Well over an hour passed, along with the arrival of half a dozen more agents, before they deemed that they’d done enough initial testing, scanning, and note-taking to feel safe enough to move to the next step. Ryan was called back, and everyone stood at the rope line – though, amusing, someone had bumped into the Agent Bob doll. Now the blank-faced sim was facing the wrong way, staring at a flower bed rather than the statue. Curt chose his spot carefully. Not too close to Carmichel, as to not seem overly friendly in the presence of Ryan. Close enough to the agents to not look like he was separating…

Curt fell behind Ryan as they walked over the perfect, picture-perfect grass lawn of the Gardens. And, like so many seemingly simple things in his life, there was no right choice. If he walked ahead of Ryan, there was the chance that Ryan would see this as arrogant. A human putting themselves ahead of someone – something – that was so clearly better than a homo sapien. It was also a Solstice putting himself in front of an Agent, which was just bad optics. If he walked beside Ryan, it would seem like he was trying to make himself equal. If he walked behind, there was always the chance Ryan…

The drive from Petal’s Peril, and the strange lawful-lawlessness of its streets, was as uneventful as the drive in, though far more subdued, with no one even attempting to make silly, pointless conversation. Callington slept, curled up across two of the limo’s seats. Magnolia spent some time on her phone, but after a while, Curt saw her start to nod off, her head against the window. And finally, he had a moment with Carmichel. But still, detail wasn’t a good idea until they were really alone. ‘Not too much?’ ‘That late into the lots, there wasn’t a lot of competition, and it’s a poor quality piece to begin with.’ ‘Thank…

The mezzanine was mostly empty, so it was easy to find an open table. Curt sat at one that overlooked the few things left in the display hall and ordered the first two things he saw on the menu, just to fill some time. He texted Magnolia a screenshot of Bekker’s Mount profile so that the techs could get a start on dissecting it and told her everything else could wait for later. His food and a pitcher of sparkling tobi juice arrived, and he started to scroll through his own feed on The Mount. It would be nice, casual static while he waited to see if Bekker was sending…

Carmichel let out a long string of fae swears and clamped his hand down on Curt’s arm. ‘What-’ Curt started to ask. ‘You,’ Carmichel said, ‘I know you’re going to do something stupid, so before you do, know that I can and will stop you.’ ‘For fuck’s sake,’ Magnolia said. ‘No one is going anywhere. Just- Stop for a minute.’ Curt looked at the image on his phone again. This was the dumb frozen yogurt joke writ into real life. Something bad. An agent had been kidnapped. Something good. They had a chance to save them. Something bad. There was another auction lot they needed to win. Something good. There…

Halfway back to the display floor, Curt felt his phone buzz. He stopped and opened it, expecting it to be a message from Magnolia, who so far, hadn’t sent him any information on lot sixty-four and the agent’s condition. He hadn’t found that surprising. With it being such a sought-after prize, there was likely a crowd of people lined up to get close enough to inspect the merchandise. The text gave a room number. It was one of the private offices on the third floor that had been put aside for people to discuss business, call their backers or bosses, or simply escape the noise for five minutes. He walked…

Back in the safety of the hotel room, Curt finally felt like he was free to think again. There was always the possibility that readers were roaming the halls looking for information. Even if that was the case, they’d surely be tasked with more high-priority targets. Even if you could account for every single possibility, go down every paranoid rabbit hole, at some point, you actually had to act. And right now, he was on the precipice of “shit or get off the pot”. His text chain with Carmichel sat open, thumb hovering indecisively above the keyboard. He could say something over text, and it would probably be enough. This…

Curt looked across the dining table at Mags, smiled to himself, and pushed the plate of ribs towards her. ‘Kolk isn’t my favourite mix anyway,’ he said. Most meat in fae dishes was lab-grown vat meat, and without the restrictions of it coming from an actual animal, there were weird and wonderful mixes. Kolk was a pretty standard mixture, half white meat, half red meat, usually striated to look almost like a candy cane, even when cooked. It wasn’t bad, but he’d usually go with another option if one was available. Mags smiled, wiped some of the sauce from her face, and pulled two more ribs from the serving plate.…

As a testament to the kind of rich people they were used to dealing with, changing to a four-top hadn’t been an issue. Magnolia had already been seated, opposite her mother, at a table at the edge of the mezzanine floor. A table that overlooked the chained wings. Curt gave Mags a quick look, and it wasn’t hard to read everything in her expression. This was far from the ideal situation, but until lot sixty-four went on display, there really wasn’t much progress that they could make. Carmichel was still presumably out on the floor, free to gather information. So, other than Mags being tense from being around her mother…

Curt still wasn’t sure who Francis was.  The man had been very circumspect in doling out details about himself. Whoever he was, he knew how to navigate the auction like an expert. And being on his arm was like walking through the world with a new lens. No one looked at Francis the way they did Carmichel. There were few, if any, nods of recognition. In most cases, that would seem to indicate that Francis was just one of Magpie’s attendants. But…the way he walked, the way he seemed to size up people and artwork with equal ease, left Curt with the distinct impression he was dealing with someone powerful.…