<<<15 Feb 2057, 19:42—Divided Assets>>>

Fate has a sense of humour. I'll say that for her.

Returned to Seattle a month earlier than planned. Couldn't stay home anymore, what with Aubrey hovering about, and Nigel...no, I had to get back to Seattle, even though it meant probably sitting around my apartment for a month, doing spell research and getting drunk (with any luck, not at the same time). Ocelot felt the same way--I notice that he got back in town a day or so after I did, which is no small feat considering his choice of transportation.

Fortunately, 'Wraith and Joe were willing to cut their training time a bit short and get back to work (I never did find out where they went, but I received replies to my curt little email message eventually from both.) I was quite surprised to see 'Wraith arriving on my doorstep ten days or so after I returned home. It's not like him to be so curious about others' problems, but I guess we've all changed over the last year or so. We had a long talk, wherein I told him about Nigel and explained the whole situation to him--oddly, he is very easy to talk with about such things. A good listener, asking the right questions and then keeping his mouth shut to hear the answers. When I finished, he told me to change clothes (for reasons even I can't explain, I was still dressing like I do when I'm home) and then took me to Club Penumbra. If I hadn't been so mired in my own problems, I would have been astounded-- my taciturn Elven friend, whose idea of a good time is apparently field-stripping and cleaning his guns, was attempting to draw me out of my funk by taking me to a place full of lights and glitter and life. And to some extent it worked.

But then there's the job. This is what I meant about Fate having a sense of humour. We're currently in Detroit, where our run involves grabbing and holding an eight-year-old boy for a few days until we can deliver him to the appropriate parties. By me, we could not possibly have chosen a worse run if we had been given a list and told to choose the worst one we could find. Just what I need right now--another young boy in danger. This one will not be harmed, though--I'll see to that. Ironic, isn't it--me looking after a child?

I'm a bit off my game, I can tell. The snatch part of the run went off rather well: we grabbed him in his therapist's office, with me first invisible, then disguised as the boy's bodyguard to fool him into accompanying us. 'Wraith and Joe took care of the bodyguard (non-lethally, of course--no reason to kill anyone over this), and Ocelot and I made short work of the receptionist and the therapist. The problem is, since I was supposed to be impersonating an insanely fast bodyguard who's almost as good as 'Wraith with a gun, I had to make it look convincing. So when Ocelot pretended to threaten us, I shot him, assuming that my abysmal skill with firearms would mean that Ocelot could more than easily avoid being injured, whilst still making it appear realistic. Except that, as usual, I hadn't been paying attention to my gun. I don't shoot it very often, and generally keep it loaded with APDS to pack maximum punch when I'm forced to do so.

Fortunately for Ocelot (and for me), he was able to avoid the shot. When we got back to our safehouse with the boy safely secured, he gave me quite a lecture on paying attention to my artillery and about warning him when I planned to take shots at him. I was suitably chastened; I think I'll stick with magic and leave guns to those who are proficient with them.

Now we've got the boy. Theoretically, all we have to do now is hold on to him for a couple of days until we hear from Mr. Johnson's representative. We'll see. I don't think things are going to go so smoothly, but I can always hope.

Oh--I almost forgot one other thing in the midst of all this. Apparently Dunkelzahn must have been pleased with our work on his behalf, because before we set off on our latest job, we received a personal note from him, informing us that our Dragon Security cover is to be maintained for us until 31 December of this year. That was quite a surprise! We even have an office, and 'Wraith seems entirely too interested in running it. I think all our teasing him about being an accountant at heart might be more true than we thought. ShadoWraith--assassin... enigma... office manager. The world is getting stranger.