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Yipes! What have I unleashed? I wanted to say, "Cole, maybe you haven't heard, but I'm
an idiot. The C.I.A. has tried its best to bury that fact since they did hire me. But here's the
deal. Despite my actions last night I am not looking for a relationship with you. I can't
maintain a relationship with you due to the fact that I don't want to. Also, I'll be traveling a
lot and my boss is a vampire who I may be falling for (already have?) which is a whole
other kettle of crap I'm so not ready to deal with. At any rate, these life choices don't
make me a good candidate for pet owner, much less girlfriend." But I needed Cole to help
me get information, which meant I needed him interested for just awhile longer. Damn,
damn, damn.
"Can my partner and I meet you somewhere in say, half an hour?"
"Your& partner?"
"It's kind of impossible to explain over the phone."
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"Okay. How about Umberto's? It's semi-private and the food's great."
"Fine." Cole gave me directions and we hung up. I looked at Vayl. "It's set."
"Good. And?"
"And what?"
"You want to say something else, I can tell." I nodded. "Sometimes, this job sucks."
Chapter Nine
When this whole mission ended, I suspected that if I survived, Pete would demote my ride
to a used moped. Not great motivation to push the self-preservation button. But at the
moment, I didn't care. My local Mercedes dealer had brought me a dark blue C230 Sport
Sedan that made even New Year's traffic bearable. The car hummed like a Broadway star.
I joined right in, and the two of us sang a duet Steven Sondheim would've tapped his foot
to while we motored down the sparkling streets of Miami.
"I would ask you how you feel," said Vayl, "but it is so obvious."
"It's amazing," I told him. "I just want to hug everyone I know. I want to buy the guy who
engineered this car a bottle of champagne. I want to fly. Hey!" I turned to Vayl, "after this
meeting let's go hang gliding!"
"In the dark?"
"It's a full moon." I stopped at the light, hang gliding forgotten as a burgundy mini-van
pulled up beside me. "I have never seen that shade of red before. Can you see all those
flecks of gold and black in it?"
"Yes," Vayl answered, his smile more full and natural than I'd ever seen it. "I take it you
are enjoying this part of the change."
"Oh is that what it is?" The mini-van activated his blinker and began to inch into my lane.
"Looks like he's a little lost," I commented as I waved for him to slip in ahead of us.
"You know, yesterday you would have cursed that man for ten solid minutes for delaying
us," Vayl observed.
"Yeah, yesterday& I feel different than I did then."
Slight raise of the eyebrow, signaling imminent sarcasm. "No. Really?"
"Will this last?"
"I have no idea."
I followed the mini-van for several blocks, then took a right onto the street that led to
Umberto's.
Vayl took my hand and laced his fingers through mine. "So tell me what you did today,"
said Vayl, "not work activities. Your things. How did you spend your free time?" I had to
think a minute, dig out my mental binoculars to see past the blackout and the moments
before it. Why was it so hard to recognize the woman who'd spent most of her daylight
hours clicking through encrypted files, looking for dirt on politicians like some commie-
hunting throwback?
Stardust in your eyes, sister. Only now it's time to blink.
So I began talking, starting with the family phone calls. But they required a back story,
and that took awhile, especially since I kept pausing to point out a fab new color I'd
discovered. Eventually I worked my way back around to the research I'd done, specifically
the background stuff I'd gathered on our oversight committee.
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"Any conclusions?" he asked after I finally finished talking. I shrugged.
"All the senators are suspect because they all seem way too innocent. Doris Fellen gives
away tons of scholarship money every year. Dirk Tredd is a true blue war hero. And Tom
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