“Oh, yes!” Cameron gave them a thumb’s up. “That was a great find. Cassie and I are about midway into restoring it enough to function. I had to order some parts, but they’ll be here tomorrow. I think we can restore the history of the GPS function, which will tell us all sorts of interesting things. That and the call history.”
“Excellent!” Gunter sighed, relaxing a bit next to Nikki while his brain was already making lists of ways to analyze what data they pulled. He’d just known those two could do something with it. They were trained in this sort of thing, after all. And damn near geniuses, to boot.
“Bring back more tech if you find anything,” Cassie encouraged them. “We love tech. People do all sorts of stupid things with tech. Like believe that if it’s in the trash can, it’s permanently deleted.”
Gunter blinked at her, expression blank. “It isn’t?”
“Oh, Gunter, honey,” she said with sympathy. “I’m terrified to ask what state your laptop is in. I’ll look at it later, okay? But yes to more tech to play with, and we’ll keep you posted when we get that phone back up and running.”
“Thank you.”
Alric addressed the room generally, “If there’s nothing else, meeting adjourned. Gunter, stay for a moment.”
“Oh, certainly.”
Nikki whispered, “I’ll meet you in the library.”
“Alright.” Gunter didn’t think Nikki would stay in a room full of mages any longer than they could help it. And this might take a while. Alric likely had a lot of business to catch up with him since Gunter had been holed up in the library with Nikki the past two and a half weeks. He let Nikki go without any argument.
Although it would be nice if, one day, Nikki was comfortable enough to linger.
Nikki was studying.
This wasn’t a new thing. Nikki liked to study and learn things. It was one of the few ways to pass the time without feeling like their brain was trying to rot between their ears from sheer boredom. Nikki and boredom did not get along well.
But what was new was the book they studied from. Gunter had handed it to them about an hour ago, passing it off as something he’d picked up for Nikki. (Nikki highly suspected Lisette had actually pestered Gunter about training Nikki, and this was her first foray.) It was the next textbook after the primer, which Nikki had burned through.
Nikki had suffered through the primer, as they’d figured out a lot of it already. This new book was far more interesting and held Nikki’s attention. A lot of things suddenly started to make more sense. Nikki barely got a page in before they felt the sudden, burning desire to take notes—and promptly stole one of Gunter’s notebooks to do so.
Gunter seemed pleased they were so invested in the book. Nikki figured that out more from observation, as sometimes Gunter would lift his head, look at Nikki at the far side of the table, and get this smug little smile around the corners of his mouth. It happened too regularly to be mistaken for anything but delight.
It did warm the cockles of Nikki’s dark soul that Gunter was investing so much into them. They liked having Gunter’s attention very, very much.
Now if Gunter would just show any sign of attraction, dammit. Nikki would jump his bones in a heartbeat.
There was a knock at the door before a head popped around the frame. A handsome face, and not one Nikki recognized. Square in the jaw, pitch-black hair, friendly pale blue eyes, with a Slavic sort of look.
“Hello, I’m looking for Nikki?”
Nikki lifted a hand and waved. “I’m Nikki.”
“Ah, good, I’m in the right place.” He came all the way in, revealing more of a broad chest and muscled legs. A powerfully built man, but he moved like a cat, making barely any noise with each foot step.
If he wasn’t a dragon, Nikki would eat both boots.
“I’m Dimitri,” the man said in a surprisingly light baritone. “I’m from the Ice Dragons, here to help with the tracking.”
Oh! The one King Rodrigo had called in. Nikki knew precisely who this was, now. “Hi! Nice to meet you.”
Dimitri didn’t extend a hand for a genial shake but instead offered a fist to bump. “I understand you exploded your way out of the Jaeggi hideout. You’re my kind of people.”
Nikki was delighted by this greeting, practically bursting with pride that even a dragon across the ocean had heard of them. They bumped fists with glee. “I had to go out with a bang.”
“Damn right, you did,” Dimitri agreed, his grin a touch feral. “Now, I’m making sure I have this correct. Your pronouns are they/them, I’m told?”
“Yuppers. What’s yours?”
“He/him, thanks for asking. I wanted to make sure I got that right before I put both feet in my mouth. I got big feet, it would have been painful.” Dimitri turned and offered Gunter a hand. “Hello.”