“It means slow down,” Alex said.
“Slow down?” Lucas waved his arm at the window, seeming to indicate Lena, far off in the desert. “Think about what she can do. She’s what the Council’s been looking for. Besides, do you have any idea what a Neo-barb could do with that kind of power under his control?” Lucas was obsessed with the mostly nomadic people who lived independently of the ReloCities. The Council referred to them as new barbarians due to the quality of lives outside of civilization.
“She’s not going to take up with a Neo-barb.” Alex’s voice held all the withering disdain he felt for the idea. “And even if you get a positive ID on her, you can’t ride into Kewa country and snatch her. We already did this your way once, too fast, too soon, too hard. It’s time for the Reyes way. Be patient. Be subtle. Let the woman come to you, Lucas. C’mon, man. You’re making me think you haven’t played the game before.”
The muscle in Lucas’s jaw twitched in fast-time. “I take it I’m no longer lead on this?”
“Oh, no, you’re still the lead.” The ink was dry on his reports. He gathered them up and neatly stacked them, setting them inside the top drawer of his desk. “But I’m still your senior. So come find me in the morning. We’ll plan out a proper interrogation—together—and then you can go lead it.” He stood, ignoring the ugly flush creeping across Lucas’s cheeks, and leaned across to tamp out the candles with his fingers. “That’s about it for tonight. Get some rest. It’s been a helluva day.”
Alex crossed to the hook on the wall where an old wire hanger held his black wool coat. He opened the door and held it for Lucas.
Lucas preceded him out but turned left instead of right, mumbling something about working on his interview questions for the morning. He continued down the hall to the big, open room where the junior agents shared desk space. Alex locked his office and pulled his coat on as he made his way through the hallways, down four flights of stairs, and through the locking security doors to the ground level exit at the rear of the building.
He stepped into the cold night, clamping his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering. He’d been born and spent the first five years of his life in the east coast’s Zone One before being shipped across the country by electric car, steam-powered train, and then wagon train to the Ward School. In the decades of training there and after his assignment here, he’d never gotten used to the high desert temperature shifts. It had been a warm spring day, breezy but enjoyable. Now, even with his thin wool coat, his body hunched against the cold. His breath fanned out in front of him.
Alex shrugged deeper into his jacket, tugging it around himself and fastening the buttons before shoving his hands into the pockets. He glanced up and down the road to be sure there weren’t any horses or bicycles to be wary of, but no one else was out, so he bowed his head against the cold. He walked the two blocks home quickly. At his gate, he flipped the latch, letting himself into the small communal patio. He’d lived in the same lower level unit of a block of four for well over a decade.
All of the apartments faced out onto the little plaza. He could see the warm, hazy glow of a candle moving behind one of the windows of unit D. Either the Quiroz family meant to conserve as they headed into the end of the month, or they had used up their charge allotment for this pay period. Rough. No lights, no heat, no hot water, and no way to cook except in the communal horno here on the patio. He passed the huge, hive-shaped oven as he crossed the plaza, and the heat still radiating from its use at dinner warmed him.
He entered his dark apartment, not bothering to light a candle. He moved through to his bedroom by memory, crossing to the small closet to change into a warmer shirt. He shrugged back into his jacket then slid the small chest in the corner toward him.
As designed, it pulled the carpet back as it slipped out, revealing a trap door. An electric lock held it closed. He focused briefly, and the Dust stirred to life, cycling the lock open. He pulled up, spun around, and backed down the short ladder into the dark opening, leaning out to pull the chest and door back into place as he descended.