“But he’s just a little boy.”Rowan didn’t shake away from his arm.If he was careful and casual, helping her through the halls when she was too tired to notice, she let him stay near her.
“A little boy who can start fires just by staring at things,” Delgado reminded her.“They can use that.”
Rowan shuddered.He stroked her shoulder with his thumb, a soothing touch.
The first few weeks of her stay at Society Headquarters had been touch-and-go.She hadn’t eaten much and had almost invariably refused to leave Delgado’s room.She had slept eighteen hours out of twenty-four, and then she’d spent the rest of the time staring blankly at the ceiling, no matter how Delgado cajoled or pleaded with her.
It had been Henderson who had found the solution.On one of his frequent visits, he had mentioned Boomer’s nightmares and sighed heavily.He needs help,but nobody knows what to do for him.And he had left soon after that, winking at a mystified Delgado.
That day, Rowan had prowled his room restlessly, and finally—hallelujah—asked where the infirmary was.
For two months now she had slowly been exploring Headquarters and learning about the new place she found herself in.And if she didn’t seem to notice that Delgado was sleeping in an armchair, if she didn’t notice that he was building on the foundation he’d laid while she was sedated, teaching her how to control her gifts, if she didn’t notice that he was always there when she woke shuddering and sweat-soaked from another nightmare—well, he was happy enough.
What she didn’t notice, she couldn’t tell him to stop doing.
Henderson had begun to spend an hour a day with her, too, teaching her some basic psionic theory.It was excruciatingly slow, but Del had time.As long as she let him stay close to her, he had time.
“Why doesn’t someone stop them?”she asked.
He felt a quick swell of pride in her.It usually took most new recruits, especially the shell-shocked ones, at least eight months to ask that question.“They’re government, Rowan.They believe they’re fighting the good fight.Each psionic they get hooked on Zed and obedient is one more psionic to make America strong.Since they’re black sector, they have the funding they need as long with no Congressional oversight as long as they produce results.And they’ve been producing results for a good forty-seven years now.”
Rowan sighed as they turned the corner.“It just seems so wrong.”
You have no idea, angel.“It’s making certain people very rich,” he pointed out.“Very powerful people.”
“But the newspapers, the media…” She sighed again.
“Some of the media magnates are the ones getting rich,” he pointed out.His door slid open as they approached.“It’s a dirty thing.We do what we can.”
He scanned the room before letting go of her shoulders and locking the door with a touch on the handpad set in the wall.Nobody here, of course.He paused.It looks different in here.
Books were piled on a new nightstand of pale blond wood, and two new bookshelves of the same unfinished type flanked his old metal shelving.Rowan had found a length of green chiffon somewhere and draped it over the top of the curtain rod.She sometimes remarked that she wanted to sleep with the French door ajar when it wasn’t so chilly anymore.A rubber tree in a terra cotta pot stood on a wrought-iron plant rack by the window, and he’d put up ceiling hooks so she could hang airplane plants and one plant with pretty, trailing purplish leaves.A fern she’d rescued from a neglected corner was now green and healthy, perched atop one of the bookshelves, and she’d thrown a blue and green shawl over the plain white bedspread.Rowan dropped down on the bed and yawned, her shoulders slumping.She would probably sleep in tomorrow.
Well, she’s moved in and made herself at home.The flush of heat that went through him wasn’t unpleasant at all.She’d made a wistful remark about a CD player yesterday, and he reminded himself to requisition one for her.Nobody said anything directly to Delgado, of course, and nobody asked her why she was staying in his room instead of requesting a suite of her own.
She stopped yawning and looked up at him, probably catching the direction of his thoughts.“So… is this your room?”
He shrugged.How could he explain to her that no place was home?He just slept wherever he could find a moment to close his eyes.He hadn’t had a place to call his own since Sigma had trained him.“I like what you’ve done with it,” he said cautiously.
“You mean I’ve kicked you out of your own bed formonthsand you haven’t said a word about it?”
He shrugged again.“It’s not a big deal.”
“I thought you were just worried about them coming after me again.”She shivered, slightly.
“They would have to spend a lot of money and man-hours to crack Headquarters.That is, if they couldfindit, which they can’t.We have defenses in place, Rowan.They can’t attack us any more than we can attack them.”
She looked down into her lap, her fingers twisting together.“This is really happening, isn’t it.”
Christ, just when we were doing so well.He crossed to the window and peered out.It was habit, and he barely paid attention, only noting the frozen garden below and the field beyond lying under a scrim of moonlight.“I wish you’d talk to one of the counselors.They’re qualified; I’m just an operative.”
“They’re all frightened of you,” she observed, mildly enough.
He let it go.He knew well enough not to push, now.“Are you?”
“I don’t think so.Should I be?”
“Maybe.Probably not.”His neck was beginning to hurt.
