“Oh, my!” the woman sniffed as Dani stopped her fist just a few centimeters away from her nose. “That strikes me like an over-reaction.”

“Well, sneaking up on someone in the woods strikes me as a great way to get punched in the face! What are you doing here! Get back to the human line before you get hurt!” Dani shouted.

The woman rolled her pale eyes slightly. “I don’t ‘sneak,’ dear. I was merely walking quietly through the woods so as not to disturb the local wildlife, which from what I understand is quite ‘varied.’ Honestly, you probably shouldn’t be out here if you’re going to be so excitable.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there is no wildlife in the area, because the rift chases them away,” Dani said again, in her “talking to people who refuse to understand airport security procedures” voice. “Now, get back to the human line, before you get hurt.”

The woman scoffed in a manner that was really beginning to piss Dani off. “There’s no reason. I’m fine, you see. Just like you. It’s always nice to meet another of my kind. I’m a dynakinetic, like you. Well, not like you. I’m sure I’ve been at it much longer.”

Dani tilted her head and stared at her. “I’m sorry, who the hell are you?”

“Maureen Sherman, independent contractor with the ILIC. The League sent me to supplement your work on la faille. I’ve been doing my own research on rifts for a few years now. I’m currently writing the definitive book on the subject. And it takes many hands to accomplish great work.”

Dani’s brows knit together. “No one told me about this.”

Maureen tilted her head in a gesture Dani had come to recognize as “oh, bless your heart” in the South. “Well, I’m sure they didn’t want to undermine your confidence, dear. Besides the League hardly keeps us contractors updated on all of their maneuvering, do they?”

If this woman called Dani, “dear” one more time, Dani was going to punch her in the boob.

“That much is true, I guess. Does Jillian know about this?”

Maureen smiled blithely. “As of this morning, yes.”

“So, I guess you got assigned office space in Building Eleven, too, huh?”

“Oh, who could work in Building Eleven with that awful stain on the carpet and the smell of stale coffee wafting about the hallways?” Maureen exclaimed. “I went back to Dr. Ramsay’s office and demanded space in Building Three, which is much more commensurate with my position, nearest the key researchers. Lara, that rather high-strung girl behind the front desk? She was very accommodating, once she realized with whom she was dealing.”