I jerked my chin toward the pile of rocks. “What’s it like down there? I’ve always been curious.”
“You don’t want to know.”
Probably true. “Ready to go?”
“Oh yeah.”
I escorted her toward the helicopter that had carried me out to the detention center. Apparently, union regulations didn’t allow aircraft to park directly on top of the underground construction, so it was a good quarter mile to the north. Fritz and Isobel climbed out as we approached and met us halfway.
“Welcome back, Agent Takeuchi,” Fritz said. “You’ve been reassigned from the Magical Violations Department to a new task force. You’re now Agent Hawke’s partner and will handle special investigations.”
Suzy glowered at him. “A promotion? Right when I’m getting out of a union detention center?”
“Yes, it’s a promotion. You’ll have much more responsibility.”
“And more pay?”
Fritz was stony-faced. “We’ll see.”
Which meant no.
Damn. I hadn’t thought to ask for more money, but now that Suzy mentioned it, I wouldn’t have minded a raise. I was going to need a new apartment—one where I hadn’t killed a half-succubus—and moving wasn’t cheap. I also really wanted to complete my Star Trek: The Next Generation collection on Blu-ray.
“I accept the promotion,” Suzy said.
Fritz smiled. “Of course you do.”
The helicopter’s rotors hadn’t slowed while we talked. It was ready to take off when we approached. Fritz moved to help Suzy into the helicopter, but she jerked out of reach, giving him the kind of look that could have started engine fires.
I stood back for a moment, letting them pick their seats, buckle in. Isobel waited with me.
A question had been nagging at me since we left The Pit, and I couldn’t help but ask now that we were momentarily alone. “So you and Fritz,” I said, leaning close, keeping my tone low. Nobody would be able to hear us under the helicopter.
Isobel’s cheeks flushed. “Yeah, Fritz and me.”
“Are you…?”
“We used to be.” She quickly added, “But it’s been over for a while. I reminded him. He knows.”
That probably shouldn’t have made me feel as good as it did. The feeling didn’t last long. Ex-girlfriend of my boss? The only woman I could date with even more guilt would be Domingo’s estranged wife.
She climbed into the helicopter. I let Fritz help her up and kept my hands to myself.
I took the seat across from Isobel. “You knew I was going to be assigned to investigate you. So you knew I was coming. And you still dusted me with blister powder in the cemetery.”
Isobel had the courtesy to look embarrassed again. She waited to respond until she had pulled on her headset. Her voice came in over the speakers, flat and crackling with interference. “I thought you might have been with the Needles at the time.” She ducked her head and focused awfully hard on figuring out her buckles. “No hard feelings?”
Suzy was staring fixedly out the window, Fritz absorbed in his Blackberry. Both of them looked disturbed, probably for completely different reasons, but I knew they could hear us over their headsets.
I had a lot of hard feelings about this week and I didn’t think I was the only one. But it was a new day, and apparently, we were coworkers now. Better to move on.
“Naw,” I said. “No hard feelings.”
Fritz pushed his microphone closer to his mouth. “Good, because we have a lot of work to do. I just received a report of anomalous infernal activity in Reno, Nevada, and we’re the closest unit equipped for response.”
“Infernal?” Isobel asked. “You mean demons?”
That wasn’t the problem I had with Fritz’s statement. “How the hell are we equipped? We just got Suzy out of the detention center. We haven’t done any training for demons. We’re barely even a team yet.”
Fritz smirked. “I said internal investigation and special projects. This is special. Are you all ready?”
I was pretty sure that was a rhetorical question, but I exchanged a look with Suzy. For the first time since she’d stepped out of that bunker, there was a spark of mischief in her eye. “Born ready, sir.” Of course this was the kind of thing she’d love. She rolled with the punches better than anyone else I knew.#p#分页标题#e#
This was going to be fun.
“Great,” I said. “Let’s go to Reno.”
Hell of a week.