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“I thought of that,” I said. “I mean, I’d be the last person I’d recruit if I were them. On the other hand, I’d be a big prize. Turning me would help them against MSI.”
“It would be very dangerous for you to put yourself in that situation,” Merlin said, stroking his beard th
oughtfully. “Even if they were recruiting you sincerely, they’d watch you to make sure you weren’t a spy. You’d have to earn their trust over time before you gained any valuable intelligence.”
“She did mention having to prove myself,” I admitted. “I’m not sure I want to think about what that would entail.”
“At least we know they couldn’t make you turn someone into a frog,” Owen said with a valiant attempt at a smile.
“Yeah, but they might ask me to betray the company somehow.”
“I suggest that you disregard this offer,” Merlin said. “Even if you were to eventually consider it, I think it would look more suspicious if you jumped at the first chance. However, perhaps it would not be a bad idea for us to begin giving you valid reasons to be more open to subsequent offers.”
“You’re going to make my life miserable at work?” I asked with some dismay. Not that I had a bad job, really. “What are you going to do, hire Mimi to oversee me? After all, she drove me to you in the first place.”
“I was thinking more in terms of asking for more reports. Wouldn’t it be premature for me to begin demanding an analysis of the return on investment of your marketing efforts and to criticize you when they haven’t had immediate, miraculous results?”
“Have you been talking to Mimi?” I couldn’t help but ask. “That’s right out of her playbook.”
“Does this mean we need to fight?” Owen asked.
He seemed to be joking—at least, he was smiling—but my stomach did a queasy flip-flop. I couldn’t imagine that the Collegium would be keen on me being engaged to someone so high up in the company they were targeting. Even if they thought I could get sensitive information out of him, there would be a bigger risk of me remaining loyal to him and to the company. Everything about me suggested I was more likely to be a spy than a turncoat, and it would take a lot of effort to convince them that I’d turned enough for them to trust me. I couldn’t see a lot of good coming out of me trying to use this as a chance to go undercover.
But as long as there was a chance, we played along. Merlin requested reports, and that gave me enough extra work to do that Owen and I barely saw each other during December. Every so often, I smiled wistfully at memories of the previous December when we’d first started dating. There had been Christmas shopping, ice skating… and, come to think of it, falling through the ice and being hounded by an incompetent fairy godmother. Ah, good times. Maybe it was for the best that we didn’t have time for that this year.
I kept meeting with Kim, who was getting frustrated about not getting a job offer, especially when she heard that I’d had one. I went to the same bar alone a few times, but I never saw the mysterious recruiter.
Owen came home with me for Christmas, and for a week, we didn’t have to worry about anything relating to the Collegium. There was no chance they were active in a small Texas town. We were both tired and a little crabby when we returned to New York. If anyone had been spying on us in the airport, I doubt they’d have assumed we were on the verge of breaking up, but if they were looking for signs of fractures, they might have been able to read something into the way we interacted. We spoke in short, sharp sentences, and there was little physical contact between us. Never mind that after spending hours shoulder-to-shoulder on an airplane, the last thing we wanted to do was touch another person.
When we returned to work after the holidays, Sam the gargoyle met us at the building entrance. “We’ve gotta talk,” he said.
“What is it?” I asked.
“C’mon, up to the boss’s office.” It was hard to read his facial expression, considering he was made of stone, but I got the sense that he was really worried. Normally, he’d have teased us or asked how our holidays had gone.
Up in Merlin’s office, Rod and Philip were already waiting, and Minerva soon joined us. Merlin activated the privacy wards, and he, Rod, and Owen did some other spell, like they were searching for bugs. Okay, I thought, this really was serious.
“Some events occurred during the holidays that have us concerned,” Merlin began. “Two members of the Council and several corporate executives have gone missing.”
“Are we sure they’re missing and not just off on holidays?” I asked.
“Their families reported them missing.”
“This sounds much like what happened to me,” Philip said.
“The Collegium must be making a move,” Rod mused. “I’ll have to keep an eye on absentee reports today.”
“We have no way of knowing it’s the Collegium,” Owen said. “Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that the elves were abducting people.”
“I have checked to make sure nothing of the sort is happening now,” Merlin said. “Of course, there are many possible explanations, but I want all of you to be alert, and we should redouble our efforts to gain information.”
“Should I call the number on that business card?” I asked, rather reluctantly.
“Business card?” Rod asked. I hadn’t told anyone but Owen and Merlin about the attempted recruitment.
“Someone who may be Collegium approached me about working for them.”
“That would be a very bad idea,” Philip said, shaking his head.
