“Perhaps,” Endow intoned.
“Speaking of Static,” I remarked, “how do you know you can trust him?”
“You mean, what if he’s the killer,” Rune corrected. “Never fear. We plan to double-check his work. He has to know that, and so would be a fool to try anything crazy.”
“If he is the killer, there’s no doubt he’s crazy,” I countered. “That being the case, screwing around with some rinky-dink analysis doesn’t even tip the scales when you’re willing to murder Incarnates.”
Endow looked as though she wanted to make a comment, but was cut off by Rune before she could utter a word.
“Heads-up,” he said. “Looks like we have company.”
At that moment, the doors to our suite opened (which, now that I thought about it, seemed to be a seldom occurrence). A few seconds later, Ursula walked in.
Chapter 50
I struggled to keep from looking nervous. I had practically forgotten about the fact that Ursula was intent on ratting me out regarding what had happened in the Cosmos Corridor. Presumably Endow had been too busy, but Ursula — being the dedicated employee that she was — had tracked her down.
If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain… I thought.
“Your little maneater’s here,” Rune said to Endow, who gave him a withering look.
“Well, it’s not like I get a lot of opportunities,” Ursula shot back, “so I can’t afford to be demure and reserved when a cute guy comes along.”
She glanced at me as she finished speaking, and I fought to keep my cheeks from turning red.
Rune laughed. “Ha! Nobody will ever accuse you of beating around the bush.”
“Ignore him,” Endow urged. “Now, did you need me for something?”
Here it comes, I said to myself.
“No,” Ursula stated, shaking her head. “I just need to speak with Jim privately for a moment.”
Her statement gave me something of a start; I had been all but certain that she was about to apprise everyone of my misdeeds. Her statement had also seemingly come as a surprise to Endow, who exchanged a worried glance with Rune.
“It’s fine,” Rune assured his colleague. “She’s in good hands.”
Endow didn’t appear quite as confident as Rune, which made me wonder if there was a problem of some sort. Nevertheless, she didn’t protest when Rune stated that the two of them would be back shortly, and then they disappeared.
Chapter 51
We ended up sitting on the love seat, with me essentially waiting to hear what Ursula wanted to say.
“What, no kiss ‘hello’?” she asked.
“Not just yet,” I answered, snickering uneasily. “You said you wanted to talk.”
“Yeah, but not about anything serious,” she intoned.
I frowned. Ursula was undoubtedly a flirt, but I had garnered the impression that she knew how to walk the line between that and her official duties. Now it felt like she had gotten Rune and Endow to excuse themselves on a pretext. Even though she seemingly hadn’t told Endow what I’d done, her actions didn’t sit well with me.
“Maybe we should talk about what happened in the Cosmos Corridor,” I suggested. “And what you’re going to say to Endow about it.”
“I’ll say whatever you want me to say about it,” she purred, reaching up to run a hand through my hair.
“What’s wrong with you?” I demanded, grabbing her wrist.
Unsure of what was going on, I reached out for her empathically, trying to get a handle on why she was acting this way. To my surprise, her emotions were all over the place: love, anger, sadness, joy, fear, and so on. Even worse, there were so many of them — and all of equal intensity — that it was impossible for me to say which was dominant and therefore directing her actions.
Hoping for more insight, I tried reaching for her telepathically and, skimming the surface of her mind, received a shock that almost made me jump: in her mind, staring back at me, was a skeletal face with blotchy skin that I had seen once before.
The murderer.
Ursula let loose with something like a battle cry. At the same time, a glowing blade appeared in her free hand and she sliced at me with it.
I shifted into super speed, and it was as though someone hit a pause button on her: she froze in place, with blade in hand, mouth open, and a crazed look in her eye. I quickly stepped back, getting out of range of what appeared to be some kind of enchanted knife.
She was obviously under the control of the killer, and for some reason he had sent her here to deal with me.
As if my thoughts on the subject were her cue, I saw Ursula’s jaw quiver slightly. Then, her eyes began to move in a herky-jerky fashion, while at the same time a sound like a scream — her battle cry — began emanating from her mouth. In short, her movements were accelerating to match my own.
<Rune!> I shouted out telepathically. <You need to get back here!>
I didn’t receive any kind of acknowledgment — didn’t know if he’d even heard me. However, I didn’t devote too much time to thinking about it as Ursula stood and advanced on me with the glowing knife.
Seeing no reason to take a chance, I teleported the blade from her hand to the grain fields outside the castle. I was on the verge of mentally congratulating myself on that maneuver when the blade reappeared in her grip. Or maybe it was a different one. Truth be told, it didn’t matter, but it reminded me that I wasn’t really fighting an ordinary opponent. I was up against an Incarnate.
“Why couldn’t you just stay out of the way?” I heard the killer ask from Ursula’s throat.
“How do you know I didn’t?” I retorted.
Rather than respond, Ursula tried to stab me. I stood my ground but phased, and she went sprawling as the blade passed through my insubstantial form.
“I’ve watched you,” the murderer said,
