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AFTER PUTTING IN A SOLID WEEK of surveillance at gun shows, Zan and Mel sat in Nguyen’s office while he read their report. Zan hated writing reports but she had to admit they enforced discipline, and that Nguyen’s processes made her a better agent. When all the events were brought together as a narrative, it was easier to focus, maybe stir up an insight.
“This is excellent,” Nguyen said. “So, you identified a straw purchaser who’s been hitting the rural gun shows, but you don’t think she’s responsible for the flood of handguns we’ve had in the city recently?”
“We think that she’s contributing to a group, one among many,” Mel said. “We should shadow her for a while, to see if she leads us to the mother lode.”
“All right, Agent Romani. I trust your judgment, but I’m going to need you to handle the tail yourself. Mostly. Two agents are on trials and the others are caught up in investigations. Can you do it?”
“Of course, sir.”
“Good. And thanks for your hard work on this, both of you. Looks like it’s going to pay off, and your friendly relationship with Philly PD is making me look very good.”
“Thank you, sir,” Zan said.
They left the office. Nguyen was letting them run with this. Zan and Mel exchanged smiles of satisfaction as they headed back to their desks. Once there, they worked out the logistics of tailing the straw purchaser. They had followed her to her apartment, so they would have to go there at the crack of dawn and wait for her to leave.
“You realize that handling the tail ourselves means some seriously long hours,” Mel said.
Zan nodded. “Long hours of the most boring detail imaginable.”
“The glamorous life of law enforcement,” Mel said. “Too bad you have to put the spleen case on the back burner. Nguyen wants you to hand it off to Philly PD anyway. If you want to convince him otherwise, success with the straw purchasing investigation could be very persuasive.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
“May I remind you to invest in clinical strength deodorant and breath mints? I hate stinky stakeout partners.”
“I guarantee nothing.” Zan shook her head and waved her hand back and forth. Mel pretended to be annoyed.
“Are you going to be able to concentrate, or will you spend the long hours having sexual fantasies about Rainer?”
“Ha! Can’t promise I won’t. Pretty hard for me to stop.”
“I can tell when you’re thinking about him, you know. You get the most unbelievable look on your face.”
“He’s an unbelievable man.”
“What’s going on with you two these days, anyway?” Mel moved her head back and scrutinized Zan down the bridge of her nose. “Why all the dreamy looks?”
Zan got up and closed the office door.
She’ll be shocked. I haven’t let my guard down since she’s known me.
“I told him I loved him.”
“Jesus, Zan. Do you want him to think you’re needy?”
“He said he loves me, too. And I am needy. I need all Rainer, all the time.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. That got serious fast.”
“I know, it’s crazy, but we’re dealing with Rainer here. He’s not like other people.” Zan dropped her head. She blinked a few times.
I don’t want to get too emotional. She’ll think I’m losing it.
“He’s so open with his feelings. I guess it inspired me to be open, too. Besides, he said the most amazing thing to me.”
“What did he say?”
“That he’d been alone so long he’d gotten used to it, but being with me made him realize he was only half alive. He said I brought him back to life.”
“Wow, uh, just wow.” Mel slapped her hands onto her desk and stared at them. “Well, I wanted you to get some romance in your life.”
“Best. Advice. Ever.” Zan grinned at her friend, causing Mel to grin in return.
“After he said that, I blurted it out, that I love him,” Zan continued. “I was beside myself. He said he loves me, too, and we had the most magical, slow sex. It made me cry. He’s just, oh, I should shut up about it.”
“It made you cry?”
“Yes. The way he touches me sometimes, it makes me cry.”
For a moment, Mel appeared as if she was going to cry herself. “You should see the look on your face right now. I’m so happy for you. I guess I should stop wondering if this is the real thing.”
Zan laughed, then blushed. “Oh, it’s real. Not only have I told him about my ugly drunken past, this weekend I told him about Patrick.”
“You’re kidding. How did he react?”
“He was comforting. You know, it’s weird. It wasn’t anything he said, really. He just had this way about him as I told him the story, as if he understood completely. He’s lost people close to him. Both his parents died when he was young. Maybe that’s why.”
