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“I’m sure you have something you could contribute,” Lara said, drawing my attention back to her. She attempted another smile, but the corners of her lips didn’t go much higher than before. “So, are you getting married? Or were you there with a friend who was shopping for a dress?”
Again, I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell the truth, but I didn’t want to get caught lying. “Yeah, I’m getting married,” I said. “That’s probably why I didn’t see too much. I was so focused on finding a dress that they probably could have blown up the building around me without me noticing.”
“Well, now that you’re aware of the magic around us, I’m sure you’ll be seeing much more. Or have you seen other things?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a casual shrug. “I’m not originally from New York, so the whole city seems kind of strange and magical to me, you know?” I let my drawl deepen. “I see all kinds of crazy things, but I figure it’s just New York. No one else around me seems to see them. I guess I’m still just a hick.”
“Maybe you’re seeing more than you realize. Keep your eyes open, and be sure to file reports,” she said, not even trying to smile anymore, before turning away. While we’d been talking, the reporter had edged around us and slunk out the door, avoiding conversation with anyone. Had she come to this meeting because of a story she was working on, or had it been for personal reasons? If she was here on a story, she hadn’t made any effort to get names or contact info, but she could have merely been doing background research.
Now with two goals in mind, getting someone to contact the potentially immune homeless guys and finding out what the reporter’s deal was, I hurried out of the meeting room before anyone else could waylay me for conversation. Trish didn’t protest our rapid departure. “Well, wasn’t she just a perky ray of sunshine,” she muttered as we climbed the steps to the exit.
“Who?” I asked, my thoughts still on the reporter.
“Who else? Miss Dress-for-Success you were just talking to.”
“Yeah, there was something odd about her.”
“Who else did you think I meant?”
We reached the exit, and I found myself breathing a little more freely once we were out on the sidewalk. “Did you notice that woman who came in late and sat on our row? Did you recognize her?”
“I didn’t pay her much attention, though she did seem to be trying to go incognito. Why? Should I know her? Was she some actress?”
“If I’m not mistaken, she’s the reporter who covered the bridal brawl, the one who interviewed Abigail Williams when she talked about magic.”
“Oh. So I guess she didn’t write that woman off as a total nutjob.”
“Or she’s doing an exposé on nutjobs like that.”
“Well, if that’s what she wanted, she got plenty of material in that meeting. There was something odd about that whole situation, and ‘odd’ is putting it mildly. Though it sounds like those homeless guys must be immune. Poor guys, they probably think they’re imagining things.”
“Which reminds me,” I said, getting out my phone and calling Sam. “I don’t know which of your guys is staking this place out,” I said into the phone, “but there were a couple of men who I’d guess are homeless at this meeting, and one of them said he saw gargoyles and fairies while his friend nodded. You might want to check them out as immunes. Learning that they’re right about magic might help them, and they might make good assets for us. They haven’t come outside yet.”
“What? We said we weren’t going to have anyone there, just in case of immunes.”
“Sam, really?” I didn’t believe for a minute he’d let me go unguarded. He was just being careful about hiding.
He gave a soft sigh. “I’ll keep an eye out.”
That taken care of, I put away my phone and said to Trish, “Reporter aside, that meeting wasn’t quite what I was expecting.”
“You too? If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was all a setup to make these magic watchers look like idiots.”
“I was thinking the same thing, even considering setting up an event like that if we have to do something to shut all this down. I’m pretty sure it’s not the same group as the woman I met at the bridal sale.”
“So there really are multiple factions out there?”
“There are multiple blogs, so I guess so. But it seems like they all cross-pollinate. They report on the same events, but sometimes I think they’re just reporting what they saw on one of the other blogs.”
“Then maybe it’s not so big a threat. It’ll all blow over soon enough.”
“Let’s hope so.” But I didn’t feel entirely confident about that. These people didn’t seem the type to back down.
“And what about the reporter? She may be the real danger.”
“Well, unless she had a hidden camera on her, a TV reporter doesn’t have much if she doesn’t get footage, so I doubt she was reporting on the meeting.” I hoped she hadn’t been secretly recording the meeting. I didn’t want to end up on TV speaking up about having seen magic. “And either she dragged herself out of her sickbed to attend the meeting or she was trying to avoid being recognized.”
“So maybe she’s researching a story. Or maybe she got curious after covering that story. Or, who knows, maybe she just happens to be into this sort of thing. She might also go on ghost tours and expeditions to hunt Bigfoot.”
