Doran's radio beeped insistently in his ear, the triple tone his boss used, and he cursed under his breath, mostly from sheer laziness. Then he turned it on. "Yes?"
The voice in his ear was nasal, and often tinged with whining in normal speech. His boss, whom he was supposed to call Spider, was nothing like the code name he aspired to: he was short and dumpy, balding, and sweated easily. An oily sort of man; Doran could see him scratching his nose as he spoke. "Doran," he said slowly, in a delighted sort of voice that usually meant he had information he could use to torment the person he was talking to, "you've been speaking to Valerie."
Damn and double damn. Had they taken her already? How had they found out? "Yes sir," Doran said, "I don't believe I did any harm. I was trying to encourage her to put her back up, sir."
"Harm? No harm? Well, this time you're lucky, Doran. If it were up to me, I'd put you at the mercy of the court, a suspension for re-education at the least, but lucky for you, it isn't my choice. The Court has seen the potential of such an interaction, and wishes you to talk to the girl again. We wouldn't choose you, you understand, but as you have already spoken to the girl we have no choice. You know her interactions are supposed to be limited."
"Yes, sir. I'm sorry about that, sir."
"No messing around with your orders this time, or I will make sure that you are punished to the full extent of the law." He paused; probably wiping the sweat off his face. "You're to be subtle, careful, and give nothing away. It is to our advantage that she thinks of this world as something in her own fantasies; encourage the supposition that you are only part of her unconscious trying to help her back on her feet. Maybe you are, at that," Spider chuckled wetly. "This sort of thing happens in daydreams. Since you have taken it upon yourself, you are now responsible for the expedient resolution of this... er, situation. After you have talked to her, Valerie must be able to talk her way out of this place, and either stop the cutting or hide it much better. We're counting on you, Doran."
"Yes, sir."
"You know what you've done isn't a minor thing, the cause you serve is very serious. You should do some long hard thinking about your loyalties, my boy, or you might not enjoy your current quality of life for long."
"Yes, sir."
"Remember how lucky you are; you're getting a chance to do some really effective work for the Court, really make a difference. If this goes well, we might even look at a promotion. And most important of all," another pause, "you serve, if even in the smallest way, the most important Organization in not only this world, but all the worlds. That is nothing to sneeze at. We're counting on you," he repeated. "Do you understand that?"
"Yes, sir. I'll do my best."
"Do better than your best, we have no room for failure. End communication." The radio crackled, starting up another headache, and the line was silent.
Damn, damn, damn, Doran thought. What the hell was I thinking? Did I really hope that they wouldn't find out? Now I'm the one who gets to be the scapegoat if she isn't out of there in a day or two. Plus they'll probably decide it's a good idea to have a liason responsible for making Valerie do whatever they want from here on out. Do they think I can work a miracle just by talking to her? He paced down the street angrily. It wasn't his fault that she'd gotten herself locked up. It wasn't his responsibility that her life wasn't working out the way it was supposed to. He didn't have anything to do with the outside at all! Except now. Now he did.
Spider hadn't told him when or where to talk to Valerie. He assumed that he now had clearance to her apartment, although it would probably be a nice touch to knock first. He'd have to track her for a while, try to catch her at a time when she was well in the City. Her body faded when she was completely in the outside world, but there had been many times when she wandered sort of half-in, half-out. He needed her full attention if he was going to do this right.