Insomnia

31

"I've sent her at least ten messages by now," Esme snarled at the receptionist. "She knows me. She'll want to see me."

"Agent Castellano is busy," the woman replied. "Take a seat and I'll let her know you're here."

Esme tsked before turning away, and dropping herself impatiently into a thin metal seat. She'd woken briefly to message Oz about this development. She'd gotten an auto-reply: "Out of the office." She'd fill him in later. After. Esme smiled at the word. After.

"Hey, I'm here." Phoebe said, stepping through the door. "You mentioned working with the WBI on a capture?" Esme had reached out to the members of the Triumvirate as well, knowing she might need their power to distract the Heralds while she went after the Knightmare. The WBI was understaffed and underresourced, particularly in Psionics. Most went into the private sector like Esme. It wasn't unheard of for agents to engage civilians when going after dangerous Psions.

"I've found him," she explained. "The Knightmare."

"This again?" said Phoebe, taking a seat next to her. "Don't get me wrong, if you're handing out Developer lessons for free then I'll show up wherever you want. But this is a lot of effort to hunt down a myth."

Esme winced at the thought of what she'd promised the three of them.

"He's not a myth. He's dangerous. And his followers aren't pushovers either."

"Those 'Omens'?" Phoebe blew a strand of hair out from her eyes. "Please. We're some of the most powerful Psions in Somnus. They're not even ranked."

"Technically, I'm not ranked either," warned Esme. "You can't underestimate them."

A touch of unease creased Phoebe's eyes. Another arrival, practically running through the doors, stalled the conversation.

"May!" greeted Max. "So I was thinking we take a tour of the Lunar Gardens first, then grab some ice cream out by Memorial Square - the one with that statue commemorating the astronauts? You always talked about how you admired those guys, making supply runs to the Earth even with the poison air. I think a few of them are still alive, I can try and arrange a meeting if you want --"

She raised a hand to cut him off. She'd taken a leaf from Minerva's book, and promised to meet him on the moon sometime in the next week in order to get him to come.

Like her, when Max picked a goal he pursued it with a passion. It was one of the things she'd liked about him - that determination - especially when his goal was their relationship. But he had a habit of turning nasty when things didn't go exactly like he wanted, and she was not looking forward to their 'date'.

"We'll figure that out later," Esme said. She still wasn't completely convinced that he wasn't the Knightmare. This raid on the Omens would help confirm it one way or the other. "Any word on Minerva?"

"No. You asked her to come too?" asked Max. "Seems a bit dangerous, don't you think? She's strong but, kind of young."

Esme blinked in surprise. Hearing Max act as a voice of reason and responsibility was jarring to say the least. Especially since he was right.

"She can be backup," Esme said, rapidly reconsidering her original plan. "A-a lookout. Or something."

"'Or something'," Phoebe said dryly. "Doesn't sound like you have much of a plan."

"The WBI agents can come up with strategy," Esme replied. "The most important thing is that we have the element of surprise and enough firepower to get the job done."

"And what would that entail exactly? Getting the job done?"

"Bringing the Knightmare to justice."