I thought about it while the coffeemaker burbled and spat, filling the carafe with dark, aromatic brew. I thought a little more while I poured up a mug full, added cream and sugar, and stirred it reflectively. It seemed almost too easy, the way the pieces fell into place like a kid's jigsaw puzzle. I climbed the stairs again and shut the door of my room. Let Glaive think I was still sulking.
I sat on the bed and sipped coffee, going over it once more. I could catch a magicab back to my place, call LemurCandy and tell him the plan was changed again and that he should pick me up instead of Kikufaax. My hair was done, only slightly mussed from my brief sulk on the bed. My dress waited for me in my closet, and we could be at MageData before anyone realized what was going on. Kiku would be pissed, sure, and so would Saga and Anna. But they'd forgive me. Especially if, between us, LemurCandy and I could figure out the meaning of the anagrammed usernames and solve the whole Murder Prophet case. That's who I really wanted to tell about the anagrams. He might know what to make of them.
I didn't have much time to think about it, or LemurCandy would already have left to pick up Kiku. I gulped down the rest of my coffee for fortification, grabbed the bag with my keys, and tiptoed down the stairs. I didn't dare call Lemur until I had actually made my break.
I was almost at the bottom step when I heard Glaive get up and go into the kitchen, presumably to get his coffee. Damn. I crept back up to the top of the stairs and stood in the shadows, holding my breath and listening to cupboard doors open and close and the clink of spoon and mug.
Finally he went back to the television and I slunk down the stairs and out to the kitchen. Holding my breath, I slid back the deadbolt, took off the chain, and eased open the back door. It gave onto the scruffy alleyway that seemed, in the lowering gloom, to be relatively free of things I might trip over. Still not daring to breathe too loudly, I closed the door and heard it latch. I wondered how long it would take Glaive to go looking for me. If I was really lucky, he might think I'd gone to bed and not start to wonder until morning.
I ducked low so that he wouldn't accidentally see me out any of the windows, and as quickly as I could in my crouched position, made my way out to the street. It was pretty much deserted, so I had no witnesses to my undignified and surreptitious exit from the alleyway. I turned away from the house and walked quickly past neighboring gardens, lawns and driveways. I didn't know if this was the shortest route to a magicab or not—I just wanted to get as far away as I could, as fast as possible. Once I turned the first corner, I let my breath out in a sigh of relief and dug my phone out of my bag. LemurCandy picked up on the second ring.
I realized with relief that I'd called without dithering about all the stuff I'd dithered about before. Maybe I was feeling more confident about our relationship. "Hey," I said, trying not to sound breathless as I scurried along the street, "Plans have changed again."
"Geez, okay," he said. He didn't have to ask who it was, I noticed with a thrill. "What's happening now, Kit?"
"Back to the original plan, pick me up at my place."
There was a pause. "I thought you were being protected, and Kikufaax was going instead?"
"Yeah..." I tried to think fast and make my voice sound calm and not panicky. "I convinced Saga that I didn't need protecting, and really, it was too short notice for Kiku to be ready in time."
"I just talked to her, and she said she just needed another ten minutes," he said, sounding puzzled.
Dammit, why couldn't he just stop asking all these questions? I was finally in sight of a magicab, and there was currently no lineup waiting for it.
"Oh, you know women," I said brightly, "we don't like men to think we need a lot of time to get ready for things. Just pick me up, okay?"
"Okay," he said finally. I tried to tell myself he didn't sound disappointed. "Fifteen minutes all right?"
"Fine," I chirped, but my stomach lurched. Could I possibly be ready in that short a time?
I pressed the button to end the call, and elbowed my way in front of an elderly man to get to the magicab first. I know, it was rude, but if I was going to save Aleshu Coro's life, I didn't have time to make nice.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Black Ties and White Lies
When I put the key in the lock of my apartment door, and pushed it open, the hallway erupted with the sharp clanging of a klaxon. I jumped, dropped my bag, let go of the doorknob, and had to scramble to pick up the bag again while trying to wrestle the door open again and get inside.
