“Listen to me—”

“You want me to cover it up? That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? How typical of an actuator. The Order above everything. Septimus über alles and to hell with the members!”

He was working himself into a froth of anger.

“I want you to think this through.”

“The time for believing in lies is done. The time for truth is at hand.” He strode to the door and yanked it open. Pointing to the stairwell outside, he cried, “The archives are my domain and you are no longer welcome here, Actuator Drexler. Out!”

“But—”

“OUT!”

At a loss as to how to defuse the situation, Ernst stepped into hall. After the door slammed behind him, he heard the lock turn.

Slootjes had gone mad. Mad with fear? Mad with hate? Ernst couldn’t say. But whatever the cause, Ernst could not let him send out that email tomorrow. A loremaster, however, answered only to the Council itself. Ernst would have to alert them.

HARI

Hari hated hotel beds and this had to be the most uncomfortable pillow ever. But when she banged her fist against it to soften it up, she heard a voice nearby say, “Ow!”

She opened her eyes and realized her head was on someone’s lap. And through that someone’s jeans she could feel an erection pressing against the back of her head.

“Whoa!” she said, jerking upright to face Donny. The foil blanket fluttered around them. It all came back in a rush. “How did that happen?”

“You conked out,” Donny said.

“And landed on you?”

“It was sort of a slow-motion fall.”

She looked around. Nothing had changed: the green aurorae still flickered in a starless sky. How long had she been out? The reflective blanket, augmented by intermittent blasts from the Tahoe’s heater, had been keeping them comfortable. Too comfortable, apparently. Sleep deprivation had caught up to her.

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

He waved his hands. “I’m a firm believer in catching as many winks as you can whenever you can. And besides, I kind of liked it.”

She gave the bulge under his fly zipper a quick pat. “‘Kind of’?”

“Do not do that!” he said, pressing his knees together.

“I’m not a cougar, and are you really that horny?”

“Only when you’re around.”

She had to laugh. “I know it’s dark but did you happen to see my eyes roll?”

“No, but I heard them.”

Hari couldn’t say exactly why—not even approximately why—but his perfect quip seemed to flip a Why not? switch in her and she gave in to an insane impulse.

“Oh, hell,” she said and leaned over and kissed him on the lips.

He responded and soon their tongues were dueling and their hands were roving and she was rubbing that bulging fly and his fingers had just closed around one of her breasts when something went thump! against the passenger side of the car.

The heat growing within Hari flash-froze to ice.

“What was that?” she said. “There’s not supposed to be anything moving out there.”