I wasn’t.
“As of now? No. What else?”
I thought fast. “You said I have to use the last two favors within five years. Is that the only caveat? Does there need to be a time lapse between them or can I ask for both together?”
“Within five years. That’s all.” His jade-and-amber gaze sharpened. “You expect me to believe this is why you wanted to delay the trip home? You could’ve asked that on your doorstep. You said questions. Plural.”
Do you ever think about kissing me? Did you miss me? But those weren’t business-related, as I’d claimed this was, and I wasn’t nearly brave enough. It would take more than the SSP to give me that kind of confidence.
Luckily I had another concern. “The guy who had my slot broke his leg. Did you have anything to do with that?”
Kian didn’t deny it. “I told Wedderburn I needed you enrolled as part of your favor. He handled things from there.”
Damn. So his boss made it happen. Somehow. That’s … alarming.
“He doesn’t care who gets hurt?”
“Wedderburn’s definition of harm is different from ours. ‘The leg will heal in six weeks’ and to him, that’s no time at all.” I could tell Kian was quoting his employer. “If you’re asking if I knew, I didn’t. He never shares his plans with me until it’s too late for me to do anything about it.”
He seems so sad. I wonder how many of us he juggles. Unease trickled down my spine, shadowing a bright and sunny morning. So I changed the subject.
“One last thing, I’m worried about the repayment plan … it’s just vague enough to make me nervous. Can you tell me how it went for you?”
He thought about it, as if going through a mental rulebook in his head. “Actually, I can, as long as I don’t give you specifics about anything else.”
“Then tell me, please?”
Before he could, the waitress came back. I ordered a high-protein scramble while Kian chose blueberry pancakes with extra whipped cream. Made me wonder if he’d wished for the ability to eat everything and not gain weight. Is that even possible?
Once the server left, he murmured, “Okay. Well, I was fifteen when I hit extremis. And I used all my favors within a year.” Faint regret threaded his words.
“Why so fast?”
His silence said he had no intention of telling me that. Fair enough. God, I wished I knew why he’d been so unhappy. This wasn’t fair; he knew everything about me. But then, we weren’t friends. Had no relationship apart from the deal.
I delved elsewhere. “You look so young, it can’t have been long before they called for repayment.”
“Are you asking how old I am?” He sounded amused.
“It doesn’t matter.” Except to satisfy my curiosity—and he obviously wouldn’t.
“I’m not supposed to share personal information.”
“I bet you weren’t supposed to kiss me, either.” My gaze flew up, unable to believe I’d said it out loud.
“If anyone had been monitoring us then, I’d have been removed from your contract,” he said quietly. “And … penalized for misconduct.”
I didn’t want that. “I’m sorry. Why did you do it, then?”
“You know why.”
I wasn’t sure enough to go there, no matter what I hoped. “Can you tell me about your … what? Recruiter? Handler?”
“We’re called liaisons. And that depends on what you want to know.”
“Name, how you met. That kind of stuff.”
“His name was Raoul, and we met at my uncle’s fishing cabin.” By his expression, that reply skirted the edge of what he was permitted to tell me. It didn’t encourage more questions about what happened that day.
“Did you like him?”
Half smile. “I didn’t ask him to kiss me, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Are you still in contact with him?”
His smile faded. “No.”
“What was he like?”
“You’ve seen Highlander, right?”
That was a rhetorical question; I could see that he knew I’d watched it a hundred times and owned the director’s cut DVD. But I nodded anyway.
“Ramirez. He was like Ramirez.”
I pictured a rugged guy with silver hair and a salt-and-pepper beard, clapping Kian on the shoulder and telling him to stop whining. “It must’ve been … epic.”
“It kinda was.”
“No wonder you took the deal.”
Our food arrived then. We ate in silence while I mulled a loophole that would let him spend the day with me—without burning another favor. I wasn’t that dumb.
“Most people do,” he said eventually.
“What’s the most common favor requested?”
“Money.”
“I should’ve guessed. What if I need your help to research a potential request in ways unavailable to me? Is that allowed?”
He leveled a long look on me. “Edie … don’t rush the other two favors. Seriously.”
What are you trying to tell me with those eyes? I held his gaze, unable to access higher logical functions. When he went back to eating, I felt like I’d been freed from a spell. Kian casts level 50 hotness. Failed my saving throw.
“I won’t,” I said, low.
“But…” He hesitated, as if weighing what he was about to say. “If you need help with something contract-related, I’ll provide it. Part of the job.”
“It could take all day,” I said.
This is a bad idea trembled on the tip of his tongue; I saw it hovering and then he said, “My schedule’s clear.”
“You have other clients?”
“Never more than five at a time.”
I squirreled that away with the small store of information I’d gleaned. So he had four people, like me, who had been saved in extremis. I wondered how many favors they’d requested, how old they were, how often he saw them, and if he’d kissed any of them. Likely, there was a confidentiality clause; he seemed constrained by all kinds of rules.
“Before, you mentioned monitoring? How often—”
“I don’t know,” he cut in. “And that’s sort of the point. It’s meant to keep me honest and on task.”
“Is it like when you call the phone company and they tell you your call may be recorded for your protection and in order to provide better service?”
“More or less.”
This was frustrating. I wanted to get to know him, but he’d already said he wasn’t permitted to share personal information. I didn’t want to get him in trouble, or worse, removed from my contract. That meant I’d never see him again. And he must feel the same or he wouldn’t be cooperating, especially against his better judgment.
“If I’m pushing, just tell me. I won’t break.”
I did once. It won’t happen again.
“It’s not that,” he said quietly.
His gaze slipped to his watch, which was unlike any I’d ever seen before. The face sparkled with an unusual crystal, and there were multiple buttons along the side. I could tell I was meant to take a cue from the significant look, so I studied it, but no immediate answers came to me. Then I dug into my backpack for pen and paper. I didn’t know what form the monitoring might take; there was a guy on my block who was convinced the government could eavesdrop from space via satellite.
I wrote, What does the watch have to do with how they track you?
Kian leaned over, read, and then replied, It logs everything. They can use it to listen in, anytime they want. It also records my power usage, and there are accountants who resolve my output against the favors I’ve granted.
That sounded horrible. Can you take it off?