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Now in an even worse mood, I decided to head for that bar where I usually met with Kim. I didn’t want to bring my bad mood home, and I figured that if I went there without seeing Kim, it would look less suspicious that I went there so often.
I’d just ordered a glass of wine when a woman about my age took the stool next to me. “Rough day?” she asked.
“Not too bad. It just didn’t end well. Why do people have meetings at the end of the day?”
“Don’t you hate that?” She got a drink for herself, and we sat in companionable silence for a moment before she faced me, smiled, and said, “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in a new job?”
Three
The only reasonable response to a total stranger offering you a job was, “What? You don’t even know who I am or what I do.”
She quirked an eyebrow as her lips twitched in amusement. “Well, actually, I do. I know more about you than you’d think.”
I was on the point of telling her no thanks when I realized what might be happening. I knew the Collegium recruited immunes, and I knew that the room had been full of people linked to the Collegium when I’d been snippy to Mr. Hartwell. Had that made me ripe for recruitment?
Playing it cool, I said, “What do you know about me?”
She leaned closer and dropped her voice so no one around could hear. “Your name is Katie Chandler, and you’re immune to magic. You work at MSI, where your unique talents are being wasted. You’re doing marketing plans for salesmen, which you could do anywhere. But if you had a job that used your gifts, you’d be in miserable working conditions. You had a job that made use of everything you could do, but you got shoved out of that. They rely on you for too much without giving you credit.”
“Okay, you know about me,” I said, feeling a little queasy about exactly how much they did know. “What are you offering me?”
“The company I work for needs people like you. There’s opportunity you wouldn’t have at MSI. More money, for one thing. You wouldn’t believe the perks. But I think what would mean the most to you is that you wouldn’t be a second-class citizen just because you’re not a wizard.”
“Sounds too good to be true.” I returned my attention to my wine.
“Well, there are a few catches. I can’t guarantee you’d be chosen. You’re the sort of person we look for, but there are some selective standards you’d have to meet. You’d have to prove yourself. You’d have to maintain a high degree of loyalty.” A business card suddenly appeared in her manicured hand. “Think about it. And if you ever get tired of what you’re doing, give me a call.”
She placed the card on the bar, finished her drink, and left. I nursed my glass of wine a while longer, thinking. MSI had recruited me with an e-mail I’d initially mistaken for spam, until I’d had a bad enough day at work to follow up on it. Owen had noticed me from afar in a bookstore but had been too shy to approach. He’d seen me react to things that were magically veiled, which suggested I was immune to magic. From there, people from MSI had observed me until they were sure, and then had made the job offer.
But why would the Collegium recruit me now, after a mild outburst in a meeting? Surely they didn’t expect me to switch loyalties so quickly. Or was it a trap? Did they know I was investigating them?
The bartender put a glass of champagne in front of me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t order this,” I said.
“Your friend ordered it for you. She said you had something to celebrate.”
I eyed the glass warily. The bartender had poured it after she left, so I doubted she’d poisoned or drugged it, and a spell or curse wouldn’t work on me. It was probably safe to drink. And what if I was being watched? I wasn’t sure yet what I should do, but I thought this could be the infiltration opportunity we were looking for. I raised the glass in a toast to whatever invisible eye was watching me and drank.
*
Owen was waiting for me on the sidewalk in front of my building when I left for work the next morning. “Sorry about yesterday,” he said.
“No problem. I know you’re busy.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Wrong?” I’d thought I was putting up a good front, but if the guy whose head was usually lost in some old book had noticed, then I must have been radiating unease. “No, nothing’s wrong. There’s some stuff we need to talk about at the office.”
I felt bad for making him suffer. He kept darting little glances at me as we headed to the subway station, and then he acted like he was walking on eggshells with me the whole way to the office. I figured that if I was being watched, any sense of unhappiness between us would only contribute to the impression that I was ripe for recruitment, and I didn’t dare talk about this in public. I knew he’d understand when I got a chance to explain.
I was used to being able to speak freely as soon as we got in the office building, but knowing how many Collegium people worked there, and knowing that they were watching me, I couldn’t tell him even then, which made him look more alarmed. “We should probably go straight to the boss,” I said.
Only when we were in Merlin’s office, with the door shut and with the privacy wards in place, did I say, “I think the Collegium is trying to recruit me.”
“So, that’s why you were upset,” Owen said, sagging in visible relief. “I thought you were mad that I didn’t want to go out to dinner with you last night.”
I described my encounter with the mysterious stranger and what had led up to it. “So, what do I do? Kim’s had no luck getting in, so maybe I could.”
“I don’t like it,” Owen said, shaking his head. “They know your attachment to this company. I’m sure they’d assume you were spying. Maybe that’s even why they approached you, to set a trap.”
