He would have continued explaining but Zeke was a little quicker to fill the split second of silence. "I sure hope not. It"s hard to ignore the possibility considering my situation, though. A little over three weeks ago, we chat like we"ve been friends for years. A little surreal but it was fun. Then nothing. Now that things have reached a head with my family on this inheritance nightmare, I notice you casing me yesterday. If I hadn"t let you know I noticed, how long were you going to do it before you came up to me?"

Surprised, Orison wasn"t a bit annoyed. He felt like he"d really found a gem.

The young mage smiled and said, "I didn"t think I was that bad at it. Before I get into the reason why, can you at least say how much longer you plan on sticking around. It"s kind of pointless if you"re going to be taking off any day now."

Zeke shrugged. "As it stands right now, I"m waiting on a five year savings to mature in a few more months. It"s not like I have any special place to be but getting froze out"s starting to get to me. I thought I might find a place where I can fit in a little easier and start trying to live again, you know?"

Orison nodded and whipped out an NDA. It was a sloppy copy of the one he"d signed for Mrs. Derby but it was pretty much just a prop to set the mood anyway.

Looking at Zeke a little sheepishly, he said, "It"s weird as h.e.l.l to do it like this but at least this lets you know I have a serious proposition for you. You"re already suspicious of me so I don"t fancy my chances of getting you to follow me anywhere less public unless I give you some kind of rea.s.surance."

The ex-mercenary stared at the doc.u.ment blankly and said, "Having me sign a non-disclosure agreement is to rea.s.sure ME?"

The young mage nodded. "Originally, I thought it"d be awkward to suddenly invite you to talk someplace more private. I didn"t want you wigging out, thinking I was. .h.i.tting on you or something. Now, I guess it can let you know that I"m wanting to trust you to see some sensitive information that I hope you"ll keep to yourself without having to get too wordy about it. It"s not like I believe an NDA is some kind of magical protection but it does strongly state an intent."

Zeke"s face was unreadable and even the "teaser" suit"s poorly copied version of the stag pin"s ability wasn"t helping much. The young mage wondered if the ex-mercenary was actually a little gifted already or a person who had received some kind of rare training. After all, there were ways a mundane could develop a resistance to psychic intrusion and predation.

The ex-mercenary said, "Some days I wake up and itch for an adrenaline rush but then I remember I"ll be pushing forty soon and the aches and pains I have to stretch out kill it... Look, I"m not interested in being involved with government work or any, um, special club business."

Orison sighed. "Bare fact is, I need you as window dressing. At base level, you"d be some visuals to deter more timid sources of headaches. The more involved you feel comfortable with being, the more I have to offer but there won"t be a push for it outside of discussions of what I"m willing to offer for what I want from you. Is that a fair start?"

Zeke looked a little sad but interested as he slowly nodded once and signed the doc.u.ment. "In the end, it comes down to a guard gig again. Well, I"ve been bored lately. I"ll hear you out but no promises."

After walking two city blocks, Orison pulled out the keys to a small, red coup convertible.

One look at the car and then at Zeke, he offered the keys and said sheepishly, "You, uh, want to drive?"

The ex-mercenary chuckled. "Didn"t think that through very well, huh? Yeah, I should be able to fit behind the wheel after a few adjustments."

A few minutes later, Zeke had managed to cram himself into the driver"s seat. Despite efforts to the contrary Orison let a couple of inappropriate chuckles slip past.

Zeke stopped Orison mid apology and said, "If I were you, I"d be laughing too. I just hope you don"t plan on having me chauffeur you around in this matchbox often."

Orison said, "Absolutely not! I"m helping a friend open a garage and used car lot. It was either this or a motorcycle and I hate motorcycles. I never really think about having a car til I need one and then I usually borrow Neil"s, another friend"s, old junker."

Zeke gave Orison a dubious look. "I don"t want to make any a.s.sumptions here but guard work isn"t cheap."

Orison laughed. "Drive us to the bank, Mr. Jeeves."

The ex-mercenary shrugged and got them on the road. "Who the h.e.l.l is Mr. Jeeves?"

The young mage said. "Sorry. It"s just a cliche butler name..."

Once they"d reached the bank, Orison set up a 5,000 dollar account and handed it over to the stunned man and said, "This is your safety net. Any time you feel like bailing or sh*t gets heavy and you need some money fast, you don"t have to come to me."

Confused, Zeke said, "Is this a year up front or my per diem account? I haven"t agreed to work for you yet."

Orison said. "I"m not really looking for an employee, Zeke. I"m looking to take in a partner, a nominal equal that becomes more actual with the building of trust and faith in ability. At the end of the day, I might be kinda in charge but that"s because I have things to do. Depending on what it is you need done, you might be in charge.

