Page 6 of Victorious

He lifted the inhaler. “I … inherited the current batch. But it requires a highly trained professional, and the one who made it is, regrettably, dead.”

June leaned back in her chair. “So you need a new chemist.”

“Ideally one that I don’t have to kill.”

“Moral qualms?”

“Practical.” Victor frowned. “Bodies have a way of adding up. Speaking from experience.” That was how Eli and Stell had tracked him down the last time, following the corpses of those who’d failed to fix him.

June hummed to herself. “What was it Marcella said? Men are so keen to make enemies, they forget that they can make friends.”

As she spoke, she drew something from her pocket. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary set of playing cards. But as she thumbed through them, plucking out the face cards, and tossing them down, he noticed a system.

In the corner of each card, she’d written a name, followed by a word.

Jacob Herald. Nature. Charlotte Tills. Future. Malcolm Olipett. Cyber.

“What are these?” he asked.

June smiled. “Friends.” She spread the face cards between them. “My talent allows me to tell when people are … like us. And when I find them, I like to keep track. Never know when a skill might come in handy.”

Victor scanned the pile. A dozen EOs. A dozen different talents. A dozen potential tools.

“Aha.” She found the card she wanted—the jack of spades—and flicked it toward him.

Xavier Pascal. Memory.

The cogs in his mind began to turn. It was tempting. With the right EO in his arsenal—but Victor stopped himself.

“Thanks,” he said, tossing the card back down. “But I’m no longer collecting strays.”

June rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to feed and water them, you know.” She swept the others back into her deck. “Last time I checked, most people actually prefer cash.”

Rising to her feet, she pulled a joker from the deck, and scribbled her own number on the back, letting it land face up beside the jack of spades.

“As for EON, I’m not setting foot in that place again. But I’ll do some digging. See what I can learn. For Syd.”

“For Syd,” echoed Victor.

He watched June go. As she stepped through the door, she traded the brunette in the flowing dress for a middle-aged man, innocuous amid the evening crowd. But the body wasn’t the only difference. There was a fresh spring in her step.

Purpose, thought Victor, as he palmed both cards, and finished his drink.

But purpose could wait.

Right now, he needed a fix.

IIINOW. THEN.MEANWHILE, IN MERIT …

DR. Gabriel Gray liked things a certain way.

He rose at 6 a.m. every day, ran three miles at the same pace he’d held since seventeen, then took a five-minute shower—cold—before his first espresso, which he preferred to drink in silence on the back porch, before his wife and son woke up.

Iris, who would tease him by ruffling his hair after he’d just combed it, and Ian, whose small act of chaos was turning one or two of the spoons the wrong way on the top rack of the dishwasher.

But that was fine.

Gabriel simply set things right again.