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I hurried through changing clothes and got to my office. Everything seemed strikingly normal. There were no signs of a battle having been fought there overnight, and there were no wizards lurking under my desk. Roger wasn’t in yet, but when I stopped by his office, I saw that the beacon was still in the potted plant.
I was heading back to my office when I saw Trish approaching. I hadn’t seen her since I’d been given the job as Roger’s assistant, so I’d assumed that she’d been either booted or reassigned. Since she was still in the company uniform, I supposed that meant she’d been reassigned. “Wow, you’re still around,” she said. “I was starting to wonder if you’d vanished and if I should try to look you up.”
I felt a pang of guilt that I hadn’t thought of checking on her. “No, I’m still around,” I said. “I just got moved.” Actually, I was kind of surprised that she didn’t know that. Had she not been told that she didn’t get the assistant job?
“Closer to the boss, I see.”
“Yeah. The better to cater to his every whim.”
She glanced around furtively, then whispered, “I’ve got to drop something off, but then can we talk?”
“Sure.”
She ran to Roger’s office, returning a moment later. “This way. I think I know a place that’s safe.” She led me to the women’s restroom at the other end of the hall and turned on a water tap. “Okay, we knew this place isn’t on the up and up, but how bad is it? There’s something brewing, and it’s giving me really bad vibes.” she said.
“Well, it’s magic, which makes it a little weird,” I said.
“You’ve got more experience with magic than I do, so I guess you’d know, but isn’t it weird even for a magic place? It’s not the magic that’s strange. It’s like working for The Firm, or something. People keep vanishing, and there’s all this security. We aren’t even allowed to know where we’re working. Yeah, I knew all that from the start, but it’s been getting really strange. He’s had me reading some wacked-out books that sound like a how-to in medieval torture. Somehow, I don’t think this is just a hobby for him.”
I hesitated, unsure how I could answer her. Could it be a trap? This would be a great way to get me to admit my suspicions and what I was up to, and that would help her earn points with the management. The timing was awfully suspicious. What were the odds that she’d approach me with concerns the day after someone started following me?
But I figured even a person who was totally on board and not spying for the enemy would think some things were weird. “It is different from my last company,” I admitted. “The security is a bit strict. I don’t think you’d have to go through so much even to work for the CIA.”
“I know, right?” She turned the tap up even louder and leaned closer to me to whisper, “And have you seen them turn people into frogs? What’s up with that?”
“Well, I suppose it’s better than killing them.”
She gave me a suspicious look, like she was starting to fit me in the same category as Roger. “I don’t know about that.”
“It’s reversible. You know, like in the fairy tales.”
Her face screwed up in distaste. “Kissing them? Ew!”
“But it does work.”
“And then there was a guy he met with. A few days later, he sent me to that office, and there was a picture of him on the wall in that room, but he wasn’t anywhere around. I felt like the picture was
watching me, like it might even move when I wasn’t looking.”
I couldn’t help but shudder. With Owen missing, I had to wonder if that’s what had happened to him. I knew how to save him if he was a frog, but I didn’t know if they’d found a way to break the picture spell. “I’ve heard something about that spell,” I said vaguely.
“So, I’m not going crazy?”
“No, afraid not.”
“Damn. I mean, it’s a cool job and all, but I’m not sure I’m down with this. There have got to be other companies that could use a magical immune.”
“That’s a talk we should have elsewhere.” I didn’t think I’d said anything that would get me in trouble if she was a plant, but I got the feeling her concerns were genuine.
I picked up some coffee at the nearby break room before heading back to my office, so I’d have a reason for having been away from my desk. There still wasn’t any sign of Roger. Him and Owen both being missing at the same time set off all my mental alarm bells.
While he was out, I took advantage of the opportunity to make a couple of copies of the spell that would take us to the top of the Collegium and hid them in my desk drawers, so I’d be ready for when the raid happened. I just wished I knew approximately when that would be so I could brace myself.
I was back at work transcribing the final pages of the book when I heard cheerful whistling coming down the hall. I looked up to see Roger leaning nonchalantly against the door frame. “You can thank me later,” he said with a smile.
“For what?” I asked, unable to keep the suspicion out of my voice, and probably also off my face.
“I took care of a little problem for you, and also a problem for me. Let’s just call it a win-win. Two birds with one stone.”
