I'd managed to sit up at this point. Saga couldn't help me because I hadn't achieved much untying before the man with the gun showed up. I cocked an eyebrow at Trip. "I don't know. For some reason, geese were on my mind. Now why don't you help me get Saga free?"
He did, but he chattered non-stop as we finished untying the knots. Saga and I shared a "what now?" kind of look. Finally Saga turned to the goose—our goose, that is—and said gently, "Now, Trip, I know this is all very exciting, but this has to be our secret for a while, all right? If Kit didn't tell us, she must have had a reason, and we're going to respect that, aren't we?"
There might have been a hint of reproach in Saga's voice.
Trip stared at us. "We're going to tell Glaive and Anna and Kiku, aren't we? We can't keep this a secret from them!"
Saga looked at me. I licked my lips. "If we have to tell them, we'll tell them," I said slowly, "But I'd rather do it on my own schedule. You know, Trip, like what we were talking about earlier?"
The goose's face showed realization. He'd only told me about his Finder ability when he had to. He nodded. "Yeah, I get it."
LemurCandy's name hadn't come up, but I really, really didn't want him to know. Not yet, at least. Oh, why had I had to do that? I felt sick every time I looked at the other goose, but it was a different kind of sick from the magic nausea. It made my chest tight and my throat dry.
"He really was the murderer, wasn't he?" I asked Saga, who nodded gravely.
"The police hadn't checked the alibi quite diligently enough, I'm afraid," he said. "But the...perpetrator," he said, looking at the silent goose, "Realized what I was doing—I believe a friend tipped him off. He surprised me, I'm sorry to say, and brought me back here." Saga was obviously uncomfortable about being caught off-guard, so I didn't ask for any details.
"We were all so worried—" I said, but broke off. "Oh my goodness, I have to call the others and let them know you're okay!" I fumbled my mobile out of my pocket and tried Anna first. She picked up on the first ring.
"He's safe, I have him," I said immediately, and her sigh of relief came through loud and clear. "Anna, can you call the others, and we'll meet you back at the office?"
She didn't waste time with further questions, just agreed, and I broke the connection and turned to Saga. "So," I said.
"So," he agreed.
"What now?"
"If we call the police, there will be questions about unregistered magic abilities," Saga said slowly.
I nodded. "And it's completely illegal to use Transmute powers—even registered ones—on another human being."
"Completely, yes." He stared intently at the goose for a while. "It is permanent?" he asked me.
"Yep. Until I change him back, or some other Transmute does."
"He is a murderer," Saga mused. "I don't imagine any punishment is too severe."
For a second I didn't understand what he was saying. "You mean, just leave him like this?"
The goose obviously understood our conversation, because at that he struggled up on wobbly orange feet and honked in alarm.
Saga shrugged. "There is a certain elegant justice about it. He's as good as incarcerated, but costs the government nothing. I wonder that the justice system hasn't thought of something like this before now."
I looked at the goose, considering. "We can't just leave him here, though," I said. "He'd starve."
"I have friends with a farm outside the city," Saga said. "They'd take him in. Of course I'd have to give strict instructions that he was once a pet or something, and that I wouldn't want him ending up on the dinner table."
The goose gave another strangled honk and began to run around the basement in panicked little circles, beating his wings and stumbling now again on his unaccustomed feet, but I felt strangely little concern for him. He'd been about to shoot us, after all. Me first.
So it was settled. We gathered up the protesting goose, collected Saga's car, and drove the creature out to the farm. For a while it squawked and flapped, then settled into a sullen silence. The only downside was that Saga had never had the chance to question him about the Murder Prophet, but we discussed it and came to the conclusion that there was likely no connection.
I suppose I could have offered to change him back so we could question him, then turn him back into a goose, but I didn't volunteer to do it and Saga didn't ask. What I'd done was illegal, certainly, even if it was self-defense and I considered it moral justice in hindsight. In the moment of crisis, I'd used my ability reflexively, but I doubted I could do it with cold-blooded deliberation. Even tempering the physical effects by taking Maginox® wouldn't change the emotional effects. I'd spent so long denying the ability and hiding it, that it felt a bit...repulsive, to use it.
I tried to explain my feelings to Saga on the drive back into the city. "It's just been so long." I kept my eyes on the road ahead as I talked. "I kept quiet about it initially because...well, that wasn't the life I wanted. The scheduling, the medication, the responsibility, I guess. And then, the longer you keep the secret, the more of a secret it becomes. If you know what I mean."
Saga nodded. "I do."
"I'm just not ready to talk about it with everyone yet. It's more than trying to avoid the attention of the Registry." I thought of LemurCandy's chuckle over Aleshu Coro's talent. How long would I keep the secret from someone I really cared about, if it ever became an issue?
