Noah knew not to be fooled by it; this was going to be an interrogation. But hewasprepared for it.
“It was great, although a bit cold. And the festival was amazing.” They had swung by it, so that part he wasn’t making up. “There were these food stalls with various local delicacies and souvenirs, too.” He bent down and took out the box wrapped in fancy paper out of his bag. “Here, I got you this. Soft biscuits with sweet bean paste inside. I hope you like them.”
Teresa placed the orchid on the coffee table in front of the couch and sashayed over to Noah’s desk, accepting his gift with a radiant smile. When he handed her the box, she didn’t miss the opportunity to brush his fingers with her bony ones. They were a little warmer than his, but even so, the contact made him suppress a shudder.
“Thank you, dear. I’m happy you had fun. Pass my thanks along to Mr. Lennox and his friends.”
“Will do.” Noah eyed the flower, its roots sticking out of its clear glass pot.
“Oh, that one’s for you.” Teresa stroked one of the orchid’s blossoms as she put the cookies on the coffee table. “Where do you want it? Your desk or the windowsill would bothbe good.”
Orchids liked sunlight, so the window was probably better. But it was a little out of sight, thus defeating the purpose of having flowers on display.
“Desk,” he decided, indicating the corner space next to his rightmost monitor.
Teresa fussed with the flower unnecessarily, clearly having something else she wanted to discuss with him. Maybe it was about the dinner they were having tonight? Or maybe she had more questions about his trip with Reign? Or, and he hoped that wasn’t it, was she here to nag him about getting married again?
“Actually, there is something I wanted to talk to you about,” she said eventually, clasping her hands in front of herself.
Something in her voice had Noah’s hackles rising, though he mostly maintained his composure by holding onto the armrests of his desk chair. “Yeah?”
“I spoke to the Cardinal earlier and”—a small smile teased her lips—“he was wondering whether you might be able to find out a thing or two about some of the Asian Federation’s dealings for him.”
Huh? Noah didn’t know what shocked him more—the fact that Teresa had talked to the Cardinal about him or that they seemed to want him to…spyon the Federation? Because despite her flowery and roundabout way of putting it, that was what the Cardinal was after.
“Whatkindof things?”
Teresa straightened up and walked over, planting herself next to his chair. She placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed, massaging the muscle there. He fought his instinct to jerk away and instead forced himself to remain still.
“Well, it seems the Asians might becorrespondingwith the Americans in secret…” Teresa explained vaguely.
Noah narrowed his eyes at her. She didn’t drop her smile.This was an interesting request they were making of him.
“And you want to know what they are talking about,” he stated the obvious conclusion, wondering if Reign would know anything about these dealings. “And to do that, you need me to hack their systems?”
Surely, they knew he wasn’tthatgood, but he could probably still try.
Teresa chuckled and shook her head, taking out a small device from her pocket. “No, dear. We just need you to bug Mr. Lennox’s computer or work phone. With how friendly the two of you are, it shouldn’t be too hard to do…” she trailed off, drumming her fingers on Noah’s shoulder in thought. “You could ask him to give you a tour of the Foreign Affairs office, for example.”
This woman… Or rather, the Church. It didn’t care whom it used as long as it furthered its own agenda. It saw people as nothing more than pawns to be moved across the board so long as it benefited it. And God. God, who existed like demons did and whom the Church answered to.Hewas the one behind everything, the one who’d demanded the Empire expand by starting WW3 under the pretense of a holy war for the unification of all peoples.
Noah wondered, now that he knew the truth of Heaven and Hell’s existence, why someone so limited in his views of the world stood so high up in terms of power, why he presided over a realm so many people worshiped. It made little sense for a being like that to have survived the passage of time without employing the evolving understanding of life that science brought forth, but Noah supposed that even if God had persevered, he’d still fallenbehind. Suffered sufficient losses to warrant the need to wage war on the modern world and plunge the entirety of Europe back into the Middle Ages.
Now he had his sights on neighboring Asia, the next logical step in his expansion, geographically speaking.
“I… see.” Noah took the device from her. “We aren’t reallythatclose, so I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to meet with Mr. Lennox again. And besides, he said he has some stuff coming up, so I imagine he’ll bebusyfor a while.” All of what he said was made up, of course, but the lack of change in her expression suggested she’d bought it.
“Perhaps you could invite him out for some sightseeing when the members of the Federation’s Foreign Affairs office come by to welcome us next week?”
Oh, right. The Welcoming Gala. “I, uh, sure, I can try that.”
Teresa gave his shoulder one last squeeze and finally removed her hand. “Lovely.” She smoothed out her white dress and sauntered over to the door, pausing there to look at Noah. “As for dinner tonight, should we head out at around six so you can get a good night’s sleep?”
“Maybe seven?” He threw his array of screens a meaningful look. “I’ve got some stuff to test, and I’d like to get that done today if possible.”
“Sure, dear. I’ll see you at seven.”
The moment she was out of the office, Noah collapsed forward on his desk and let out a sigh. Why did she have to ask this of Noah? Why involve Reign? There had to be another way in which he could help the Church do its dirty spying…
