“That I have. Which brings me to the part I’ve been trying to imply. Now, how do you feel about officially becoming Andi’s caretaker? It’s probably not the direction you had in mind for your career, but I can assure you that for all the doors closing on you when you decide to accept my offer, better doors are going to open. And I don’t mean in the philosophical sense.”
“You don’t have to bribe me. In case you haven’t noticed, Andi and I have a very deep relationship. We’ve decided that I’m going to move in with him. It’s all very new. I honestly don’t know where it’s going to lead, but even if we were just partners on the force, I could never leave him. Not with what I know about him. He needs me.”
“So you’re no longer planning to leave Charleston in two years?”
“Fuck no. I talked about it with Andi recently. Initially I wanted to have it all wrapped up before I told him so he wouldn’t have to worry about my petition to stay here going through. I expected it to be difficult because of Chief Norris’s hate for us, but then we had a serious talk, and it just came up naturally.”
“Don’t worry about her.” Gelman waved his hand. “I’m going to have a discussion with her as soon as we’re done here. You’re willing to stay with Andi, become his caretaker?”
“I already am. There’s no changing that. And I highly doubt he would let somebody else in. He’s like a cactus. Or a hedgehog.”
“I’ve noticed. Fine. I’ll inform headquarters to get the necessary papers ready. You will get a raise of course, and extensive rights, including access to highly confidential databases. Your rank won’t change officially—we want to keep everything on the down-low—but you will have all the right phone numbers and names to move freely.”
George narrowed his eyes. He had been playing the game too long to be glamoured by some pretty words. “What’s the catch?”
“Catch?” Gelman did have the gall to look innocent.
“I’m not stupid, Luke. What you’re offering sounds too good to be true for two simple detectives who are working in a precinct in Charleston.”
“Uhm, you might be working cases in some other states. Charleston would still be your home base, and we would only call you if we really needed you. Like when a serial killer is on the loose. You’d be contacted by the Office and sent where you’re needed, which means you’ll be working not only with other precincts, but also the FBI, the CIA on occasion, and even the different branches of military investigation. You’ve gotten along well with Agent Davis, so you shouldn’t have too many problems.”
“She’s sensible. And doesn’t have a fragile male ego. Made it easy to work with her. What you’re describing is a wide field. I have to talk to Andi about it. And to be honest, I have no idea what he’s going to say. Not a year ago, he thought nobody knew about hisgeschenk. I can’t say how he’s going to deal with suddenly realizing that he wasn’t as alone as he thought.”
“If it’s any help or consolation, we’ve never come across a talent like his. All the others we found so far are spiritual, for lack of a better word. Seeing ghosts, reading auras, scrying objects and persons. A connection with insects—that’s new.”
“Arthropods,” George said automatically. “It’s arthropods.”
“There’s a difference?”
“A huge one. To put it in layman’s terms, arthropods are all animals with segmented legs, including insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and Armadillidiidae. Then there’s the worms and slugs, invertebrates which Andi can also sense for some reason, even though they aren’t arthropods.”
“Oh.” Gelman looked a bit overwhelmed. “That’s a lot of creatures.”
“Yep. Billions. Now, what happens if Andi decides he doesn’t want to work for your office? You just said it yourself, he’s unique. I know what governmental bodies are capable of doing with uniqueness.”
“Your worries are understandable but unjustified. I’m not going to tell you we’re such good people we would never dream of doing something unethical for the sake of the state, because we both know I’d be lying through my teeth. No, the reason we’re going to leave you alone should Andi wish so is experience. When the Office started, it tried to force people with talent to work for them. As the agents back then learned very quickly and very painfully, stressing people whose senses are wide-open inevitably leads to disaster. And after what I’ve seen Andi do today, I wouldn’t dream of forcing him to do anything. Death by anaphylactic shock is at the very bottom of my list of ways how I wish to die.”
George stared at Gelman with narrowed eyes. He believed the man up to a certain point. It made no sense to force Andi openly when they could come up with other, more subtle ways. It was only a matter of when, not if, because having a resource like Andi at the tip of your fingers was too much of a temptation, as George very well knew. It would be up to him to shield Andi from the politics involved with working for a secret government agency and to get the best deal for both of them out of it. Until he had spoken with Andi, he didn’t want to make any decisions, so that discussion had to wait. A change of topic was in order.
“Speaking of anaphylactic shock, what are you going to do about the report we have to write?”
Gelman shrugged. “I’ve thought about it, and it’s probably best to state there was a wild bee’s nest close by. The animals were disturbed when the killer brought Tyler to the bunker, and when the four of us arrived, it triggered them to attack. I’m sure we can come up with some official-sounding BS about bees sensing drugs, which explains why they attacked Sprenger.”
“It’s not BS. They are able to sense all kinds of chemicals, and some do make them aggressive. There’s scientific proof for that.” George thought about all the things he had learned about bees in the past weeks. They truly were amazing animals.
“Even better. It means we only have to manipulate the evidence a bit so the killer has traces of one of those chemicals on him. Splendid. And because he’s dead, there won’t be a trial, which means we can bury the report, claiming it is confidential because we don’t want the memory of his victims sullied. I love it when things resolve themselves so smoothly.”
“Lucky you.” George got up. “I don’t want to be rude, Luke, but can I ask you to leave now? I need a shower in a bad way, and then I have to cook some soup for when Andi wakes up.”
Gelman immediately got up. “That’s absolutely no problem, George. As I said, Andi is our priority, and you as his caretaker have the last say in practically everything concerning him.”
George decided to take that with a grain of salt. He wouldn’t rely on Gelman’s pretty words until he had seen proof of their truthfulness.
After he had seen the man out, George looked in on Andi, who was sound asleep. The shower was hot and wonderful on his sore muscles, and cooking the chicken soup from scratch was soothing. He and Andi had a lot to talk about once his partner was awake.
21. A Future, Bright and Clear
IT WASalready getting dark when Andi finally tramped down the stairs. He looked like death warmed over twice, lacking his usual grace, which meant he should technically still be in bed. It was no doubt hunger that had driven him out, which was no wonder since he had lost everything in his stomach in the woods. The soup was ready, and George had two bowls on the kitchen island before his partner entered the kitchen.