“Both parents? That’s rough.”
“Yeah. He looks sad sometimes.”
“He must be a sensitive soul, your Rainer.”
“He is, he is,” Zan said, smiling to herself. Mel left her to her reverie.
The two Covalent hurtled through the dark energy of the kinetic rift to emerge near Barakiel’s home. Pellus waited as the warrior took a few seconds to re-orient himself. For all but travelers, the feeling of being incorporeal engendered by a passage was disconcerting. After Barakiel cleared his head, he asked Pellus to stay and have a drink with him. He said there was something he wanted to discuss. Pellus was not surprised.
He wishes to talk to me about that woman. I do not think I will like it.
A few minutes later, they sat on either side of Barakiel’s massive kitchen table drinking cognac.
“So, what is it you want to talk to me about?”
“Zan.”
“You know I think your relationship is a bad idea, but I have accepted that my admonitions will have no effect on you.”
“Are you still willing to meet her?”
“I said that I would.”
Barakiel smiled, whether at Pellus’ obvious reluctance or the mere fact of his assent, Pellus could not tell.
“Thank you,” he said. “When is a good time for you?”
“Shortly after your next tour of duty in the Turning would be best.”
“All right, Pellus. I appreciate how you always place yourself at my disposal. I should let you know that I told Zan you were my mother’s friend and that you looked after me when I was young. You will need to appear as an older gentleman.”
“Yes, of course. The effort will be slight.”
“Do you remember that time in Constantinople? You made me look older while I was dealing with some merchants and you dropped the illusion too early? You did not realize that little boy was watching us.”
“Ha! Yes. He went all wide-eyed and started babbling in that incomprehensible language,” Pellus said. “How did we deal with that?”
“He was a little boy. We did not care. Zan will be harder to handle.”
“You see. You admit it. To be involved with her is a terrible idea.”
“To the contrary. It is the best idea I have ever had,” Barakiel said, giving Pellus a don’t-start-with-me look. “But you can help with another concern.”
“What concern?” Pellus asked, his tone wary.
“She will find it strange, I think, if I leave town for several days and engage in no communication with her. I can tell her I hate to talk on the telephone and that will have to do, but that does not explain away the lack of texts or emails. Can you help?”
“Of course, but again, your concern makes it clear that I am right.” Pellus leaned forward. “Your relationship with this woman is ill-advised.”
“For good or ill, my relationship with her will continue. You can help me avoid suspicion, or protest my actions with no result until Zan decides to scrutinize my background.”
“This is rather like blackmail.”
“Yes, it is.”
Pellus pushed back in his heavy wooden chair until an intense wave of annoyance passed. Barakiel was amused by his blackmail remark. It irked him.
“Very well. I can instruct your computer to send out messages while you are gone. I can have Roan, my apprentice, come here to see if Zan has sent you a message that requires a response.”
“Thank you, Pellus, thank you. I am quite relieved.”
“And I am quite agitated.”
“You do not look agitated.”
“Well, I am. Why would this woman expect to hear from you? Wouldn’t it be better to politely tell her that your business dealings are not her concern? That you should not be expected to account for your whereabouts?”
Barakiel looked down, then sheepishly glanced at Pellus. He rubbed his forearm. Pellus recognized the behavior.
Obviously, there is more to this than the logistics of deception.
“Out with it.”
“Since I last spoke to you about Zan, our relationship has grown a bit more serious.”
“How so?”
“I have professed my love to her.”
Pellus grabbed the edge of the table and squeezed before extending his hands toward Barakiel, palm up.
“Please, listen to me. I know you were lonely. I know you are bursting with power and your craving to share it with another is only natural, but how can you love her? She is human.”
“Who asks, ‘how,’ when speaking of love?” Barakiel said, looking like a wounded little boy. “Are you not curious about us? She has pledged her love to me. She can feel me within her, feel how I love her. She confides in me, shares her pain with me. Our time together is magical and beautiful, and all you can do is question my sincerity. Why are you not happy for me?”
Fine warrior, she will die. You will turn around and she will be dead.