Saga nodded again. "However you wish to handle the matter, it is your business, Kitano," he said. "Trip and I shall say nothing to the others—will we, Trip?"
Trip snorted in the back seat. He'd sat as far away from the other goose as he could, and spent most of the drive glaring at him. "Not if you don't want us to," he agreed grudgingly. "It just makes such a great story. I mean, the guy's about to shoot us, and I go after him with my moves, and then when I've got him distracted, Kit hauls off and—"
"We know, we know," Saga said soothingly. "Zap! He's a goose."
I stifled a grin. "At least there's no chance we'll leave the wrong goose out here," I said to Saga, "Although it might be quieter..."
"Very funny," Trip retorted. "Maybe I'd like a little vacation on a farm. A vacation from snooty Transmutes, anyway." But I could tell he wasn't really mad.
The delivery of the transmuted goose went smoothly, and if Saga's friends thought it odd that he would suddenly deliver them a goose for safekeeping, they didn't let it show. Maybe being friends with Saga, you learned to expect the unexpected. The goose honked in protest a few more times, but then settled down and waddled despondently off toward a nearby pond. He might have had time to consider the alternative—police, trial, incarceration—and decided to make the best of it.
When we arrived back at the offices of Darcko and Sadatake, everyone had gathered and were ready for a celebration. Chinese takeout boxes waited on the lunchroom table, and after hugs all around when we walked in, they made us sit down and tell the whole story, first Saga's adventure, and then the big rescue. In the version we shared with them, the man had never come home, and we quietly sneaked out with Saga once we'd freed him. Not nearly as exciting, but not nearly as complicated to explain, either.
Saga merely said he'd become convinced that while the man was probably the murderer, it would be difficult to prove, and he didn't think there was any connection to the Coro case. We invented a trip to the police station to report Saga's findings by way of explaining the delay in our arrival. Since we weren't being paid to solve that particular murder, no one had much of a problem letting it go. They were willing to take Saga's word on it, which made me feel a bit guilty. It was my secret he was lying to cover up.
By the time I headed for home I was mentally exhausted, and I wished I could call LemurCandy up and tell him the whole thing. I pushed that thought away. I couldn't go getting all dependent on him, when I'd still never even met the guy. At least, I thought as I walked the last block to home, I could stop worrying about being followed. I'd had a talk with Trip and he
promised to stop following me around "for protection." I thanked him for his concern, and told him that I'd be sure to take him along any time I thought I needed a partner to watch my back. He seemed satisfied with that.
As I unlocked my door I could have sworn someone ducked into an alleyway half a block back, but I chalked it up to my imagination. I didn't slam the door behind me this time. Since she'd overheard my conversation with Lemur that morning, Phoebe had enough questions about where I'd been without adding to her concerns. It wasn't that I didn't want her to worry—I just didn't know if I could stand it.
***
After a long, hot shower and a bowl of French Vanilla ice cream smothered in chocolate and caramel sauce, I started to feel normal again. Curled up on the sofa with one of Nana Nina's hand-crocheted blankets over my legs, I called her. It rang so many times I was beginning to think she wasn't home, but then she picked up, vid and all.
"Hello, Kit," she said breathlessly. Stray wisps of silvery hair stuck out at odd angles around her head and bouncy music pounded away in the background, so I figured she'd been working out. I run to relieve stress; Nana Nina does dance workouts. "Is everything okay?"
"Saga's safe, if that's what you mean," I told her. "Thank you. I got to him just in time, and I wouldn't have hurried so much if you hadn't called."
"Oh, I'm glad to hear it, honey," she said. "He's a nice man, that Mr. Sadatake. Did I ever tell you about the time he—"
I cut her off, as nicely as I could, and fixed her with my best interrogatory stare over the vidscreen. "Nana, how did you know Saga was in trouble?"
She glanced away from the phone, not meeting my eyes, and didn't answer right away. "Why do you even ask me, Kit?" she said finally. "You must know."
"You're a Seer."
She nodded.
"Even though you've always denied it."
She shrugged gracefully. "You could have used your magic on me, you know, even though I appreciated the fact that you didn't. We all have secrets, Kit. Things we have our own reasons for keeping quiet about? But when it becomes necessary..." She looked back at the vid then, her blue eyes piercing as they met mine.
She knows, I thought suddenly. She knows about me.
I shook the thought away. That was impossible. Until today I'd never told anyone about my ability. Never. And it hadn't manifested until I was a teenager, so my parents had never known. But her words from this morning echoed in my ears. Do whatever is necessary to stay safe.
Was that what she'd meant?
