“So they’ve put a contract out on you already?” I asked. “You’ve only been off the radar for what, an hour or two?”

Jane gulped. “That’s long enough. Faisal knows I’ve failed.

“I never gave Jason Charles a second thought before now,” Jane continued. “I wasn’t on the receiving end of his business, so what did it matter to me? And recently there had been some talk about using him against the D.E.A…”

“They were going to send him after us?” All the politicking Dave Davidson had done between our groups, keeping us civil toward one another, flew out the door. “Just what the hell is this Jason Charles anyway?”

Jane’s eyes widened. “He’s a corporate headhunter. And if he’s watching my office and handling things for Faisal already, it means I’m on his shit list. So are you, since they’ll send him to finish up what I couldn’t back at your apartment. If we leave the country now, they just might leave us alone.”

Corporate headhunters. I had heard of them, but until now I had thought they were just a rumor, like government funding. You didn’t want to tangle with one of them.

“And if we don’t leave?” I asked. “What then?”

Jane looked ready to pass out again.

“Prepare to be downsized.”

20

I couldn’t leave Jane there for their corporate headhunter to find so (in four separate cabs) I took her to a hotel over on the Upper East Side and checked her in. I headed home around 5 a.m. There was still no sign of Irene and I slept for a fitful three hours before heading up to the Lovecraft Cafй. I grabbed a coffee and went back to the offices to face the Inspectre. His door was shut and the muffled sound of arguing came from behind it. I sat down and waited.

I bet myself a new armoire from the ABC store on Eighteenth that it was Director Wesker getting yelled at. It was hard to imagine anyone more deserving of getting chewed out than him.

When the door to Inspectre Quimbley’s office opened, it shook in its frame and revealed an extremely agitated-looking Thaddeus Wesker. He hadn’t changed since last night-wearing the same suit, tie, and look of disdain. His disdain doubled when he noticed me sitting there waiting, and he stormed off down the stairs. I stood when I heard an exasperated sigh from within the office and walked in to find Quimbley sitting at his desk, his head in his hands. He, too, was wearing the same clothes from last night.

“Sir…?” I shut the door behind me.

Quimbley jumped at the sound of my voice, but when he saw it was me, he relaxed. He picked up his glasses, fitted them on his face, and grabbed the folder lying before him. “Simon, please…have a seat.”

I sat in the leather chair opposite him. “Is everything okay, Inspectre? Director Wesker seemed in a far fouler mood than usual.”

The Inspectre peered over the top of his glasses at me and smiled. “You noticed that, too, eh?”

I smiled back cautiously. My limited encounters with my superior left me wary in his presence. Connor was much closer to our Other Division leader. I wasn’t sure how political I should be in responding to any questions concerning my personal feelings about Director Wesker. I didn’t want to step on any toes, so I chose to speak with caution and voice as few of my own opinions as possible.

“Wesker’s mood on his way out was kind of hard to miss, sir.”

Quimbley sat silently for a moment, possibly weighing his thoughts. “True.” Another pause. “You don’t like Director Wesker, I take it? Given last night’s events, I mean…”

“Truth be told, Inspectre, I don’t think I’m in a position to judge.”

“No?” the Inspectre said. “And why not, dear boy? You must have an opinion one way or the other. Come, come!”

I shifted in my seat uncomfortably as I thought it over. “Well…”

Quimbley dropped the folder and softened as he looked at me, his wise old eyes without any gleam of judgment.

“I’d be hesitant, too, if I were you, Simon. Here you are, so new to the D.E.A. and already dealing with such bizarre and unusual circumstances. You’re worried you might say the wrong thing or drop the wrong word in the wrong person’s ear? Perhaps you’re concerned that if you speak against another agent or director, you’ll be seen as disloyal.”

I nodded. “I guess that’s part of it, sir.”

“I want to assure you,” he offered conspiratorially, “that nothing you say here will get back to Thaddeus Wesker. This is not a test of your honor or loyalty, boy. I would simply like to hear your take on the events of last night.”

If the Inspectre only knew all of the events last night, I thought, he’d kick me out of the Department altogether. I shut those thoughts out of my mind and tried to relax a little, finding, much to my surprise, that I was able to.

“Very well then,” I said. “No, sir, I don’t particularly care for Director Wesker, not after last night. Coming into my apartment like that…”

“If you remember,” he said, “Icame into your apartment as well last night. A bit winded, to be sure, but I was there also. Yet you hold no ill will toward me, Simon.”

“Yes,” I countered, “but you didn’t come in flinging accusations…acting like something illicit was going on, that somehow I was compromising the Department.”

“And why do you think Director Wesker did that, boy?”

I pondered the question for a moment, but the answer seemed clear. “Because he knows I’m allied with you and Other Division.”

Quimbley smirked, nodding slowly as he ran his thumb and forefinger through his mustache. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, I can see that. But I think you’re barking up the wrong tree, boy. It’s no secret that Thaddeus Wesker has no love for me, but it’s also no secret that there’s nothing he can do about it…yet. Let him gather all the power that he can and then we’ll see.”

“But then it’ll be too late!” I practically cried out. “And what will he do to you when he does? Connor is just as worried about this. Both of us have questioned his allegiance to the Department.”

The mirth on his face from a second ago was gone, and had been replaced by a look of utter seriousness.

“My boy,” he said, “what I’m about to tell you is strictly between the two of us, something only a few other people know around the Department. Director Thaddeus Wesker, head of Greater and Lesser Arcana, is a member of the Sectarian Defense League.”

Thank God I was sitting, because I felt like my legs had just been knocked out from under me. The very idea that Wesker-like Jane-worked with the people that I held responsible at least in part for Irene’s death made my head spin.

“I knew it!” I said, punching the air.

“It’s not like you think,” Quimbley said, waving his hands at me. “It’s terribly complex, Simon, and there’s much that I’m simply not allowed to tell you. But what Ican tell you is this: A lot of people who have come to work for us over the years have come to us from…shall we say, suspect backgrounds. Involvement with the dark arts, telemarketing, and worse. Need I remind you of your own life as a petty criminal before coming into the fold?”

My embarrassed silence was enough of an answer.

“I have been assured,” he continued, “by the Enchancellors themselves that Thaddeus Wesker is a loyal agent of the D.E.A. He was chosen as the perfect covert operative to send in. Standard black ops work…feeding their intelligence officers misinformation so that we may continue our work here uncompromised. Despite all the running around everyone is doing over your discovery of the Sectarian Defense League, the Enchancellors have known about them for a while, but we’re stepping up our investigation into them now that it’s public.”

It slowly began to come together. “So being an evil, abrasive prick is just a cover for around the office? A front he has to maintain so that when he reports back to Faisal Bane, he’s convincing?”