“Yeah. I worked on the teams that developed both of those games.”
Cole couldn’t be certain, but he thought he heard the sound of a desk being rattled as Stu sat up at attention. “What? You work at Digital Dreamers?”
“Yeah. At least, I hope I’ll still be able to work there when I decide to go back.”
“Why would you ever leave a job like that?” Stu asked with genuine bewilderment.
“Things just sort of happen, you know?”
“Oh…yeah. I suppose I do know. Still…awesome job! What did you do over at Dreamers?”
Chuckling while looking up at the clear night sky, Cole replied, “I worked on the single player campaign for
“Of…course you did,” Stu groaned. “I’m such a tool.”
“But you’ve got good taste in games. Besides, you’ll forget all about
“There’s a
“That’s classified…but it might come out sooner if I decide to go home and get back to work. You think I should do that, Stu?”
There was a heavy pause as Stu caught his breath and truly thought about the question. It wasn’t long before he said, “That’s your call, dude. Sounds like you’ve got one hell of a job waiting for you, but me and everyone else over here at MEG are always wishing we could work our way into partnering up with one of you guys.”
“What do you know about…about these guys?” Cole asked.
“We’re not told a lot, but we are given the occasional lead every now and then.”
“What sort of lead?”
“Every so often we’ll get a reliable tip about where we can find someplace that’s crawling with spectral activity. There were a few demon hauntings that still give one of our founders nightmares, and we wouldn’t have known about those if not for you guys. Personally, I got to study a real Chubacabra that one of Paige’s buddies across the border ran into.”
“A what?”
“Chubacabra,” Stu repeated. “You know. A Goat Sucker. They’re in all the tabloids, but they’re real enough. I saw it myself. None of the zoologists believe me, but that doesn’t matter. None of us are here to get published in a scientific journal. I’d bet the magazine we put out on the Web gets read more than those Ivy League rags anyway.”
Cole shook his head and laughed. “There’s a lot going on that I never knew about.”
“Yeah,” Stu sighed. “Ain’t it great?”
“Sort of.”
“Whether anyone knows about it or not, you guys do a hell of a lot of good. Especially now with all that’s been going on.”
“What’s been going on?”
Stu clammed up so hard that Cole could almost hear his lips slapping together over the satellite connection. In a guarded voice he eventually said, “Let’s just say one of our guys down at Branch 25 called in about some bunch of messed-up animals in a hole somewhere. Far as I know, you guys were already told about it, so I probably shouldn’t say anything else. I’m sure Paige will fill you in. If I step out of line, she might just pull me through this phone and slap the hell out of me. She sounds cute, but…”
“Don’t worry,” Cole said as Stu fought for his next words. “I know what you mean, and you’re right.”
“I got some more calls coming in,” Stu said. “All I can tell you is to take a look around and think about what you might be able to accomplish with Paige and whoever else is there. I knew Gerald and Brad. They were great guys who helped a lot of people. You could do a lot worse for yourself than by joining up with the likes of them. Hope that helps.”
“Actually, it does.”
“Cool. Don’t be a stranger. Maybe we can run through a few rounds of
“Another one, huh? Fine. I’ll defend the company honor later.”
“Talk to ya.” With that, Stu broke the connection.
Cole held the satellite phone in his hand and ran his thumb along the chipped plastic casing. He wondered where that phone had been and what sort of impossible things it had seen. As he let his thoughts wander, he reminded himself about Gerald’s face and the urgency that had been in his voice.
A cold breeze got him moving back to the restaurant. He walked in through the door and found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.
“Holy shit,” he gasped.
Paige glanced at him over the shotgun and then lowered it. She held her phone up to her ear with her free hand and nodded casually to Cole before getting back to her conversation. “Yeah, go on,” she said into the phone. “What did the MEG guys find?”
Holding up his hands, Cole said, “No problem. Honest mistake. Don’t worry about me.”
Paige smiled and nodded. “Good. Thanks.” It wasn’t clear whether she was talking to him or to whoever was on the phone.
As she turned her back to him, Cole couldn’t help but notice that she’d changed into a pair of black sweatpants and a matching halter top. Although her attire was less provocative than a few outfits he’d seen at the gym, Paige’s curves were even more impressive now that they weren’t hidden by jeans and a jacket. When she walked toward the kitchen, her hips twitched more than enough to take his eyes away from the shotgun she so casually slung over her shoulder.
Suddenly, Paige turned around. The motion was so fast that it was almost painful for him to pull his eyes up to a more appropriate level. “I need to go to Wisconsin. Are you coming with me or not?”
Having just noticed the freckles sprinkled along the smooth, tanned skin just above the slope of her breasts, Cole had to use a completely different section of his brain to form a reply. “Huh? Are you talking to me?”
“I’ve got one of our trackers on the phone,” she explained as she took the phone away from her ear. “He’s found something that may be linked to Misonyk and this Henry thing. It’s a small road trip, but we can see if anything’s hunting you by moving around. If nothing follows us, you should be clear…more or less. You in?”
“Yes,” he said before he had a chance to think better of it.
Lifting the phone again, she said, “Yeah, there’ll be two of us. Where are we meeting?” After a pause, she rolled her eyes and groaned. “Are you serious? Why?…Fine, we’ll see you there.” After hanging up, she tossed the phone onto a nearby counter as if afraid of catching something from it. Then she turned to him and asked, “Did any of those Nymar touch you?”
“Pardon me?”
“Not on your clothes, but on your skin. Even something like this.”
As she said that, Paige reached out to brush her hand along his arm. She was at least a foot shorter than him, but seemed even smaller now that she was in her bare feet. When she looked up at him, her easy smile was framed by a tussled mess of dark hair. She couldn’t have looked better than if she’d spent the day in a spa.
He tensed the muscles in his jaw and forced a breath out through his nose to keep from reaching out and doing some touching of his own. Her fingers lingered upon his wrist and sent a chill straight through him. “I don’t remember,” he admitted. “So much happened that it’s all running together.”
“This may sound weird, but did any of them…spit on you?”
Wincing, Cole replied, “No. I would’ve remembered that. Why?”
“Just to be safe, give me your wrist.”
“Which wrist? This one?”
Cole extended his right arm. Paige gently took hold of him and brushed her fingertips against his skin. The longer she touched him, the more Cole was worried he might slip and say something he couldn’t easily explain. Finally, she encircled his wrist with her fingers and ran her other hand along his arm so she could push up his sleeve. Every inch of the way was a test of his resolve.
After a quick look at the veins on his wrist, Paige smiled at him even wider. She didn’t take her hands away just yet. “There would have been some black showing up on you by now if any of them tried to infect you, so you should
