“You’ve been smoking that stuff, haven’t you? You’re a metal-eater now?”

“Metal is,” he said and assumed a position of prayer, lifting his head toward the ceiling and opening his palms as if to catch something.

“I don’t even know what that means.”

He didn’t respond except to smile at her serenely.

“Well,” she said. “You seem happy. I’m glad for that, at least.”

“I know why you’re here,” he said.

“I’m here to see my long-lost brother,” she said.

“You’re here to use me.”

“That’s not true at all.”

“I know who you work for, Annabelle.”

“Let’s figure out what we’re going to eat, how about?” She unrolled her napkin and spread it across her lap, then neatened her silverware. “I bet a place like this serves a nice slice of pie.”

“I want you to have something,” he said. He reached into his jacket and withdrew what she at first believed was a weapon. But instead of jamming it into her breast, he set it softly on the table between them. It was a long metal wand, thinly branched at the top like a tuning fork. Its silver-blue sheen identified it unmistakably as omnimetal. The gentle tap of it against the wood let off a hum that shivered the ice water in her glass.

“What is it?” she said.

“Growing up, we spent all that time at the church, right? Holding up our hands, praising Jesus, and singing Christian soft rock? All those people who emptied their wallets and gave up their Sundays, they desperately wanted something this world wasn’t giving them.”

“Was it the same thing you were looking for at the bottom of a bottle or coke vial?”

“It was, yes.” She’d meant it as an insult, but he didn’t take it as one. “It was exactly that.” He widened his eyes with excitement. “We’re all searching for something else. And this is it. This is something else.” He nudged the wand toward her, but she leaned back until the booth stopped her.

“You’re making me nervous, Adam.”

“You know why every church has a spire? It’s because we know—instinctually—that you’ve got to look to the sky if you want to communicate with a world other than this one. Put up a big antenna.”

“I just want to talk to you, Adam. You and me. Brother and sister. Without all of this nonsense in the way. I’ll forget my government if you forget your church. Just for a few minutes. Let’s talk. Let’s just talk.”

He told her that if she really wanted to talk to him, she first needed to listen. He touched the omnimetal rod and then he touched his ear.

A gum-chewing waitress swung by with a pot of coffee and asked if they had any questions.