“Yeah. I’ll see you,” I answered.
Ben was waiting for me outside, in the grim parking lot outside the fences and coils of razor wire. “What did he say? If you can tell me. Not that I want to encourage my clients to keep secrets from me.”
I joined him, and together we walked to the car. “He just wants me to look something up for him. He wouldn’t tell me exactly why. He was worried that you’d freak out about it.”
Ben didn’t freak out. I didn’t think he would. But Cormac had spent most of his life believing that he was looking out for Ben, protecting him. Funny how Ben thought the same about Cormac.
We walked on a few steps, silent. I let Ben ponder. Then he said, “This doesn’t have anything to do with those Tiamat guys, does it?”
“No. This seems to be completely unrelated.”
“Is he in trouble?”
I shrugged. How did you answer that question about someone in prison? “I don’t think so. He didn’t seem worried, just curious.”
“Oh.” A few more steps in silence. “Then I’m going to decide not to worry about this.”
“You go right ahead,” I said with a smile. Because of course we were both going to worry.
“This isn’t anything he can’t handle, right?” Ben said.
“Right.”
We reached the car. He was driving today. In a few moments, we were back on the highway.
I said, “It’s weird. I met Cormac before I met you, that time he tried to kill me. Remember?”
“Yeah, and if I recall he never actually fired at you.”
“No. If he’d fired I probably wouldn’t be here now.” Ben grunted an agreement. We drove a few more miles, and I said, “Remember when we met?”
He smiled. “You needed a lawyer who wouldn’t freak out when you told him you’re a werewolf. So Cormac referred you to me. Now I have to ask, did you have any idea we’d end up like this?”
This was one of those heavy relationship questions that had no good answer. Just about anything I said would get me in trouble. “Not a clue. To tell you the truth, I thought you were kind of sleazy.”
“Sleazy?” he said, indignant, but he was still smiling.
“Come on, anyone who’d be Cormac’s lawyer?” I said. He laughed, because I definitely had a point. “Seems like a million years ago.”
So much had happened. So much had changed. So many people just weren’t here anymore.
“Yeah.” He sounded sad. He’d been normal then. Human. Uninfected, with no hint that his life would swerve in this direction.
I squeezed his hand. More for my own comfort than his, if I was honest. But he squeezed back, smiled at me, and I felt better.
When the call from the Paradox crew came the next morning, it was Jules. That was the first surprise. The second was how pleased he sounded when he said, “We’re staying. You’ve got to come over here.”
“Why, what is it?”
“We found something,” he said.
Chapter 15
Ben and I arrived at their hotel suite within the hour.
The suite, in one of those modern, functional hotels that catered to business travelers, had a living-room area between bedrooms. The coffeemaker smelled like it had been going all night, and a half-empty box of donuts sat on the dresser.
The team had pulled chairs to a round table, where they huddled around a couple of humming laptops attached to heavy-duty speakers. Gary lay on a nearby sofa,