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. It was the last thing she d expected. I d be happy to do so, sir, but Think carefully, Sascha.There could be& benefits for you.Some of us are starting to think it s pasttime we utilized you properly. It was a bribe, pure and simple.Her hunger to finally be accepted and valued as a cardinal urged her toaccept the offer and not look back.Conversely, that very hunger also made her aware that no matterhow much she tried, she d never be normal.Getting closer to the Council would only increase herchances of being exposed.The ashes of lost dreams floated to her feet and in the deepest, most hidden core of her soul, she cried.Only years of Psy training and a desperate desire to hide the truth of her broken mind had heranswering logically. They re understandably cautious around me.I m not sure I ll discoveranything. It was a lie.Already she knew so much no Psy had ever known, but she found herselfunable to give up their secrets& Lucas s secrets. They re animals.Treat them well and they ll start to trust you. It was evident he thought trust aweakness.Sascha saw it as a gift. I d be happy to cooperate but first I have to I ve already cleared this with Nikita. Enrique neatly cut her off. Then I ll get the information to you. I d like to meet you once a day for briefings. Sascha was beyond scared now.She didn t want Enrique evaluating her daily. I m sorry, sir.Thatcould interfere with my work and I m sure Mother wouldn t like that.I ll contact you as soon as Ihave anything worth sharing. It was a daring statement and if she d allowed herself to feel, shewould ve been trembling.Enrique s presence on the PsyNet was a pure white star, so cold that she wanted to shiver. Don t waittoo long. Is that all, sir? For now. Sascha dropped out of the PsyNet and immediately contacted the head of her household as any goodPsy would do.She could telepath without problem at this range, which at least gave her relief fromkeeping constant vigilance over her consciousness.During telepathic communications, neither partycould see the other.As soon as Nikita answered, she outlined Enrique s requests, hugging her arms so tight around herbody that she almost bruised her own ribs.If her mother told her to keep those daily meetings&Enrique has overstepped his bounds.Nikita s mental voice was frigid.I gave him permission to solicitinformation, not tie you to a schedule.Relief threatened to turn her limbs to jelly.Mother, I think it would be preferable if I gave you anypertinent information and you& shared it with Enrique.The pause was calculated.Nikita enjoyedbeing in a position of power.You re the head of the household I should be reporting to you first inany case.Nikita was silent for a couple of seconds.I d already considered that.Unfortunately, Enrique is toostrong to defy without consequences.And he wants to talk to you.Perhaps, Sascha said, thinking desperately, you could imply to him that I find dealing with hispowerful presence too much on top of my first independent project.Now you re thinking like a Duncan.Nikita was clearly pleased.He can t argue with me for trying toprotect the deal.The deal, Sascha thought, not her daughter.Even though she should ve been used to the heartlessness of the Psy after a lifetime of living with them, she felt a sharp stab of hurt.Then I m free toconcentrate on the development and keep you up to speed?Yes.With that, Nikita was gone.Sascha allowed herself a huge sigh of relief and dropped her head into herhands.Something was wrong.It wasn t paranoia.Why was Enrique suddenly so concerned with afailed cardinal most of the Psy ignored? Doubly troubling was the extent of Nikita s cooperation withthe other Councilor.Her gut twisted.She had a feeling she was being used as a pawn in a game for which she didn t knowthe rules.What worried her even more was that she didn t know the consequences of checkmate& orhow to stop it.Suddenly realizing she d been sitting there staring into nothingness, she stood up and only then did theridiculousness of her situation strike her.She d just had conversations with two members of theCouncil while sitting on the closed lid of a toilet.The thought had her stifling giggles as she lifted thelid and opened the door.When she checked her appearance in the mirror above the basin, she was surprised to find that nothingbetrayed her slight case of hysteria.Her physical masks were holding, even as the mental ones brokedown piece by piece.Glancing at her timepiece, she saw that she d been in here for almost thirtyminutes.The changelings would be full of questions and she d better have answers for them.Before heading out, she ensured that she looked exactly as she should every hair on her headsmoothed into a tight braid, the cuffs of her dark gray suit perfectly aligned, and her face so calm thatshe almost convinced herself her stomach wasn t tied up in knots.Nobody was in the corridor but heads turned the instant she walked back into the room used by ClayBennett and the others.One particular pair of green eyes tracked her every move
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