Page 58 of Raven's Instinct
“Agent Petrov has already requested a demotion to associate field agent,” Talwick said mildly.
Kendra’s gaze snapped back to Alan. “What does that mean?”
“I’d work full time at Tiny Paws and be on call for the agency when they needed me. Just like you.”
Kendra felt something in her chest relax. They’d be a team. And she couldn’t imagine a team she’d rather be on. There was just one thing: “What about Bernard?”
42
ALAN
“Bernard! You’re looking…the same.”
The agency had given him a nice room with big doors and no furniture. It had artificial turf for carpet, and a big screen TV at one end. It was decorated in tasteful artwork and had a window looking out over the river. The television was dark, and Bernard was looking mournfully out the window when Alan came in.
The brand on his flank looked slightly fainter than it had a month ago, but Bernard was still a definitely a bull.
“Bleep you!” There was a speaker hanging beside the television that came to life with a robotic voice.
“We’ve got him set up with a communications device,” Aiden pointed out. “It’s still pretty rudimentary, and Juliette made me take out the swearing after the first week so we could show it off to the bosses. It’s based on visual cues from cameras there and there, and we’ve trained it based on his whole body language. Bernard twitches his eyes just so, it says one word or phrase, a special jerk of the tail, another. It’s not as sophisticated as Stephen Hawking’s, because there’s a whole lot of extra motion the program has to filter out.”
Bernard was stubbornly still. “The weather is lovely,” the voice said. It was actually gray and sleeting outside the window.
“It’s in progress,” Aiden said with a shrug. His tablet gave an alert. “I gotta go make a meeting. Bernard can go anywhere on the compound, don’t let him convince you that he’s some kind of tortured prisoner.”
“Bleep you!” the speaker said.
Aiden gave Bernard a pat on the nose that the bull tolerated with an eye roll. “I am frustrated. You are a bleep.”
Aiden shut the door behind him and Alan noticed that it had a push bar on the inside so that Bernard could presumably leave at will.
“No luck with the scar removal?”
“The weather is lovely. No,” Bernard’s communicator said.
“I’ve…got a thing we might try before you go for a full skin graft, if you’re game.”
“Yes. Bleep you!”
“This is classified information, do you agree to keep it private?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes.” That was based on nodding; the translator was redundant.
Alan pulled a carved raven from his pocket. “I’m kind of a one-trick pony with magic. These are the only things I can actually make work. I’ve tried modifying the design, but if any little thing is different, it’s just a chunk of bone and some lines.”
“Query? Query? Bleep you.”
“I’m going to take that in the best possible way,” Alan said wryly, pocketing the token. “The…person who taught me this said this glyph meansconnection, and that’s all these have ever done. I didn’t see how that could possibly help you, until Kendra suggested that it might help youconnectwith your human form.”
On cue, there was a rap at the door and Kendra came in without waiting for a response. “Bernard! Aiden told me where to find you! I just finished the handgun class, wait until you see my target! They said I did great!” She was shouting.
“Bleep you,” Bernard greeted.
Kendra looked at the speaker, around at the room, and then at Bernard. “Oh, they’ve got you fitted up with a communicator system?”
“Were you wearing ear protection?” Alan asked. She was still speaking much louder than usual.
“Yes,” Kendra said more quietly, putting her hand over her mouth apologetically. “Sorry, it was still really loud.”