“It is incomprehensible to me, the idea that a Covalent could fall in love with a human.”
“How so? I have lived in the Earthly Realm now longer than I ever lived in the Covalent Realm. I feel this world. I draw my energy from its rhythms. When I am with Zan I feel like I belong with her, to her. I feel loved, so do not say it is incomprehensible. You must meet her. You will understand.”
“Perhaps,” Pellus said. He turned his eyes to the ceiling and sighed.
“You will. This is important to me, Pellus. I want your blessing because I want you in my life in a way that reaches beyond duty, and my life is filled with Zan.”
Barakiel’s joyous expression broke Pellus’ heart.
I have watched everything you love be taken from you. I do not want to watch it again.
Zan and Mel sat in the cramped anteroom to Nguyen’s office waiting for him to finish a telephone call. They needed his permission to request arrest warrants for a raid on a house in Northeast Philadelphia they believed was the hub of the straw-purchasing ring. Zan worried that Nguyen would hesitate to green light a raid, afraid of a standoff.
Let’s hope he realizes that no matter how long we plan, bullets might fly when you’re dealing with a house filled with guns.
They’d tailed their original surveillance target to this house. The woman had visited twice in as many days. The second time, she’d removed a large gym bag from the trunk of her car. Judging from the tautness of its handles, it contained something heavy. She left without the bag some time later. This was enough for Mel and Zan. They staked it out.
Three days in, they got their first sign they were at the right place. A woman carried a cardboard box into the house, stayed for about a half hour, and left without the box. The next day a man repeated the same behavior, except that he carried a canvas duffel. The two agents considered a search warrant, but then Mel got a better idea. A wiretap. Recorded communications would be strong evidence in court if they wanted to get this crew on trafficking charges.
She was right. They were able to record the occupants of the house discussing gun prices and deliveries.
Zan hadn’t seen Rainer in the nearly three weeks since they began their surveillance. She spent day after day sitting in a nondescript sedan with Mel, staring at various losers enter the shabby house, followed by days in a van listening to inane telephone chatter.
My frustration is almost at an end. Hallelujah.
Mel had her nose stuck in the outline they’d prepared to sell Nguyen on the raid. She paused with her finger on the page.
“Hopefully, if the boss gives the go-ahead, we can set it up fast with the tactical team and the ATF and get out of here early, since we’ve been working such long hours,” she said. “I told everyone to expect to hear from me today. The warrants should come through on Monday, so we should plan the raid for Tuesday if it’s a go.”
“I’d love to leave early. I’m meeting Rainer’s business manager tonight, the guy who’s like a father to him. I’m nervous as hell, but if I can head over there early, I know just the thing to calm me down.”
“Tonight’s the big night, huh? Yeah, if you don’t get it on with Rainer before you meet this man, I doubt the two of you will pay any attention to him. You’ll be all on fire.”
“Yep. And that’s the last thing I need. We’ve had to delay this dinner already because of our surveillance time.”
“It will all be worth it,” Mel said.
“I know. I’m sorry if I’ve seemed impatient.”
“Don’t worry, I get it.” Mel went back to her outline.
A few minutes later, Nguyen opened his office door and waved them in. “Have a seat, ladies. What have you got for me?”
Mel emphatically listed the evidence she and Zan had compiled against the inhabitants of the house, taking care to highlight the intercepted communications that revealed these guys were selling a lot of guns, and some of them were making their way out of state.
She’s so good at this.
“Why do you want to take the house?” Nguyen asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to divide and conquer? We can pick them up individually.”
“That would risk the destruction or disappearance of evidence at the house,” Mel said. “Besides sir, the tactical team is all excited.”
Nguyen smirked. “Yeah, they would be, wouldn’t they?” He rubbed his face and looked at the copy of the outline they had given him.
“All right, ladies. This is solid evidence and I appreciate the time you put in to acquire it. You can petition for the arrest warrants and have the resources you need for the raid.”
“Thank you, sir,” Mel said.
Nguyen nodded and gave them his I’m-counting-on-you look. “Get Philly PD involved,” he said. “And for the love of god, do this right. We don’t need any civilians getting hurt.”