I felt an uncomfortable urge to get off the phone. She'd turned the tables on me. Damn grandmothers. You can't trust them at all. "Well, everything turned out all right, anyway. I just wanted to say thank you."
She continued to look at me intently. "Are you all right, Kit?"
I faked a yawn. "Just tired, that's all. It's been a long day."
"How's your friend, WeaselTreats?"
I shook my head, grinning. "LemurCandy. He's fine."
"You should go out more, Kitano," Nana Nina said, abruptly changing the subject. Or was she? "You need a little more fun in your life."
"Fun takes energy, Nana, and tonight I just don't have any. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"
She smiled. "I'm glad your friend is safe. Love you, Kitty-cat."
I smiled back. She hadn't called me that since I was little. "Love you, Nana."
I went to sleep vaguely wishing I'd talked to Lemur again before the day ended. Ugh, so sappy. I was really going to have to work on that.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Stalkers, Stakeouts and Screwups
I woke up the next morning with one thought: it was now a week and a day since Aleshu Coro had first phoned the office, and we didn't seem to be getting any further ahead with the case. It was also almost a week since my own Murder Prophet message had arrived, and the brighter morning and insistent birdsong outside my window told me that the first day of spring was fast approaching.
I didn't even wait to get to the office—I logged onto my Chatterz® at home and went looking for LemurCandy. Yes, I could have retrieved his number from my phone and called him (and I would have loved to hear his voice again), but this was more comfortable. Yesterday had been an emergency. This was business as usual.
Anyway, he answered me right away.
I sat looking at the screen for a minute.
I crossed my fingers for the lie, then said,
Oh, phash. I hadn't told LemurCandy about the whole being-followed thing.
There was silence on the screen. The cursor seemed to blink at me accusingly.
he said.
I filled my lungs with air and blew it out slowly.
He must have realized it was time to change the subject, because he said,
"Was that LemurCandy?" Phoebe asked cheerily.
I jumped, startled, because I'd sort of forgotten Phoebe was there. "Yes, why?"
"You should invite him over for dinner sometime, Kit," she suggested. "I could get some recipes from the Netz and help you with them."
"You weren't monitoring my conversation, were you?" I snapped.
She made a sound like a sigh. "If I were, I wouldn't have had to ask who you were conversing with, would I? I am programmed to monitor all aspects of your well-being and security, Kit. However, your privacy is always paramount."
"Hmmm. I seem to remember finding out just the other day that you told LemurCandy what time I'd come home."
"I wasn't aware that was a secret," she said in a tone of icy affront. "Shall I annotate that as private information in the future?"
I got up from the computer and headed for the shower. You can't really win an argument with an apartment AI. "Never mind. Just stop disparaging my cooking skills, okay? And let me set my own social schedule?"
She had nothing to say to that, for which I was profoundly grateful.
***
The weather had finally
cleared, so I walked to work that morning. I didn't think anyone would mind if I was a little late—it wasn't the kind of office where you have to punch a time clock. Half the city seemed to be out and about as people poked their heads out after yesterday's rain, so I had no worries about anyone following me with malicious intent, no matter what LemurCandy had said. Personally, I thought he was taking it all too seriously. Here, outside, in the bright morning sunshine, the possibility that anyone would want to hurt me seemed remote and absurd.
When I walked into the office, Kikufaax practically barked at me. "Where were you?"
"Um, walking to work?"
She shook her head in annoyance, her long black hair swishing. "You have to let someone know when you're going to be late," she said. "Phoebe said you left long ago. We were starting to worry."
I mimed pulling out my hair. "Phoebe? You too? This is nuts!" I said. I stipulate that I did not shout. "No one's even come near me since I got that message! The only one stalking me was Trip! I'm starting to think you're all insane, and you're going to drive me onto the crazy train, too!"
I stomped into my office and shut the door, then pressed my palms together and did deep breathing for a few minutes. I hadn't meant to go off on Kiku like that, but coming on the heels of LemurCandy's over-solicitous chastisements it was just too much.
When I was calm again I opened the door. "Has LemurCandy been in touch?" I asked in a completely normal tone. "He said this morning he might have a new lead on something to do with Coro."
I don't know if Kiku was expecting an apology, but she didn't give any sign that she was. She didn't give me one, either, but that was fine. I knew it was just because they cared—but that didn't make it any less annoying. Glaive stood beside her desk, dressed entirely in his usual hit-man black from mock turtleneck to polished loafers, studying something on her screen.
She nodded. "I'm checking out the people in the other firm, while he tries to get a handle on exactly what the deal was. I'm surprised Coro didn't mention this to anybody."
The Murder Prophet Page 13