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A few of the gang members are here, looking scorched—probably by lightning balls. Itzel’s famous grandfather is also here, lying on the floor in an unconscious heap.
“Call him,” Vas says to a vampire nearby, one of the ones who attacked Kit in the cul-de-sac.
The vamp fiddles in his VR for a second, and a hologram appears in the middle of the room.
It’s a tall, thin man whose face is obscured by a puck mask, a popular adornment worn at costume parties on Gomorrah, and therefore one that doesn’t tell me much about the person hiding behind it.
“Do you have him?” the guy asks in a voice that sounds like creaking floorboards.
Vas gestures at the unconscious gnome.
The masked dude nods approvingly and points at the vampire who started the hologram. “I want him to bring the gnome to me.”
Puck. It would’ve been better if he’d asked Vas—that way, I could bring up that meeting in the dream world.
Oh, well. Maybe Vas had met this guy at some point anyway?
As Vas’s dreams start to stray away from memory territory, I find opportunities to put the puck-masked man into a variety of environments.
Unfortunately, nothing prompts the dream I seek. The mystery man must’ve never met Vas outside that hologram conversation.
Giving up, I go back to the waking world for a moment, then recall a few more gang members I’d made connections with and snoop around their dreams next.
No luck.
Outside the hologram conversation, no one seems to have met the masked stranger.
Exiting the last person’s dream, I apprise the team on what I’ve just learned.
Itzel grunts. “We almost got killed for nothing.”
“I’m not so sure.” Kit transforms into a male vampire, bares fangs, and looks at me with glamour-ready eyes. “Is this the one who escorted the masked guy?”
I shake my head.
Kit turns into another vampire from the fight. Then another.
“This one,” I say when she turns into the vamp from the dream.
“Ah, good.” Kit turns back into herself. “One of the more handsome devils. This should be fun.”
Everyone stares at her as she pauses dramatically, enjoying the attention. When Itzel appears ready to shoot her with a ball of lightning, Kit says, “My plan is simple. I’m going to take on a different guise and use my feminine wiles to extract the information from that vampire.”
Ariel winces, probably thinking of her issues with vampires, and Itzel eyes Kit worriedly. “Are you sure? I love my grandfather, but I don’t know if—”
“Don’t worry about it.” Kit turns herself into a beautiful woman, followed by an even more attractive one. “I plan to enjoy this mission—vampires make great lovers.”
“What kind of Cognizant doesn’t?” Felix mutters under his breath.
“Technomancers,” Kit says without a second of hesitation. “At least so far. Care to prove that wrong?”
Felix reddens, and we all chuckle at his expense. He certainly walked right into that one.
“How long do you think it’ll take?” Itzel asks Kit.
Kit turns back into her usual self. “A night, maybe two.”
Itzel frowns.
“Fine. One night,” Kit says soothingly. “If the carrot approach doesn’t work, I’ll tie him up under the pretext of more fun and torture the information out of him.”
We ride in silence for a few blocks, digesting this even more disturbing part of Kit’s plan. Then Ariel and I start to question her about the safety of this, and she reminds us she’s on the New York Council and can take care of herself.
Shrugging in defeat, I go into VR and check my messages.
Nothing from Valerian. Did he really give up on me, or is he having trouble locating that werewolf?
For the sake of my mom, I can’t accept the former.
I look at Felix. “What are your plans for the night or two while Kit is doing her thing?”
He blinks. “I haven’t made any.”
“Want to help me with a VR video game? I’ll pay for your time.”
He grins. “No need. I’ve always wanted to try it, but I’ve been typecast as a security expert.”
I thank him and ask Kit where she wants to go. After the car drops her off there, we swing by Itzel’s place to drop her off and stash Felix’s suit before heading to the gate hub building to return to Earth.
When we come out of JFK, Ariel takes her own cab, and Felix and I go straight to Valerian’s office.
“There’s a chance we’ll get kicked out of the building,” I tell Felix once we’re in the elevator. “Valerian and I had a little fight, so it all depends on how much of an ass he decides to be about that.”
When we approach the front desk, the lady there smiles at me as if I were a celebrity. “Ms. Spade. How can I help?”
“I’m here to see Rattie or Bernie,” I say.
She blinks in incomprehension.
“Mr. Bhairava and Mr. Anderson,” I clarify.
Felix’s unibrow lifts at the second name, as I figured it might—The Matrix being his favorite movie and all.
