He nodded. “Good luck with your new job.”
“Thanks.”
Perhaps making up an entire story about moving to the area for a nursing job was overkill, but Eleanor liked to cover her bases. She had a lot of experience pretending to be someone other than herself, but not spying.
As a recruiter for the paranormal program, she’d had the government’s backup, and before that, when she’d been a pharmaceutical sales rep, she had the company’s resources at her disposal. Now she was on her own, paying her own expenses, snooping around dangerous people, and risking her life.
Spying was scary and exciting at the same time, but mostly it involved hard work and a lot of running around. With her innate paranoia, she was probably overthinking every move and doing too much, but she couldn’t help the way her brain worked.
At every step, Eleanor was acutely aware of the potential pitfalls and took precautions to mitigate them. She also trusted no one and was a loner who had no need for companionship. So other than her low tolerance for risk-taking, she was perfectly suited for the job of solo spying.
It was exhausting, though.
Despite how tired she’d been the day before, after making the rounds next to the mansion, she’d driven back to the airport while constantly checking her rearview mirror for a possible tail, returned the rental, and then had taken an Uber to her Airbnb rented house. Since the locking mechanism was code activated, she didn’t even have to meet the owner or whoever took care of renting the property to get the keys.
The place was just as much of a dump as it had looked in the photos, but it was clean, and the linens had been freshly laundered. Nevertheless, she’d used her trusty UV light sanitizer wand to eliminate any remaining germs before even putting her hand on the bed to check the mattress’s firmness.
Then, after taking a hot shower and scrubbing the last forty-eight hours off her body and hair, she’d crawled into bed and had a decent night’s sleep.
This morning, she’d woken up refreshed and had gotten straight to work searching for a car to buy.
Now that she had a private mode of transportation, she could go back to the mansion and find a good spot to spy on its inhabitants. Before she made a move, she was just going to watch the comings and goings and write down the license plates of the vehicles.
Eleanor grimaced. With her security clearance revoked and no access to government databases, that was not going to do her much good. She could call the various agencies and compel the receptionist or whoever was in charge to give her the information she needed, but that would take hours upon hours of waiting for someone to answer the phone on the other side.
Who had time for that?
She needed to find a good hacker and compel him or her to help her find the information she needed, but where was she going to find one?
Social isolation was nothing new to her, but this was different. She had no support system whatsoever and had no idea how to go about creating one for herself. Perhaps the guy who had originally supplied her with a bunch of fake identities would be a good start. He was a pro, and the documents he’d created for her years ago were still good today. He might know others in the shadow world, like hackers and surveillance experts.
Fortunately, money was not a problem. She had plenty.
67
Kalugal
Jacki poured the remainder of the coffee in the carafe into Kalugal’s mug. “I’m glad that we got to stay another day. Did you see how happy Atzil and Ruvon were this morning? They practically ran out of here to sit in the café and mingle some more.”
Rufsur hadn’t returned to the house at all and was probably the most grateful for the additional night he spent with Edna. Perhaps he’d arranged for that woman to drive by the house to prolong their stay?
It was a silly thought. Rufsur was a straightforward guy. If he wanted to stay one more night, he would have just asked. No subterfuge required. It was true what they said about people viewing others through the prism of their own characters.
Hiring a fake snoop was something that Kalugal would have done, not Rufsur.
Perhaps the reason for Kian’s mistrust was that under his holier than thou act he harbored nefarious plans, like luring all of Kalugal’s men away from him and leaving him without protection. Was he using the clan females as a honey trap? Did they know that they were being used?
So many questions and so few answers.
He grimaced. “Mingling is such a polite way to describe what they are actually doing.”
She sat next to him on the couch and tucked her feet under her. “Oh yeah? What would you call it?”
“Hunting. Although I’m not sure who is hunting whom, and it seems like neither side was successful. None of the clanswomen have taken the bait or caught either Atzil or Ruvon in their net.”
Jacki waved a hand. “They are not in a rush, and finding a mate is not the same as hunting for hookups in clubs. Both sides need to be careful in their selection.”
“I still wonder about Rufsur’s choice. I think that he fell for Edna only because she looks like that actress from Star Trek Picard.”
“Which one?”
“Narissa, of course. Didn’t you notice the resemblance? He’s been drooling over her the entire season and practically forcing me to watch the show with him.”
Rufsur had also roped Jacki and Ruvon into joining, and he had re-watched the first episodes with them until they’d gotten caught up.
Jacki huffed. “The evil Romulan spy? She doesn’t look like Edna. For starters, she’s much taller, and to be frank, she is also prettier. But she has a crazy look in her eyes, while Edna’s are full of wisdom and compassion.”
“Is that what you see in her eyes? Because all I see is resentment. The woman doesn’t trust me or like me.”
“That’s because you are indifferent to her and Rufsur’s plight.” Jacki sighed. “They just want to be together.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer against him. “You are young and a little naive.”
Jacki pulled away. “I might be young, but I’m far from naive. I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth or a superpower that allowed me to control everyone around me and make shitloads of money. I had to fight for everything, and that included a peaceful night of sleep. So, don’t give me that crap. I’m a good judge of character, and Edna is a wonderful woman.”
“Ouch. I stand corrected.” He pulled her back. “Your life hasn’t been easy, but neither was mine. I grew up with a father who might have killed me if he realized the extent of my powers, and I had to fake my own death to escape him. But that’s neither here nor there. What I find suspicious about Edna is how quickly she has changed her mind. One day she was the loudest opponent of us even visiting the village, and the next she is lobbying for unification? Doesn’t it strike you as odd?”
“Not at all. Between then and now, she’s fallen in love with Rufsur. Before, it was a hypothetical situation for her, but now it’s personal. She wants to have a life with him, a family. You should have seen the envy in her eyes when Amanda and Syssi were talking about their pregnancies. She wants it too, and she is trying to find a way for her and Rufsur to be together.”