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it's the more dangerous of the two. We'll need to close them both out.”
    There was a long pause. Falmer shook his head.
    “ I'm sorry, Mr. Golden, but I can't allow it. We're at a critical stage right now, and if I allowed an outsider into the lab my investors would crucify me. Please destroy the burrow you discovered, and I'll handle the rest myself.”
    “ With all due respect, I don't think you understand the severity of the problem. You can't handle it. If there's a burrow there, then your labs are more in danger from the faeries than they could possibly be from me. How will that look to your investors?”
    “ It's not your decision to make.”
    “ As a matter of fact, it is,” I said. “I don't want to get legal with you, Mr. Falmer, but you'll find that my contract stipulates I have total freedom of action to deal with the infestation as I see fit.”
    “ Excuse me?”
    “ It's a matter of reputation. If I do an extermination at a site that is destroyed by fairies a few weeks later, finding future work could prove troublesome. I have my record to think about. So I have to insist that I be allowed to investigate for a second burrow.”
    Falmer was quiet for a few moments, reading the contract off his monitor. Finally, he looked up.
    “ You're quite certain I can't change your mind?” he said.
    “ I'm afraid not.”
    “ Then I am afraid I'm forced to terminate your employment.” He tapped at his keyboard. “The appropriate forms are on the way.”
    “ You'll still owe me the balance of my fee.”
    “ Of course.” The smile reappeared, but thin as glass. “And I remind you that you are still bound by our confidentiality agreements.”
    I nodded. Falmer glared at me for a moment, then shook his head.
    “ As you like. It's been a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Golden.”
    He did not, I noticed, offer to shake my hand.
    ~
    A taxi took me to a nearby Sheraton, with a stop at a take-out Chinese place to pick up several pounds of carbohydrates soaking in grease [40] .
    — [40] The longer I spend as a laptop, the more I am disgusted by ingestion and its associated processes. I don't know how I ever stood it. It doesn't help that John slurps his noodles.—
    I took the steaming white containers up to the hotel room and arranged them on the desk, then jacked Sarah into a wall socket and the too-expensive broadband network.
    “It doesn't smell right,” I said.
    “ The noodles?” Sarah said. “I can't confirm that, obviously, but that place didn't look like it was up to code—”
    “Falmer.” I rubbed my shin again, trying to convince the nerves that the damage they'd suffered was only in my imagination. “It doesn't make any sense. What is he working on in there that's so secret he'd rather let some fairy take his lab apart than show me?”
    “Probably the next version of SS AntiFae,” Sarah said. “According to their website, it launches next month. 'With new UltraBlock technology,' it says.”
    I grunted, glanced at the food, and decided I needed a shower before anything else. I always think better in the shower, and there was something nagging at me I couldn't quite put my finger on. For a moment I nearly had it, but as I broke open the single-use soap and single-use shampoo, I started wondering if Delphi was at that moment climbing into a well-deserved shower herself, and I lost my train of thought [41] .
    — [41] Really, John? Ugh.—
    When I got out, though, my mind was clearer than it had been since I stepped off the plane. I felt like I was at an apogee, the caffeine high wearing off but the crash not quite begun. What I needed, I thought, was help.
    “ Sarah,” I said, tossing the towel aside and pulling on the hotel-issue bathrobe [42] .
    — [42] John's carelessness in hotel rooms is one of many reasons I'm glad I don't have an integral camera.—
    “ Do you still have that line to Jiiya in Kyoto?”
    “Unfortunately. I wish you'd let me get rid of it. He's a creep [43] .”
    — [43] A