Page 40 of Heart and Soul
In response, I press the button on my walkie. “Send her in.”
With a long, slow creak, the bulkhead door opens. Cafeteria Girl steps into the cargo hold, and then the door shuts with an ominousclang. As she walks toward us, I see that her hands are trembling. On the side of my body that is hidden from Arael, I make a sign of sliding my hand into my jacket pocket. Picking up on it, she jams both hands into her hoodie pocket. Good girl.
The effect is complete. While I see only a nervous cafeteria girl acting pouty, what Arael Moaz sees is the slow and inevitable approach of doom. His breathing becomes ragged. Panicked.
Hillerman puts a hand up. “Hold on, now. I agree this could work—”
“Itwillwork.”
“—but give me time to run this up the chain. I would need a dozen authorizations first.”
“Oh, you need more time?” I say, and then I call out to the girl, “Walk slower, please.”
“I’m serious,Shayne.” The way Hillerman says my name, and the slight way she tilts her head at me, signals that she wants me to pay particular attention to what she’s about to say. She wants to steer me in some direction. “The FUA can’t take possession of a UTF asset without a federal order, and they won’t grant it unless you can prove that Ican’t get any more out of him.”
I catch her drift immediately, and it’s a great con, if I must admit. She’s better at this than I thought. I guess I’m glad I didn’t shoot her just now. “Oh, bullshit! We’re way past that point, and you know it. You just said it yourself—you haven’t been able to get squat out of him. So unless you have grounds to file an extension, we’re going with my plan.”
Like a pro, Hillerman pivots off my assist and lays an obvious—maybe too obvious—lifeline right at Arael’s feet. “But I can’t file for an extension unless he gives me something.”
“Not my problem. You’ve got five more steps.”
It only takes two more steps for Arael Moaz to break. “I don’t have what you want. This was Beyona’s operation. She pushed for the necromancer, not me.”
“Here she is, the siren of Detroit.” I sweep my arm between Cafeteria Girl and the horde master. “Arael Moaz, Nora Jacobs. Nora Jacobs, your next meal.”
Arael ducks his face, covering his eyes with a hand.
“She’s not a vampire, that’s not how it works. All she has to do is sing. Time for a hearing aid check.”
“I turned Tabitha Durran away!” Arael appeals to Hillerman, his only perceived ally in the room. “You know why! She’s possessed by a powerful demon whom I won’t name, but everybody knows you don’t invite that kind of rogue into your horde.”
“There, that’s it,” Hillerman says to me. “I’m filing for an extension.”
“No go,” I protest. “He didn’t give up any intel, and we care shit about Tabitha Durran, anyway. It’s the necro we’re after.”
“The necro!” Arael blurts. “Nobody knows who it is. Some dandy, if you ask me. The only way to meet him is to get invited to secret masquerades, strictly black tie. Do I seem like that type? Of course I didn’t go.”
“But you got invited?” Hillerman asks.
A thought strikes Arael. “The invite. A plain black card with an illustration of a white government building.”
Hillerman spins on me. “Extension!”
“Call her off,” Arael says.
I scoff. “Call her off? May I remind you all that the revenants out there are the same bastards who killed Nora’s mother? I’m sorry for bringing it up, Miss Jacobs, but this is what you’ve been waiting for. Go on, give us a note.”
Arael rages. “I’ve given you something! Follow it up. A black card with a white government building. You find that building, you find your necromancer.”
Hillerman steps between Arael and me, as though to buy him a few more seconds. “Why do you say it’s a government building?”
“Because the style. The fancy pillars, the white steps. And Latin! Latin writing at the top.”
“How’d you get this invite?”
“Beyona gave it to me, and I tossed it out. I don’t know anything else. I was planning a war! Do you think I cared two brown shits about waltzing at a society ball?”
“No, I don’t,” Hillerman says. She regards me with a question mark.