"Phoebe!" I shouted over the wailing racket. "What the hell—"
The alarm cut off immediately, leaving my ears ringing in the blissful silence. "Kit! What are you doing back so soon?" Phoebe demanded.
I stood just inside the door with my hands on my hips. "I live here, remember? And when I left an hour and a half ago, I didn't have an alarm system!"
"Well, it's your own fault," she retorted.
I didn't have time to waste fighting with my apartment AI, so I hurried into the bedroom and pulled out the mauve dress, and laid it gently on the bed. "Phoebe," I said, unzipping the garment bag carefully, "I'm quite certain I didn't ask you to install an alarm while I was gone. In fact I think I told you to put everything on hold."
"But you said I didn't have any defensive capabilities," she argued. "That was obviously a weak point in my security, and since your safety and security are my—"
"Yes, yes, your primary concern, I get it," I said through clenched teeth. I stripped down to my underwear and took the dress out of its protective plastic sheath. "However, I didn't think your programming would allow you to set up something like this without my permission."
I stopped with the dress half-over my head. I couldn't go on a mission like this without packing some kind of weapon. What if something did happen and we had to move to protect Coro? Luckily I keep a little laser Angelrod on hand for just such a purpose, and I had it in place three minutes later. I slipped the dress on carefully over my hair and let it fall around me.
Phoebe kept talking while I did all this. "I was going to get in touch with you and tell you about the alarm, but I thought I had plenty of time. You said you'd be gone for a few days!"
"Change of plans," I muttered, tugging things into place.
"Well, I'm tired of your blatant disregard for your own safety!" she said, her voice climbing to a shrill register I hadn't known was possible. "I'm trying to help protect you, Kit, it's part of my job, but you fight me at every turn. You're reckless, and thoughtless, and foolhardy, and I'm sick of it! Now are you going to let me protect you, or not?"
I stood with my hands frozen in the act of straightening my dress, stunned into immobility as she finally stopped. I imagined her, if she were a person, standing with her hands on her hips, chest heaving, eyes accusing.
Well, I had wanted to hear her tell me off, just once. I guess I got my wish. And she had succeeded in making me feel just the tiniest bit guilty.
"Phoebe," I said carefully, "Thank you for looking out for me. The alarm is fine." I glanced at the clock. "But I really don't have time to talk about this right now."
She didn't answer immediately, and when she did, her voice was back in the normal range. "I suppose I should have asked," she said with a grudging note. "If you want me to call and cancel the other things—"
"Other things?"
More silence. "I had thought to make a few other security additions to the apartment," she finally said.
I had sudden visions of laser beams, trip wires, trapdoors and sundry other booby traps. "Okay, no." I checked my makeup in the bathroom mirror. It hadn't suffered too much. "No more changes, no more additions, nothing else until I get back and we have a chance to talk about it. Are we clear?"
No answer.
"Phoebe, are we clear?" I repeated. I protected the front of my dress with a towel, wary of stray water drops, and gulped down a Maginox®, expecting to hear LemurCandy buzz my intercom any second.
"We're clear," she muttered. "
I wish you'd never gotten involved in the Coro case, Kit."
"You and me both, Phoebe," I told her, but honestly, I didn't entirely mean it. Staring into the mirror, I knew I'd never looked this good for a date before in my life, and if it took a death threat to get me here, I felt ready to take the risk.
I checked the clock. Seventeen minutes had passed since I'd phoned LemurCandy and lied to him about the change in plans. Was he on the phone with Kiku? Had Saga called him with last-minute instructions, and even now my deception was coming to light? Stop that, I told myself sternly. I looked at the mirror again. I felt like I had to keep checking to make sure I really looked that good. There must be something wrong that I was just missing—my hair was coming down in the back, or I'd dripped water on the skirt of my dress when I was taking my Maginox®—something.
But if it was there, I couldn't see it.
I shuddered to think what I might be looking like if I hadn't had Kikufaax's guidance. I'd probably be wearing my one half-presentable "little black dress" and have my hair brushed straight and slicked down with gel to keep it from frizzing. I'd look okay—maybe—but not okay enough for this event. Or LemurCandy. And I'd just selfishly created a huge inconvenience for Kiku. Guilt pricked little daggers in my chest. I'd better call her and at least let her know what I'd done.
