(eng) Niall Teasdale by Reality Hack

Author:Reality Hack [Hack, Reality]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Part Five: Alchemy

Westminster, London, September 9th, 2014.

‘Happy birthday,’ Norbery said, putting a small, wrapped box on the desk in front of Nisa.

‘Uh… thanks, but… It’s in my file, right?’ Nisa gave him a grin.

‘It’s in your file.’ He waved a hand at the box. ‘It’s nothing much. My wife makes them. They give you some protection against the supernatural.’

‘And that’s nothing much?’

‘Well, she makes me one every season, even though I don’t get out much, so we thought you could use one.’

‘Huh. Well, thanks. Maybe I’ll actually meet her sometime.’

‘Oh no. Alison met Sandra just after she started, Christmas party. Then she spent six months suspecting I was having an affair. I told her you look like a goat.’

Nisa giggled and began unwrapping her present while Norbery grinned back and headed out.

It had been a period of ups and downs recently and Nisa had not been especially keen to celebrate her twenty-third birthday. Emily’s burial had been the first thing. Everyone from XC had gone, even Hanson. They had outnumbered Emily’s friends, but at least there had been someone there to see her off. Then Brian’s email account had been unlocked and there had been the rather satisfying sight of the smug looks being wiped off John Wentworth’s and John Junior’s faces when the phone and ring were found hidden in a box in the boy’s bedroom. Two days after that, however, Nisa had been there to see Brian fade into nothing. He had been smiling, but that was another one gone.

There had been more sightings of shadowy figures, and not even the slightest hint of a break in Nisa’s own mysterious shadow problem. Hanson was on the verge of putting the case in cold storage and marking it down as a Glitch. Nothing new had come up; aside from the shadow sightings, the supernatural world had gone quiet. The Skinwalker appeared to have decided to lay low and the shadows, while disturbing, did not appear to be actually doing anything.

Hanson appeared in the doorway, knocking on the open door to get Nisa’s attention. ‘I’ve told Kellog, he’ll brief you, but you’re going up to Manchester next week. They think that Skinwalker has turned up there.’

‘Oh,’ Nisa said. So much for the Skinwalker laying low. ‘Okay.’

Hanson nodded once. ‘Oh, and happy birthday.’

‘Thanks.’ Somehow the well-wishing did not go with the statement that came before it.

Tower Hamlets.

There was to be one bit of celebration. Nisa had bought food and a bottle of wine, and Faline had skipped the cat food to eat with Nisa. Nisa started cooking around seven. Forty minutes would see everything ready and then it would be sunset and they could sit down to eat. True, Nisa had no dining room furniture because she had no dining room, but they still felt it was a proper, sit down, birthday meal. There were even two cupcakes with pink icing, one of them with a candle for Nisa to blow out.

‘You’ll be all right on your own for a week?’ Nisa asked.

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