I wondered whether my secret projects were not-so-secret. Had I found the government job I’d always wanted, working on awesome magitech that was forbidden to everyone who didn’t have a special government pass?

Or was this something else? Was I right to be believing Astrid and Belinda? Even if they were lying about who they were working for, I didn’t have much of a choice but to follow along now that I’d been embroiled in the massacre in the woods.

There was one person who could probably set things straight for me. My cat-girl housemate, Selena. She was the one who had set up the date between Astrid and me in the first place. Astrid had been surprised when she’d learned that Selena hadn’t told me any more about the situation, and had even said that Selena ought to have “briefed” me before I set out.

If Astrid and Belinda were really what they said they were, Selena would know. If Astrid was telling the truth, then Selena knew a hell of a lot more than she’d originally told me. It followed that if anyone could explain the current situation, it would be Selena.

All right—I would just call Selena right now. Astrid and Belinda would just have to wait.

I reached for my cell phone in my pocket and cursed as I remembered it had been in my car, plugged into the stereo. The same car that had exploded and was now a smoking ruin a few miles behind me.

If I couldn’t call Selena, then I wanted some straight answers from Belinda and Astrid.

I turned away from the dark, yawning door and took a few steps away from it, out onto the broad, granite-flagged porch.

”Before I go any further,” I said decisively to the women, ”I want to know what this is all about. And no more evasion—I want some straight answers. This is part of some kind of secret government program?”

”That’s right,” Astrid said.

”Super secret,” Belinda added. The two women shared a quick glance at each other, then Belinda sighed. ”Ok, straight answers. To be completely honest, we’re studying the different uses of dungeon cores. We believe they could revolutionize the study of magic.”

”Dungeon cores?” I asked incredulously.

I’d watched a Discovery Channel special on them, and they were laughed at almost as much as the Ancient Aliens show. It was strange that people had now experienced the supernatural but couldn’t believe that there might be aliens on some other, distant planet. Dungeon cores tended to produce the same effect. The cores were rumored to be sentient beings of ancient power who could cultivate at an almost unbelievable level and produce magical items that no mortal could create themselves.