me. That’s when I found out I worked for cultists.” She dug into her chicken.

“And that doesn’t bother you?!” I asked. I dropped my knife and fork as I tried to contain myself.

“Sure it did,” Jane nodded. She cut another piece of chicken and held it up. “This is to die for, by the way. You want to try?” I shook my head, trying not to look too offended by what I was hearing. She popped the chicken in her mouth. “At first I was shaken by the idea, but you’ve never been a temp before, have you? Frankly, after whoring out my secretarial services for some of the shadier law firms in this town, the League seemed downright pleasant comparatively. Mr. Bane talked me through what it meant to be part of the cultist lifestyle. He assured me that cultists are just like anyone else, except possibly more ambitious than average and definitely more likely to own their home.”

I gestured to the waiter for more wine. Though the conversation was getting to me, I reminded myself to keep my rising anger in check. The meeting was not just a political patch job; it was also an opportunity for some recon. I couldn’t afford to blow my cool, and I needed the Department to get their money’s worth out of our forced meeting.

Who cared if I felt uncomfortable dining with the enemy? Jane was a talker when it came to her life, and I prayed that she would be just as forthcoming with information about her boss. Still, I didn’t know whether to laugh at the absurdity or be outraged at how easily she accepted working for the forces of Darkness.

“Finding out that I was working for a cultists’ rights group actually came as a relief,” she said. “It explained a lot of things I had noticed around the office. For one, outside of the front office, a lot of the employees look a little gray around the gills. I thought it might just be the fluorescents washing them out, but no. Zombies…some of the nicest zombies you’d ever have the pleasure of working with, but zombies nonetheless.”

I pushed my food out of the way and leaned forward conspiratorially. “Jane, do you hear yourself? Do you hear what you’re saying? When they made you the offer of becoming Faisal Bane’s personal imp, weren’t you a bit hesitant? Sure, an important-sounding job and a title to go with it are flattering, but didn’t some kind of alarm bells go off in your head? Like maybe ‘Hmmm…I was sure I had heard or read somewhere that working for the forces of Darkness’-capital “D” there, Janey-‘is somewhat questionable.’ Didn’t that occur to you?”

“Don’t call me Janey,” she snapped.

Her eyes narrowed and her face regained a little bit of the viciousness she had exhibited back at her offices.

“I told him that I’d have to think about it,” she said. People around us were starting to stare at our heated exchange. Jane lowered her voice, but the hostility was still there. “I knew it went against many of the beliefs I had been brought up with back in Kansas and I needed time to think it through.”

“I’m sure the Master of Darkness took that well,” I fired back. Maybe it was the wine, but more likely it was my own stupidity for thinking a civil meeting of our agencies could yield anything other than grief.

When I looked up from my plate, Jane was on the verge of tears, which made me feel even more uncomfortable. Evil was hard enough to contend with without its appointed representative going all blubbery.

“I assessed my life that night,” she said as the tears began to fall, “and found it came up lacking, okay? I had spent five years in New York City, and what did I have to show for it? Friends? None to speak of, really. How do you make any astemporary employment, Simon? The closest I came to friendship was this one likable guy I started talking to, and all it earned me was a week of phone calls going on and on about the troubles he and his wife were having with their sex life. I think you know wherethat was headed.”

I could sympathize with some of what she was saying. I knew the role of the outsider well. While my loner status was more due to my unpredictable power, I had to admit that my own dance card of friends was just as empty as hers. But no matter how you sliced it, we were on the opposite sides of the same coin. Every day I made a choice to break my foot off in evil’s ass, and technically she was on the receiving end of my boot.

Her composure returned and she wiped away the tears. “The more I thought about my life, the more I realized that I had been merely treading water, waiting for something to happen. What’s that John Lennon quote? ‘Life is what happens while we’re making plans’? I was sick of waiting. If I had ever needed a sign, it was then. That’s when my door buzzed.”

“Oh, well, that’s manna from Heaven!” Part of me hated the edge of moral superiority in my voice.

“Shut up,” she said. “I know the doorbell ringing wasn’t an actual sign! It was a courier from the S.D.L. delivering an envelope.”

“What was in it?”

“The answer to all my doubts.Benefits -401K, incentive programs, stock options, a signing bonus, dental…you name it, it was in there. But the clincher was that my ob-gyn was already listed as In-Program.”

I gestured for the check.

15

I left the restaurant and took three separate cabs back to the Lovecraft Cafй to make sure I wasn’t being followed. Pounding out a report was the last thing I wanted to do at this late hour, but I wanted to get all the details of my conversation with Jane down before they faded. Surprisingly, the Inspectre was still in, and he sat me down in his office to go over my dinner conversation with the enemy. I recounted the details as best I could while the old man poured himself some tea and processed everything I had told him. I could have kissed him for the hours he saved me on paperwork.

“I think she could break, sir,” I said with confidence. “She hasn’t been with them for long, and I think she might be our best chance at getting some useful intel on Irene and the wooden fish.”

“You really think so, my boy?” the Inspectre asked, sipping his tea.

I nodded.

“Hroomh,” he said. “I already have several avenues being pursued concerning this Sectarian Defense League, but if you think you have an angle…I say go for it.”

“Me?” I said and caught myself before I broke out laughing. “I’ve got a mountain of paperwork waiting for me as it is, sir. Maybe we could get a Shadower team on it…”

“Nonsense,” the Inspectre said. “You think I want Wesker’s lackeys in on this? Besides, they’re already overburdened. I’ve got faith in you, my boy.”

“That’s very kind of you, Inspectre,” I said, hoping I was coming off as polite as possible, “but it’s not really my jurisdiction. I really am swamped and Connor will kill me if-”

“Blast it, son!” he yelled, slamming his cup on the desk. Tea flew over the rim and soaked into the pile of papers beneath it. “Not your jurisdiction? What part of theOther in Other Division do you not understand?”

Quimbley wanted more intel, and that meant I would have to do my own surveillance work. I was looking forward to that in the same enthusiastic way I might look forward to a debilitating kick to the crotch. I didn’t mind offering up my services to the Department as far as my psychic abilities were concerned, but the type of work Shadower teams did was far too invasive for my liking.