"That might seem confusing but you"ll understand eventually if you decide to stick around. I know money"s important but only so far. There are more important and valuable things a person can offer another. If you want to couch it as employer and employee because that"s what you"re comfortable with, that"s fine. With time, I hope you"ll at least consider being friends once you know what"s going on."

Zeke said, "I don"t even know where to start with how off the books everything is but... You don"t think it"s weird trying to befriend your bodyguard, much less one that"s nearly twice your age?"

Orison shook his head and said, "I always thought it was stranger to entrust your well being to someone else and only be willing to offer money for it. I mean, I guess that"s more convenient for the bodyguard... Just to be clear, I don"t expect you to risk your life for me. I"m more concerned about people like my friends and I"d appreciate you keeping an eye on things. First and foremost, worry about your own safety and as long as I feel like you"re reasonably doing what you can, that"s good enough."

Conversation died on their way back to Orison"s new house.

When they weren"t too far away, Zeke said, "Mind prepping me for what I"m in for?"

Orison laughed. "You"re in for a messy house I"m in the process of filling with junk... I was planning on observing you for a couple more days but it would have been weird to keep up distance after I"d been busted. Instead, just make yourself at home and you can observe for a couple of days. No part of the house is off limits or anything but you might want to stay away from the pool house at midday if nudity bothers you. An old friend of mine told me her husband said sun bathing can help me recover."

Zeke glanced at Orison and said, "Recover from what? You look pretty healthy to me."

The young mage said, "Then there"s a good place to start. I was one of the people recovered from Muriel"s bas.e.m.e.nt. I was hospitalized for three weeks. I wasn"t one of the victims, though. I was the one who killed her."

Zeke pulled over the car. "Why."

Orison said, "Because she was the one who was holding all those people. Her husband was a high ranking Mason. Do you really want to hear more? I"ll tell you."

The ex-mercenary threw his hands up and said, "No, no, no! That still doesn"t explain why you say YOU killed her. No offense, I of all people know looks can be deceiving but you don"t strike me as the vigilante type."

The young mage said, "I"m not. I was trying to find Neil. If she hadn"t stolen something important from me, I probably would have taken an entirely different approach. Look, I don"t want to scare you off by throwing too much crazy at you all at once. You seem like the "seeing is believing" type and I"m giving you permission to be as snooping as you want."

Zeke quickly added, "And I appreciate that. I do. But if you"re in trouble with Masons, you don"t need a bodyguard, you need witness protection. I know a couple people-"

Orison interjected, "I"m alright. Mr. Carter"s wife is the old friend I was talking about. I have a truce with them. The cover-up was just to avoid embarra.s.sment. It doesn"t change the fact that I"m vulnerable right now because I took in... Let"s call it a lot of "bad juju". It"s a little culturally insensitive but that"s what Neil would call it and, as far as labels work, it"s close enough."

Getting the car back on the road, Zeke said, "That wouldn"t mean much to someone else but when I left the service, I hired on to Wackenut and spent a good deal of time in Africa plus a few other locations I had to sign NDAs for that make yours look pitiful. I just got one question on that and I"ll get to "observing" instead of squeezing out more I"d just want to see to believe anyway. How much of you turned gray?... If you don"t know what I"m talking about, don"t worry about it."

Orison said, "If I didn"t have it contained, I could push its effects all to the surface and look fully gray even now. Even if I laid down and gave up I could live for a few more years before I"d die from organ failure, though... No offense, but you"re a lot better informed than I"d thought you"d be."

Zeke didn"t answer the obvious but unasked question as they pulled into the drive of a gated house with an expansive yard. It was situated on the outlying border of the northern suburbs and sported a generous young orchard with a small greenhouse vineyard among its other features. It"s purchase and furnishing nearly cost a fifth of Mrs. Derby"s payment to him but Orison wanted it as soon as he saw it. The main reason was the small leyline node under the property that only a person with strong spiritual sensitivity could have noted.

The ex-mercenary muttered, "No wonder you could throw five grand like it didn"t matter."

Orison shot, "I could throw it all BUT five grand like it didn"t matter if there was a reason to. Don"t get me wrong. I like my creature comforts but money wouldn"t be that hard to get more of if I was in good condition."

Zeke said, "How long do you need?"

"With a little luck and quiet down time, a couple of months would see me functional, I think. My best guess for full recovery would be more like six months to a year as an educational guess with some room for error," Orison offered.

The ex-mercenary followed Orison into the house as he said, "From what I understand of the "gray waste", that"s how long a person receiving treatment could hope to live, much less recover."

Orison smiled. "You are well informed... But, it looks like your superiors managed to keep you fairly well in the dark about some important things too."

By the time that he had showed Zeke around and shared some key information about services that had been contracted instead of hiring people for, Neil had stopped by to get his next couple of days worth of "gra.s.s shakes and mud b.a.l.l.s".

