Skin Deep

She parked on the opposite end of town near the Congressional Cemetery. No one she knew would stumble across her in that out of the way corner of the city. The cemetery was not on the major tour routes and had few visitors late in the day. She roamed the graves until she reached the far end away from the road, a shallow depression with tumbled grave markers. Earthmoving machinery was in evidence, and she idly wondered if the landscaping was being repaired or redesigned. She found a low retaining wall to sit on and pulled out the Alfrey profile.

Simon Alfrey was an opportunist, that much was clear. Terryn had collated a laundry list of shady financial dealings, real estate transactions, and political maneuverings that stretched back almost a century. Co

The Alfrey clan had a history of politically opposing Terryn’s clan for the rule of the Inverni fairies. The macCullens had even ruled the Seelie Court before their defeat by the Dana

She went back to her car and drove a few blocks to a coffee shop. As twilight fell, she sat at a corner table reading the manifesto. It was definitely crazy. Well-written crazy, but crazy. She’d seen it all before, the rants about failed government and suffering peoples, the need to replace it all with something shiny and new. Except the cynical secret of all manifestos was that they sought a result no different than the state of affairs they claimed to despise. Only, of course, things would be much better if the crazies were in charge.

She finished her coffee and ordered another to go. What made her pause about the manifesto, though, was its breadth. It wasn’t about taking down the U.S. or the Seelie Court or the Teutonic Consortium. It was about taking down all of them, sweeping away all three structures and replacing it with another one. The fatal flaw in the plan that the authors missed was the point of most political history and goals, the hope that everyone would compromise and unite and get along. It wasn’t going to happen overnight because someone thought it should and wrote it down.

Between the manifesto and Alfrey, Laura had a good idea of what the drug raid was about. Money, of course, and politics, as usual. It wasn’t a huge leap to make the co

She drove by the Vault. Restless, she circled the block. She didn’t want to go home to an empty apartment and read through the files again. After another two passes down the street, she spotted the InterSec agent watching the club and parked not far behind him. She pulled out Mariel’s cell phone and called Terryn.

“Hey. I want to take over the surveillance at the Vault. Can you call off our babysitter?” she said when he answered.

“Go home and get some sleep, Laura,” he said.

“I’m bored.”

“Laura…” he began.

“Can we not do this, Terryn? I can handle this. I just don’t want to go home right now.”

He didn’t answer right away. A moment later, the InterSec agent started up his car and drove off. “Are you okay?” Terryn asked.

“Yeah. Stuff on my mind.”

“I know what you mean,” he said. She waited, expecting him to elaborate. After a long silence, he said. “Call when you want to be relieved.”

“I will. See you tomorrow.” She disco

The di

During a lull, she released the mnemonic spell, and her sensing ability reasserted itself. A body signature registered on the edge of her range, a stationary body signature, as if someone waited nearby. The moment she noticed it, it withdrew. On a busy street with people socializing, a stationary body signature was not unusual. She’d noticed it only by chance. Still, she checked her mirrors.

Patrons leaving the Vault began to outnumber those going in. Laura relaxed again to take a break, and immediately sensed a body signature again. Earlier, it had been behind her, but now it was somewhere off to her left, too far for her to make a positive identification. She boosted more essence into her sensing ability. As soon as her ability touched it, it withdrew again. Someone was watching her.

Considering that she had been sitting for a few hours, an alert security guard might have noticed her. With a short spell, she changed the basics of her facial features, flattening them out and shortening her hair, and got out of the car. She didn’t want Janice or Mariel seen near the club tonight. She leaned against the door and pretended to drink from her long-empty coffee cup. No one on the sidewalk paid her any attention.

She searched for Gia

The night lengthened. The limos returned. She saw Blume depart alone in a black Town Car. Two congressmen left so soon after that she guessed that the three had attended a meeting together. More businesspeople, two well-known lobbyists for the banking industry, and a dwarf she remembered from an accounting scandal several years earlier. A large cluster departed at once, many of the same group that had arrived together. A meeting had definitely taken place.

Gia

She slouched in her seat, wondering what the hell she had stumbled into. Gia