The intercom buzzed, startling me as I reached for the phone. I pressed the button.
"All set?" LemurCandy asked.
Okay, out of time. I'd try to call Kiku from MageData. "I'll be right down," I said into the speaker, then spent a minute dithering about whether I should have asked him up or not. I decided not. We were supposed to be on a mission to keep an eye on Aleshu Coro, and we couldn't do that unless we were on the spot at MageData. And the weird way Phoebe was acting, I didn't trust her not to say something completely embarrassing. I grabbed the paper containing the anagrams and stuffed it and my phone into my ridiculously tiny handbag, slung the matching wrap around my shoulders and went down. LemurCandy waited in the lobby.
He looked startled when I stepped out of the elevator. I thought it was in a good way, but it wasn't like he threw himself at my feet and pledged eternal devotion or anything like that. He did raise his eyebrows and say something like, "Wow, Kit, you clean up good," but honestly, I was too busy looking at him to notice. I even forgot about the anagrams for thirty seconds or so.
He was as elegant and dashing (I know it's an old-fashioned word, but it fit, I swear it fit) as a man could look in a tuxedo, and I've watched a lot of old James Bond vids with Nana Nina, so I'm something of an expert. His brown hair looked silky and I wanted to run a finger over that hint of a wave. He looked at me strangely as I walked toward him, so I bit the inside of my lip to snap myself out of it. Between the revelation of the anagrammed usernames, Phoebe's security renovations, and the sight of Lemur in that tuxedo, it was no wonder I was a little rattled.
"Thanks!" I said, even though I wasn't a hundred percent sure what he'd said. "That's a great tuxedo!"
He shrugged. "I read somewhere once that every man should have one, just in case. I have to say that it didn't seem like a great investment before this, but it sure came in handy tonight."
He took my arm just at the elbow and guided me out the doors. A little thrill prickled the skin on my back. I thanked whatever powers might be watching over me that I'd talked Kiku into letting me wear my own black shoes with the kitten heels. They weren't the stilettos that she would have had me in, but there was a much smaller chance that I'd wobble when I walked, or trip over myself. And I'd argued that there wasn't much sense putting me in a dress I could run in, and shoes I couldn't. She gave in.
Lemur didn't drive the macho-macho CloudWalker like Glaive; his car was smaller and sportier. It looked dark blue or black in the dusk, and I sank gratefully into the front seat when Lemur held the door open for me. I let out a long breath as he went around and got in behind the wheel. It wasn't until then that I felt like I'd actually gotten away with it.
I spent the first five minutes of the drive to MageData lying—thank goodness LemurCandy didn't have my magic ability—in answer to his questions about how I'd talked Saga into letting me leave the safe house. When we'd exhausted that conversational delight, I started wondering whether my skirt was getting terribly wrinkled and how I was going to broach the subject of LemurCandy's name. I mean, I absolutely couldn't introduce him that way to anyone. And yet why hadn't he volunteered it himself? Did he think we could somehow skirt around it for the whole night? Did he really not want me to know it? The more I thought about it, the more frustrated I felt. Maybe I just wouldn't tell him about the anagrams at all, the jerk.
By the time we rounded the corner into MageData's block and the huge, brilliantly-lit concrete-and-glass building came into view, I knew I had to say something. "So." I tried to keep my voice light, but I thought he must be able to hear the sound of my heart pounding. "Am I just going to call you 'LemurCandy' all night?"
He shot me a quizzical glance, his face half in shadow under the streetlights. "Don't you think that would seem a little odd?"
"Well...yes I do. But since I don't know your real name—"
"What?" He pulled up in front of the building and there were valets waiting to park the vehicles, so he couldn't look back at me again. "You don't know my name?"
Was he deliberately drawing this out to torture me? "No, you've never said."
"But Saga knows," he protested. "And Anna, and Kiku—"
"They've never mentioned it," I said through clenched teeth. Was he ever going to just tell me?
He got out of the car, handed the keys to the valet, came around the car and opened my door to help me out. His green eyes were laughing.
