Biers hesitated once again. Finally, she said, “Well, that’s good to hear. I was afraid we’d lost you. I was relieved to find out you were okay.”
“Oh? How did you find that out? Did you talk to Cris?”
Cris was another of those brief encounters that Rafe had revealed to me. She was the most recent and had practically saved his life before the big fight he had with Rowle in Huntsville back in October.
“No, at least not then. I’ve talked to her several times since then about magic and the such, she’s been very helpful, but I found out you were okay when I listened to NSA recordings of phone conversations between Tess and her aunts and a couple between you and Cris.”
“What? You’ve been listening to our phone calls?” I snapped.
“It wasn’t my idea, Tess. I was just brought up to speed on the recordings last week.”
“So, this call is being recorded?” Rafe asked.
“Well, ah, no. It’s not supposed to be anyway,” Biers said with a guilty tone to her words.
“And you couldn’t have led off with that?”
“Ah, yes, maybe I should have. Look, my boss said I could be up front with you if I thought it’d help persuade you to our cause. He told the NSA to drop all monitoring of your phone for the next twenty-four hours as a show of good faith.”
“That’s good faith?” I snapped. “Seems a little like apologizing for shooting someone’s dog.”
Rafe raised a finger to my lips and I bit back the rest of what I was going to say. Then he removed his finger and replaced it with his lips. We kissed.
“Are you still there?” Biers asked after a long pause.
Rafe pulled back and smiled sweetly. Raising the phone again, he said, “We’re still here, Biers. I can’t say that I disagree with Tess, but we’ll overlook this spying on us for now. So what else did you want to talk about?”
“I’m just putting in a pitch for you to consider working for the government. Not full time, nothing like that, we’d just like you to be sort of a backup if something blows up.”
“Blows up?” Rafe asked.
“Well, not literally. We’re not talking day-to-day crises here; we’re only talking things that we can’t come up with any other way to handle them.”
“Working with the government is a slippery slope. Once you start it’s hard to stop,” Rafe said.
“Look, Rafe, I know you have reservations and I don’t blame you. I’m not asking you to give me an answer right away. Just consider it; I’m sure we can make a deal on whatever terms you have. As I said before, stopping that invasion gave you a lot of respect and good will. No one wants to alienate you.”
“We’ll consider it. I still have your card. When we reach a decision, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, I guess you can reach us through Emily and Ashley.”
“That’s all I’m asking for, Rafe. For what it’s worth, I’ve been on your side since Huntsville.”
“I appreciate that, Biers. I’ll contact you before too long,” Rafe said.
“Ah, there’s one more thing I should ask you about,” Biers said. There was hesitation in her voice as if she really didn’t want to bring something up.
“What’s that?”
“A couple of nights ago, someone broke into the climatic hangar at Eglin Air Force Base and cut up the dragon that was on ice. The camera system was off line, but the reports made it sound like you two had been there.”
“Yeah, that was us,” Rafe said.
“Ah, if you don’t mind, could you tell me why you were there and why you sliced up the dragon’s carcass?”
“I don’t guess it would hurt to tell you,” Rafe said. “We were there to recover the broadheads that Tess used to kill the dragon. They’re hard to replace.”
“Oh, okay, that makes sense. Ah, if you need something like that again, could you call me and give me a chance to recover it for you. The Air Force was pissed about the damage to their hangar. The OTF has them placated, but you know how the military is.”
“I can imagine. Okay, if we think we’re going to need something in a government facility, we’ll call you before just taking it.”
“Thanks, I’d appreciate that. It’ll help keep everyone on your side,” Biers said.
“I have a question,” I said. “Who was that witch that was at the hangar?”
“Ah, it was a Wiccan that Cris introduced me to, a Ms. Felicity Myers.”
Rafe pursed his lips and his eyebrows wrinkled. “And what was she doing at the hangar?”
“She’s one of the recruits to the OTF. They’re trying to get any witch they can find on a consultation contract to help with their investigations into the supernatural.”
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Like I said, the invasion caught everyone flat-footed. They want a full understanding of the risks involved before it happens again.”
“And they think a Wiccan witch is going to be able to tell them about dragons?” Rafe asked with amusement in his voice.
“They’re going with whomever they can find. It’s not like they have a Wanderer to counsel them,” Biers said.
“Hah, yeah, that’s right. Look, if you have any questions about the real world, get them together and I’ll see what I can do about answering them,” Rafe said.
“Really?” Biers asked.
“Sure, it’s not like there’s a big secret to it. I have always tried to keep the supernatural worlds from affecting humankind, but since the cats out of the bag, I’ll fill in any blanks you have. Just don’t bring me a thousand questions to answer all at once. This has been going on longer than recorded history; the government doesn’t need to know everything right
