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In her ti dealers, an assassin already serving a life sentence in jail, and any nu life sentences in jail) Once, she’d even consulted a self-proclaimed witch In retrospect, Leslie hadn’t been nearly as afraid of the witch as she should have been
Today she was talking to olves To her knowledge, she’d never
She considered the table they’d all be sitting around The FBI offices or a police station would have given her side the hoht for law and order Meeting with people on their own turf, in their offices or hoe, but soet inforotten if the people she was interviewing hadn’t felt coave the hoht a nervous greenie along with her
Hotels were neutral territory - which hy they werehere instead of the office
"Why me?" she’d asked her boss yesterday when he told her she was going alone "I thought the whole tearie self uncomfortably behind his desk - a space where he spent as little ti in the field "FUBAR ahead," he said, which was his code for politics When Leslie had come into the Boston office, the previous person who’d had her desk had taped a list of Nick-speak to the bottom of her draith a note that said he’d had it faxed from Denver, where Nick had last been posted There was a full page of sords, and "FUBAR ahead" had been first on the list It wasn’t that Nick couldn’t dance gracefully with the powers that be if necessary; it was that he didn’t like doing it
"I put in the request and e were going to talk to Adauest speaker at Quantico a couple of tiet information to help us with the case and pick up a bit besides" He twisted his chair around and his knee hit the canvas side of one of his go-bags He had a number of them stashed around his office Leslie had three herself - each packed for different jobs Hers were color-coded; Nick’s were nuuy colors (his bags were khaki, khaki, and that other khaki) and he neededShe didn’t have to keep a suit on hand, for instance, because she was unlikely to get called upon for television interviews or congressional hearings
"Hauptood rep," Leslie said "I have a friend who sat in on one of his lectures, said it was infor So what happened to that plan?"
"Got a call yesterdayHauptman’s not available - you remember that monster they found in the Columbia River last month? Turns out it was Hauptman and his ho killed it, mostly his wife - that’s for our information only" Not classified, but not to be advertised, either "She apparently got busted up pretty badly and he can’t fly out Haupther up But no more than five people can come to the meet - and we have to hold it in neutral territory No name, no further official information" He pursed his mouth unhappily
Nick Salvador could play poker with the best of theht bloo with him because he was smart - and never, ever treated her like the token black fe that the olf consultant is ’higher up’ -to a lot of people other than the FBI," he said
"Hauptht?" Leslie pursed her lips "I didn’t know there was a higher-up than an Alpha"
"Neither did anyone else," agreed Nick "I don’t knohat the deal is, but I’ve been infor to the party"
Trippers, in Nick-speak, were agents from CNTRP The acronym stood for Coency formed specifically to deal with the various preternaturals They pronounced it "Cantrip" Nick called them Trippers because whenever they involved theation he was in, he tripped all over theents, too, but I put my foot down" Nick scowled at the phone as if it were to bla Goldstein, as involved in three earlier cases with this saent of his cases and so is breaking loose from Tennessee to come help us" She’d never met Goldstein, but knew that Nick had, and that he liked hih of a recommendation for her "I want hients in there with hient" - his voice dropped coldly - "who has no business whatsoever in this case And Craig and you"
"Why o That way you could include the police" Len was the local Boston PD officer orked on their task force "Or Christine - she’s done a few more serial murder cases than I have"
Nick sat back and stilled, pulling all his energy in the way he did when they got a good lead on so for "A friend of ave me a heads-up He knows Hauptman - more importantly, Hauptive round"
Leslie’s eyebroent up "Interesting"
"Isn’t it?" Nick sht want to be careful who I sent Soressive"
He looked at her and she nodded "Not Len, not Christine" Len was smart, but hardly low-key, and Christine had a competitive streak a mile wide Leslie could hold her own, but she didn’t need to rub people’s noses in it
"That lets el and you are probably the best fit, and Angel is just a little too green to send out on his own against the bad guys just yet" Angel was fresh out of Quantico
"I’ll take good notes," she pro the little i friends - like he was conducting invisible music