Driving Needs, part three

"Okay, so why did we drive all the way out here if you could talk to Tammy through the cards at any time?" Elyssa was halfway through her Chicken Florentine pizza, and Chris made a point of keeping his attention on his own Cimarron pizza so that he didn't try to answer for Antoinette. 

Antoinette swallowed another bite of her pizza. She'd gone for the Mount Mushmore, and seemed to be enjoying it. "Because Tammy can't afford to let anybody know that she's been talking to the two of you, and I can't afford for the Ministry to find out that I set up the meeting." She took a drink of her water, then continued. "I don't really know, but I assume that anything said back at the training center will be overheard by the Ministry. A semi-random parking lot in Tulsa, on the other hand..."

Chris glanced at her. He was honestly a little surprised; he'd thought that Antoinette still trusted the Ministry.

She met his eyes. "Don't say it. Yes, your attitude is rubbing off on me, but we're not going to talk about that."

Chris turned his head to look out the window and took another bite of pizza, putting on a look of complete innocence. Elyssa laughed, then turned her attention back to Antoinette. "So all this was was just to set up a chance for Tammy to talk with us, without the Hargraves knowing about it?"

"Officially," said Antoinette, "we're here to eat some really excellent pizza and bond as a team. It's a trust-building exercise." 

Chris swallowed a mouthful of pizza and said, "That may be the best use of Ministry resources that I've ever seen."

"So look," Antoinette said, lowering her voice. "I know neither of you like talking about it, but you were both at Pettibone. I've seen your files, and I know you got in despite that, because you were able to attest to a truthspeaker that you'd been trying to save the students there."

Chris exchanged a glance with Elyssa; they both nodded. "What do you want to know?" asked Elyssa, reluctantly. 

Antoinette looked from Elyssa to Chris and then back. "Nothing," she said. "I trust you, both of you. But if there's anything I should know -- about either of you -- this is the time and place to tell me."

Elyssa said, "None of this gets back to the Ministry?" 

Antoinette met her eyes. "None of it." 

Elyssa sat back and sighed, then reached up and touched the medallion that hung underneath her shirt. She looked at Chris, but he met her eyes flatly, expressionless. After a moment she sighed again. "The ghost that killed Julius Thornblade is still around. She was a wolf, and his former partner; he killed her. We're... kind of dating. When we can. When she thinks it's safe to come out. Which is mostly when we're out in the Grey."

Antoinette set her slice of pizza down and sat back, digesting that. "So our team of three is actually -- potentially -- a team of four." 

Elyssa nodded. "Yeah. Except the Ministry can't know about it. Magus Frummelt would know immediately what ghost was haunting me. And if the Thornblades learned about her, they'd demand her destruction -- no matter that it was Julius who made her a vengeful ghost in the first place."

Antoinette considered that for a long moment. "Okay, so she -- what's her name?"

"Clarissa."

"She's an absolute last resort until we can figure out some way to plausibly introduce her as if she were new. Chris?"

Chris had just taken another bite of his Cimarron, so he held up a hand while he chewed and swallowed. "Yes?"

"Anything I should know about you?" 

Chris shook his head immediately. "Just a wolf," he said. 

"An improbably strong wolf who keeps surviving things that should have killed him," Antoinette said flatly, meeting his eyes and raising her eyebrows. "Grundus thinks you might be an elder, pretending to be younger than you are; apparently some wolves can adjust their appearance that way. Magus Frummelt thinks you were raised here in the Mundus, with at least one magus for a parent. He said it doesn't happen too often, but they think about ten or fifteen percent of Registered Outsiders are actually native to the Mundus. Maybe more. Mageborn children often receive initiations to make them stronger, tougher, smarter, so I can see why he might think so."

Chris looked at her for a long moment. He didn't want to lie to Antoinette, but he didn't dare tell her the truth. "Sure," he said finally. 

"Sure?"

Chris shrugged. "Tell each of them, Grundus and Frummelt, that I wouldn't admit anything but you're pretty sure they're right." He swallowed. "I'd be grateful."

Antoinette shrugged. "Sure," she tossed back at him. "But which one is true?"

He shook his head. "I can't answer that," he said. "I don't dare. Not even taking into account that I trust you completely."

"Chris... should I be afraid of you? Of what you might do, I mean?" She swallowed. "Are you a danger to the magi?"

Chris shook his head. "Nobody here -- and I'm including Clarissa and every mundane in the building -- has anything to fear from me. I'm not here to take revenge on the magi, or tear down the Ministry, or sabotage their work."

Antoinette regarded him for a long moment. "All right," she said finally. "I believe you. And I'll help you keep your secrets, whatever they are."

Elyssa half-stood, leaned over, and kissed Chris on the cheek. "That's from Clarissa," she said. "She wants you to know that she's grateful, and she wants you to keep your head down." She paused for a moment, listening. "She also says we're all in this together, and we have to watch out for each other." She looked at Antoinette. "And she says that you're way cooler than any Thornblade ever was."