“Crap,” Jenks whispered the same instant I froze. Voices were coming from up the hall. My pulse raced. “Go!” Jenks said urgently. “No! To the right. That chair and the potted plant.”

I loped forward. The smell of citrus and terracotta blossomed, and I tucked behind the earthen pot as soft footsteps moved along the floor. Jenks flitted up to hide in the plant’s branches.

“As much as that?” Trent’s voice came sharp to my sensitive ears as he and another turned the corner. “Find out what Hodgkin is doing to get such an increase in productivity. If it’s something you think can be applied to other sites, I want a report.”

I held my breath as Trent and Jonathan walked past.

“Yes, Sa’han.” Jonathan scribbled on an electronic notepad. “I’ve finished screening the potential applicants for your new secretary. It would be relativity simple to clear your calendar tomorrow morning. How many would you like to see?”

“Oh, limit it to the three you think are best suited and one you don’t. Anyone I know?”

“No. I had to go out of state this time.”

“Wasn’t today your day off, Jon?”

There was a pause. “I opted to work, seeing as you lacked your usual secretary.”

“Ah,” Trent said with a comfortable laugh as they turned a corner. “So there’s the reason for your zeal in finishing the interviews.”

Jonathan’s soft denial was the merest hint as they walked out of sight.

“Jenks,” I squeaked. There was no response. “Jenks!” I squeaked again, wondering if he had gone and done something stupid like following them.

“I’m still here,” he grumbled, and I felt a wash of relief. The tree shuddered as he shimmied down the trunk. He sat on the edge of the pot and dangled his feet. “I got a good sniff of him,” he said, and I sank back on my haunches in expectation.

“I don’t know what he is.” Jenks’s wings shifted to a dismal shade of blue as his circulation slowed and his mood dulled. “He smells meadowy, but not like a witch. There’s no hint of iron, so he’s not a vamp.” Jenks’s eyes crinkled in confusion. “I could smell his body rhythms slowing down, which means he sleeps at night. That rules out Weres or any other nocturnal Inderlander. Turn it all, Rache. He doesn’t smell like anything I recognize. And you know what’s more odd? That guy with him? He smells just like Trent. It’s got to be a spell.”

My whiskers twitched. Odd wasn’t the word. “Squeak,” I said, meaning, “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He rose on slow dragonfly wings, slipping out to the middle of the hallway. “We should finish the run and get out of here.”

A jolt shook me. Out of here, I thought as I left the security of the citrus tree. I was willing to bet we couldn’t get out the way we came in. But I’d worry about that after I burgled Trent’s office. We had already done the impossible. Getting out would be a snap.