Noam had gotten used to the weight of the Beretta by now, tucked into the back waistband of his jeans and concealed by the fall of his flannel shirt. The cold shape of that metal was almost comforting to his magic’s senses, like a familiar friend.
He ordered a water at the bar—he couldn’t get Lehrer’s words out of his head,End up like Dara—and chose a spot away from the crowd, claiming one half of an antique love seat. A fortune-teller held court at a table a few feet to the left, but she and her clients were so absorbed in her reading of the cards they wouldn’t pay attention to Noam. It was the closest thing to privacy you could get in Carolinia. Noam pulled out his phone and pretended to text, technopathy reaching into the feed from the security camera at the door—the camera he’d made sure missed his arrival—and watched the faces of each new person the bouncer let past.
It wasn’t that he’d recognize Priya’s contact, obviously. But he could record their faces for later—for Lehrer. Even if he checked the guy’s ID after he killed him, there was no guarantee it was real. Lehrer would want a name.
are you okay?
He typed the message out twice, deleted it. Typed it again. And then he made himself hit send before he could think better of it, the tiny data packet zooming off through cyberspace toward Dara’s burner phone.
Noam stared down at his phone, those three words hovering in a green bubble on the right side of the screen. Stupid. Shouldn’t have fucking done it. Dara wasn’t gonna text him back.
He closed out of the app and shoved his phone into his back pocket, out of sight.
“You got a light?”
Noam lifted his head. The speaker was a burly-looking guy in a robin’s-egg-blue shirt and—Noam’s gaze dipped down—cowboy boots. Consistent with what they’d asked Claire’s guy to wear, but it wouldn’t have mattered if he’d come in flip-flops—the M1911 Noam sensed holstered under the guy’s jacket would’ve given him away.
Texans sure did love their Browning pistols.
“Depends,” Noam said. “Tobacco or clove?”
“Carolina bright leaf. What else?”
Noam’s lighter leaped into his hand with a tug of telekinesis, and he offered it up to the Texan, who only grimaced a little before taking it. Noam smiled. “Take a seat.”
The man didn’t have another choice. A part of Noam expected him to perch on the very edge of the cushion, just to signal howungayhe was, but it turned out the Texan was a professional—he sat normally, one arm slung over the back of the sofa and both feet flat on the floor.
Noam held out a hand for a cigarette, even though he didn’t smoke; the man passed one over, along with Noam’s lighter. Noam lit the end, inhaling deep.
“Rules of engagement said no weapons,” he commented, blowing his smoke out toward the dance floor.
The man gazed back at him with a flat expression. “If you’ve got your magic, I’ve got my .45.”
“Fair enough.” Noam shrugged. “I’m Noam. Don’t know if Claire told you.”
“Yeah, I know who you are,” the guy said, gesturing with his cigarette toward Noam’s face. “There’s a whole dossier on you back in Dallas.”
Noam grinned again. “Wow, I’m flattered.”
“I gotta say, though,” the man went on, his accent a steady low drawl, “you’re about the last person I’d expect to turn traitor on Lehrer. Ain’t you his main mouthpiece on the whole Atlantian annexation thing?”
“Sure. And I fuck him too.” Noam arched a brow. “Don’t know if your dossier mentioned that.”
The man was disappointingly unfazed. “They left your personal life off the record. So you’re with the Black Magnolia now. Why?”
“I have the same problem with Lehrer that Texas does. Well. Not the witching bit. Just the genocide.”
The Texan took another drag off his cigarette and tapped his ash into an empty glass on the side table. “Fair enough. Anyway, if Claire trusts you, I guess I do too. She’s a pretty good judge of character.”
Noam doubted character had much to do with Claire’s judgment. Just utility.
“So,” Noam said. “These schematics ...”
“Yeah, I’ve got ’em,” the guy said. He tilted his hip up to tug a flopcell out of his back pocket. “I gotta say it was a pain in the ass converting these files for y’all’s ancient tech. Carolinia planning on joining the rest of the world in 2124 anytime soon?”
“Not as far as I know,” Noam said, holding out his hand for the flopcell.
And that was when his gaze caught movement over the Texan’s shoulder, a figure descending the stairs into the bar, backlit but recognizable all the same. Noam’s breath seized in his chest, tension drawing a sudden wire up his spine.