"You know you could grab a room and stay here, Neil," Orison offered.

Neil snorted. "No chance, kid. Whose bird feeder I"m taking care of will remain a mystery to you this time."

Leering, Orison added, "Do you need a little extra medicine so you can lift the old seed sack enough times to fill them? You said it yourself. You"re not young anymore."

In mock anger, Neil said, "F*** off!... Who"s this guy?"

Orison introduced them and let them chat it out for awhile, content to let Zeke"s inclusion into their circle be as natural as possible. That turned out to be a bit of a small miscalculation. Having a lot in common, the two hit it off better than Orison originally thought they would at the start and he found himself feeling like he did around Zora and Ignatius.

Being saved from wallflower status by Jimmy almost an hour later, Orison made another introduction. Surprisingly, Zeke wrapped up his conversation with Neil and switched targets. It seemed he"d misunderstood something. The friendly banter was just a way for the two to feel each other out and probe for information.

Neil wasn"t finished either. Before he let the ex-mercenary off the social hook, he"d gotten a exercise routine note comparison session the next day out of the guy. They both looked at Orison to make sure that wouldn"t interfere with his plans.

The young mage added. "It"d probably be a good thing, Neil. Zeke"s an old hand at training. Don"t hackle his cardio until I"ve had a chance to address his nerve damage... That is, when you trust me to, Zeke."

When the ex-mercenary started questioning Orison about healing credentials, both Neil and Jimmy laid it down after getting the young mage"s approval. He had to step in to do some damage control when Zeke tuned in to the fact that Neil was looking a lot younger looking and better off than he should be. It wasn"t the first time that Orison had shaved some age off the detective and it was a little too much to be played off as genetics and good living by anyone with more than average perception, much less someone like the ex-mercenary.

Once Neil had made his way off, Jimmy disappeared like morning mist the first chance he got. It suddenly occurred to Orison that Zeke"s intimidation factor might actually possess a touch of supernatural edge. If so, it was weak but coupled with natural factors, it was probably too much for most mundanes which would explain a lot of Zeke"s problems.

Over the next couple of days, the ex-mercenary stuck to Orison"s side. It didn"t even take one for the man to start to catch on that the young man who recruited him was far from the average guy, even a rich one. The only activity that Orison engaged in that approached normal was a trip into town to check on the gallery and set up an account for the director and a sizable sponsorship for Nicolas.

Even that spot of business took a left turn when Orison called the director into his office and all but blackmailed the man and gave him two months to square away the "mistakes" in the catalog"s sale ledger both to the owner and the artists who were ripped off. Realizing quickly that he was over the barrel and out of his league dealing with someone like Orison, he stepped into hyper drive. Suddenly an empty date book was filled with visits, calls and two up coming events. To give a little carrot after the stick, Orison wrote in a two percent increase to commissions taken from the owner"s share after costs.

Connections that the director feared would disappear along with Muriel, didn"t. There was even a new patron in the form of a fast food franchise queen who planned on having some art commissioned herself. To make the gallery into an actual legacy worth handing down, Orison also added a graphic design department that would serve to make the most of Mrs Derby and Mrs Carter"s patronage while being useful to them, granting present and future artists even more ways to earn for themselves and the hobby company settled into the shadows of the gallery.

On the way back home from that half a day of whirlwind activity, Zeke commented, "It really is "not what you have but who you know"."

Tooting his own horn a little while trying to keep the pride and a touch of arrogance out of his voice, "Yeah, it really was a stroke of luck for Alice and Rachel that they met me back then."

Zeke was speechless but the young mage knew the man would be fact checking at some point.

After having spent the last two days with Orison, Zeke took off for two after getting permission to borrow the pickup truck that Jimmy had fixed for the young mage. When he left, the ex-mercenary explained that he"d either be returning the pickup or returning with his stuff when he came back. The young mage took that to mean that Zeke would be doing his fact check and make the decision to be all in or all out.

If there was one thing that Orison had figured out about the guy, it was that Zeke didn"t take half measures. The ex-mercenary seemed to take commitments pretty seriously as well. It made the young mage wonder just what kind of horrible c.r.a.p Wackenut Security Firm had put the man through to break that resolve. He doubted it was as simple as some distaste in business practice.

To keep himself occupied, outside of regular routine, Orison laid a permanent circle in the bas.e.m.e.nt and a subtle one in the kitchen with Jimmy"s help, Jammer"s more specifically. Possibly due to the node or the coincidental partial overlap, they seemed to harmonize and amplify one another in interesting ways.

Studying the effects to better understand ritual craft was how he spent the rest of his free time until an empty pickup came rolling in. Orison was confused and a little disappointed but he figured he"d find out soon enough why. When it was followed by three nice cars, the young mage prepared for a fight.

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