upper-middle-drawer-decayed-minor-aristocracy-but-let?s-not-talk-about-it English accent I?d ever heard. Like most things about Jenna-Jane, it was a feint that was designed to bring you in close enough for knife work.
She hadn?t changed by a micrometer: still petite, and neat, and agelessly sweet. She had to be about sixty now, but her body seemed to have decided that midforties was a good look for her, and it had held on to it. Her hair was gray, but then it always had been: and on her it seemed less a sign of age than what you see when you scrape the paint off the side of a battleship. And like a battleship, her surface was bland and smooth and impenetrable. She affected a surgical white coat, but underneath it I saw jeans and a plaid shirt. J.J. knew how to stand on ceremony when there was something to be gained from it: the rest of the time she was just good plain folks.
?You never come to see us anymore,? she went on, gently reproachful. ?It must be two years!?
She sat me down, in a way that was impossible to resist, and then went and sat back down again herself on the other side of the desk. She handled nuance like a ninja: the greeting had been friendly and personal, but once I was sitting down this was a formal visit, too, and she could appeal to the book?regretfully, full of apologies?whenever she had to.
?I?ve dropped in a few times,? I said, ?but you?re never around.?
She nodded, still smiling. ?Yes, I heard. I was beginning to wonder if you were avoiding me on purpose. But here you are.?
Yeah. Here I was.
?So how?s it all going?? I asked, on the grounds that ?I need to talk to Rosie, so hello and good-bye? might have seemed a little on the abrupt side.
Jenna-Jane shrugged modestly. ?The unit?s still growing,? she said. ?We?ve got a fine faculty now. A lot of genuine highfliers who?ve graduated from the European schools and come here to find out how it?s really done. I don?t think you?d recognize the names, because you?ve never been all that interested in the literature, but believe me when I say there are university proctors in Germany and America who spit when they hear my name.?
?I believe you, J.J.,? I assured her, meaning it.
She made a sour face.
?Please don?t use that nickname, Felix,? she said. ?You know how I feel about it. So yes, things here are excellent. It?s such a strong team now, we?ve got to the point where they won?t be needing me anymore.? Her eyes gleamed as she said this: even as a joke, she couldn?t quite get that one out without an edge to it. As if she?d ever let go of her little empire without a good sprinkling of blood and hair on the walls.
?On the acquisitions side,? she went on smoothly, ?we?ve got three loup-garous?including one who?s able to possess and shape insect hosts. The identical twin zombies from Edinburgh are with us now: that was quite a battle, but I was able to prove to the hospital board that we could offer them a higher standard of care. We can also chart their decay molecule by molecule with the CAT imagers, and see how far it follows a parallel course in the two different cadavers.?
?Unless the dead rights bill gets through its third reading,? I said. I couldn?t resist; it was too pat a straight line.
J.J. didn?t go for the stick, though. She passed her hand through the air in front of her face, pushing the unwelcome topic effectively to the sidelines. ?I know a lot of people in Westminster, Felix,? she told me. ?There?s no way the bill is going to pass. Not in this form, and not in this session. It would be chaos. Oh yes, eventually some measure of legal status will be accorded to the dead. There?s already talk of bringing me in as a consultant on the next bill, after this one hits the rocks.?
I almost laughed at that.
?
?Which point would that be, Jenna-Jane??
?The point where the dead have begun to rise in uncountable numbers, and when it?s starting to look as though the demons of hell are herding them.?
I shrugged. It was a theory, like any other: I?d heard them all in my time. ?I thought the demons went wherever they got a whiff of fresh food.?
?I know what you think, Felix. We?ve discussed it on several occasions. You have a dangerous tendency?in my view?to underestimate the potential threat that the dead pose. In the past, that tendency was tempered by your professionalism: your ability to ignore all irrelevant avenues while you were working on a specific task. From what I hear, though, there?s been a certain . . . erosion of that quality in recent months.?
She was looking at me closely, appraisingly. She paused, as if she expected me to respond to the allegation.
?It?s good to know that you?re still taking an interest in me,? I said blandly.
?Always, Felix. Always.?
?Listen, Jenna-Jane.? I was trailing the field in the small-talk stakes, so I might as well cut to the chase. ?I need to speak to Rosie. There?s something I want to ask her about.?
J.J.?s eyebrows rose. I knew they did because I saw the crease appear and then fade again on her forehead. The eyebrows themselves were gray, like the hair on her head, and pencil-sliver thin so they couldn?t be seen unless you were right up close.
?I?ll add you to the roster,? she said, mildly.
?I meant tonight.?
J.J. smiled a tight, pained smile. ?That would be more difficult to arrange. We have a formal booking system now, and the time slots for tonight are entirely filled. Probably the earliest I could fit you in would be in about three or four days? time.?
?I just need a couple of minutes. Couldn?t you squeeze me in as someone else is clocking off??
She shook her head with an expression on her face that was indistinguishable from genuine regret. ?No, I?m afraid not, Felix,? she said. ?Everything goes through one of the oversight boards, and I can?t preempt their decision. Even for a friend.? She paused, frowned for a moment in thought, and I waited for the other shoe to drop. ?For a colleague, though,? she said, ?it would be different. If you had an active and current attachment to the unit, I mean. I could stretch a point then, and be reasonably sure that the board wouldn?t smack my hand for it afterwards.?
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but then again if all she wanted was a promise I could be every bit as radiantly insincere as she could. ?Well, I?m pretty busy right now,? I said, ?but when I?ve got an opening, I could maybe come over and do some chores for you.?
Jenna-Jane nodded enthusiastically. ?Excellent,? she said. ?There?s one thing I?d love to have you do for us.?
?What?s that?? I was already standing, trying to hustle her on to the next stage in the proceedings, but when it comes to immovable objects and irresistible forces, J.J. can play both ends against the middle.
?You can persuade your friend Rafael Ditko to sign himself into our care.?
My face froze, and so did I, halfway between sitting down and standing up. In the end I went for standing up, because it got me a bit of distance from her.
?Sorry,? I said. ?That one?s not on the table.?
?Isn?t it?? She was all innocent inquiry. ?I had a call from Dr. Webb a couple of days ago. He seemed to feel that it might be better for Mr. Ditko to be in an environment that?s more directly and intentionally geared towards dealing with the kind of problem that he faces.?
?J.J., no offense, but in here Rafi would
Jenna-Jane seemed hurt. ?That?s a rather opaque metaphor, Felix. And it?s very far from the truth. I?m aware that Ditko and the demon inside him are two distinct entities. I?m probably more cognizant of what that means than you are, and better able to understand the mechanism by which it works. I would never confuse your friend with the passenger he has the misfortune to carry.?
?No? So you wouldn?t, for the sake of argument, be tempted to try stabbing Rafi with a pitchfork to see if Asmodeus bleeds??
Jenna-Jane?s disguise is close to being perfect, so there was no sign of anger or frustration on her face. She just shook her head, as if that harsh remark were the latest proof that she was never meant to live in a world as cruel and unfeeling as this.
?My first concern would be Ditko?s well-being,? she said, solemnly.
?It?s not negotiable, Jenna-Jane.?
?Then neither is Rosie, Felix. I?ll add you to the roster, and you?ll get a call within the next few days. Unless, of course, someone on the oversight board has any doubts about your suitability.?
?And are you on the oversight board, Jenna- Jane?? I asked.
?Yes. Of course. I?m one of four faculty members, balanced by three??
I raised my hand to stop the flow. ?Thanks,? I said. ?I get the picture.
