Page 40 of Concluded
Dee decided to ignore that ominous final word and focus on the rest.“Are agents required to cut themselves off from the outside world?”
“We’re federal agents, Dee, not monks.Wewerefederal agents, anyway.”A sigh.“Look, it’s hard for us to have close outside connections.Not forbidden, just hard.We can’t really talk much about our job to most outsiders, we travel a lot, and we’re often in the kind of dangerous situations that would make loved ones freak out.Also, connections like that, well, I guess they can be a source of strength, but they’re also a vulnerability.Most of the people that get recruited are like me—unconnected.”
Dee was unconnected too, and he had always thought of that as an anomaly.Now he felt an unexpected kinship with Achilles.“Did you ever have family?A girlfriend or wife?”
“My parents were immigrants.The rest of the family stayed in Greece, so it was just us.They died a couple of decades ago, and my sister and I, we never got along.And if you must know, I did have a fairly serious boyfriend.Orson.But that was a long time ago.We broke up, and he died a few weeks later.”Achilles said all of this without showing any emotion, but his delivery was almost too flat, as if he were tamping down hard on whatever he felt—or didn’t want to feel.
But Dee couldn’t resist another attempt.“And no boyfriends since then?A handsome guy like you?”
Now Achilles gave him an odd look before answering.“I told you—that’s really hard in the Bureau.Most agents end up with other agents, or at least someone who’s… a part of our world, you know?Like, one man who headed our lab for years, his partner is a Sasquatch.They’re retired now.”
Dee wondered if being a genie—or at least half genie—qualified him as a part of Achilles’ world.But he didn’t ask.Instead he gathered the dishes and took them to the sink.After he finished washing up, he found Achilles asleep on one of the beds.
Dee sat down in the armchair and clicked on the TV.
* * *
A few hours later,a demon entered the room.Tenrael, of course, with his magnificent dark wings and scary-ass red eyes.He was still naked, which nobody else had commented on or even seemed to notice.Maybe demons never wore clothing.A shirt would be nearly impossible with those wings, but pants would work.Anyway, he was intimidating as hell.
Dee suppressed a slightly hysterical laugh at his own unintended pun.
“I apologize for neglecting you,” Tenrael said to Dee, but quietly, since Achilles was apparently still asleep.“The news you brought us has raised pressing issues.”
Fair enough.“That’s okay.This place is comfortable.”The chair he was sitting in, for instance, was amazing.
Tenrael set a blue plastic box onto a table.“First aid,” he explained, then gestured toward Achilles.“If he requires more intensive medical care, we can send for a doctor.”
Dee glanced at the sleeping form and then shook his head.“I think he’ll be okay.I mean, I’m not a paramedic or nurse or anything, but….”He let that thought trail into obscurity.It was a little hard to converse with Tenrael.
But as a new thought struck him, he straightened in his chair.“Hey, uh, do you happen to know anything about genies?Because I don’t.”
That was compassion in those demon eyes; Dee was sure of it.And because of that, he didn’t flinch away when Tenrael approached and crouched down in front of him.Close up, Tenrael wasn’t any less frightening or less impressive, but he was somehow more real.Apersonwho had, according to his own account, endured some awful things… and survived.Had even fallen in love.
“I have met genies a mere handful of times over the millennia.They have always been few and reclusive, and my business did not intersect with theirs.”
Those two sentences raised a whole host of questions, but Dee tried to concentrate on the most immediate matter.“Are they evil?”
“No more or less than humans.Like humans, genies may be led by others into acts that are immensely harmful.But also like humans, they may choose a more admirable path.”
“My… my powers….How strong are they, really?What are the limits?What difference does it make that I’m only half genie?”
“That I cannot tell you.And I’m afraid my master has directed our researcher to concentrate her efforts on other issues at the moment.”
Dee nodded in understanding.His identity crisis didn’t outweigh doomsday.But it was time for a confession.“I’d like to help you guys.I really would.But I’m not a hero like Achilles.I’m afraid I’ll be tempted to do bad things again.”No, worse than that.“I’m afraid I’ll give in to that temptation.”
Before responding, Tenrael seemed to think for a moment.“Everyone I have known at the Bureau has possessed darker urges, myself and my master most definitely included.Quite a few of them have followed those urges at times, sometimes with disastrous results.But this is nothing more than what human philosophers call free will.It is the daily battle each of us must face, and we must win that battle before we can begin to fight larger ones.I believe that free will is one of the things that makes the world beautiful.It means every single person has the power to help tip the balance toward good.”
Tenrael, apparently satisfied with his speech—which Dee was going to need to mull over for a long time—stood and patted Dee’s shoulder.Then he turned and left the room, folding his wings tightly as he passed through the doorway.
“I’m not a hero,” said a sleepy voice.
Dee saw that Achilles was still lying down, but now he was looking at Dee.
“Sorry,” said Dee.“Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Yeah, ’cause I’ve gotten only, what, fifteen or sixteen hours of sleep in the last twenty-four?”Achilles sat up, started to stretch, and winced.“Would you mind bringing me the first aid kit?”
Dee brought it over, along with a glass of water, which Achilles downed in one long gulp.“Thanks.”