"It's Jake," he said as he took my hand to steady me. "Jake Lynch. Nice to meet you, Kit."
"Nice to meet you, too, Jake," I replied, "Thanks for the intro. Now let's go make sure our host stays nice and safe tonight."
If only it had been that easy.
***
It always amazes me when huge business buildings are transformed into fairy palaces. Even though I'd seen part of the transformation earlier in the day, I was still dazzled by the end result. Spotlights cunningly placed around the MageData edifice threw the facade of the building into relief, enhancing that suggestion of medieval castle ancestry. It helped that the building stood massive and alone in the industrial park, so it wasn't being elbowed by less prestigious neighbors on either side. All the windows on the first and second floors glowed golden, and some magical talent had been hired to outline them all with shimmering blue-green foxfire. An actual red carpet had been rolled out of the entryway and down the front steps, with black velvet ropes on silver standards holding back the "riff-raff" on either side.
The riff-raff in question consisted mostly of photographers, judging by the number of flashes that outshone the floodlights in brief bursts. It seemed more like a holovid premiere than a charity ball, but I suppose the journalists expected our local celebrities to be in attendance. A few people took pictures of me and LemurCandy—I mean, Jake—probably just in case we turned out to be somebody important. I don't expect any of those shots got saved.
Luckily, the tuxedoed bouncers had a list that included employees of Darcko & Sadatake, so we were granted entrance even though I'd left the paper invitation with Kiku.
Inside we stopped for a moment and took stock. The lobby, too, had been transformed into something more palatial, quite different from the last two times I'd been here—once with Glaive, to ask Aleshu Coro questions about Clarice Valencia, and then on my own, to ask him more questions about Evangeline. Then, the lobby had felt modern and imposing, all angular lines and crisp white lighting and quiet elegance.
Now twinkly lights and drapey lengths of silver tulle festooned the ceiling, the reception desk had been transformed into a bar, and a double-wide door stood open on the left to reveal a huge boardroom. Soft multicolored fabric hangings camouflaged the starkness of the wa
lls, their designs shifting subtly in an effect that had to be wrought by magic. A four-piece band replaced some of the office furniture. They seemed quite good. A few couples swayed on the improvised dance floor.
Another set of double doors on the right-hand side of the lobby led into a second large room whose usual purpose was unclear to me, but it had also been pressed into service for the party. Several bars, and tables groaning under trays of hot and cold finger food, lined the walls, as well as a podium at which I expected Coro and probably others would be making speeches later in the evening.
A huge, green-bordered banner stretched across the wall behind the podium, reading Save the Lemurs and decorated with capering lemur caricatures. I stifled a giggle, then arranged my face and said solemnly to LemurCandy—I mean, Jake— "At least it's all for a good cause."
He took my elbow and steered me in the direction of the bar. "Yeah. I just hope Coro's not in more danger than the lemurs are."
Some fifty people milled around the rooms already, and a steady stream trickled through the doors to stop and gaze about before pressing into the crowd. I sent up a silent thanks to Kikufaax for helping me get ready. My little black dress would have been ridiculously inappropriate. Although, even without Kiku's help, I never would have shown up in some of these atrocities.
The woman emerging from the boardroom with a sparkly drink in her hand, for instance, wore an apricot brocade gown threaded with peacock blue. Its shapeless skirt and elbow-length sleeves dripped with silver lace, and the overall effect was—ghastly. She seemed happy enough, though. Maybe it was the good feeling she had from helping the lemurs, or maybe it was the sparkly drink. I couldn't tell, but I thought I might need a sparkly drink of my own before the night was out.
I spotted Aleshu and Sandrine Coro near the bar, speaking with a couple I knew I'd seen before, although I couldn't immediately recall where. The man wore, not a traditional tuxedo, but a coat of coral brocade covered with ivy leaves, over what looked like a white transform shirt. The woman, whose hair was done in what I think is called a "tousled" style (that is, it looked like she'd just gotten out of bed and come to the party without brushing it, but in a good way) wore a gown of plain maroon gauze with a flowing skirt. She had paired it, rather surprisingly, with a teal stole.
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