Page 25 of Renaissance Bear

Alis echoed that, "Huh," dubiously, but Ashley looked entirely serious, so Alis shrugged pleasantly. "Well, if I helped,I'm glad. It seems like a great faire and I wouldn't want anything to happen to it. Um, excuse me for a minute? I'm running later than I thought and need to call my sister to let her know I'm okay."

"No worries. Come over to the bar for a drink if you want, when you're done."

"Thank you." Alis escaped to the beer garden, which just about doubled the size of the bar: it was roofed, with heavy-duty plastic windows that could be rolled up or down, and scattered with mosquito zappers to help keep the bugs away.

It was also blessedly, blissfullyquietcompared to the good-natured cacophony inside. Alis wandered down the steps and out into the lawn, which had picnic tables of its own to extend the pub's footprint even farther. The cheerful bear logo above the pub made her smile as she called Jasmine, who picked up with an, "Aw, I assume you're not in the middle of having great sex, if you're calling me."

"God, I hope not. That would be weird and awkward. No, I'm at the Thunder Bear Brewpub with Jon and fifteen million other people in his immediate family."

"Whoa. He took you home to meet the family already?"

"Oh, God, no, not like that. Things got a little dramatic after you left." Alis sat on one of the picnic tables, shivering a little in the night breeze and watching fireflies glimmer in and out of sight as she caught Jasmine up on the evening. She ended with a cautious, "You don't, um. You know. Ummm. Poke around in places you're not supposed to online, do you?"

"Are you asking if I have a place waiting for me at the Black Hat conference in Vegas this year?"

"…is that like the Red Hat Society with the old women who wear purple…?"

"Yes," Jasmine said after a long enough pause to make it clear it was very muchnotlike that. "If the old women who wear purple are extremely good at coding, it would be just like that."

"Then I guess, yes, I'm asking if you have a place at that conference."

"Absolutely not," Jasmine said. "Those people are way, way,wayout of my league."

Alis never used the video phone when calling Jasmine during faire, but just this once she wished she had, so she could glare at her twin. "Okay, so I don't know what you're saying, then."

"I'm saying I'm not a world-class hacker."

"Are you a likecountry-class hacker? A state championship class hacker? Are there levels like that? Regional champion? I don't know about any of this!"

"What," Jasmine said with what sounded like patient amusement, "do you want hacked?"

"Is this the kind of thing we should be discussing on a public line?"

"Obviously not, but I can't do it anyway so it doesn't matter!"

"Oh. Well, okay. I guess I was just wondering if we could find out who'd filed the paperwork to buy the land before the bank opens tomorrow. And who signed off on it."

"You want somebody to hack a bank and a town council?"

That sounded much worse than however Alis had been thinking about it in her mind. "No! I mean! I guess so, but no, obviously not, not when you put it like that!"

"That's good, 'cause that would be hella illegal. Sooooo does this mean I should or should not be expecting you to come home tonight?"

"Um. Probably I'll be home. I think Jon's so caught up in this whole weird mess he probably doesn't remember I even exist. Which is fine! It's like his livelihood and stuff." Somehow that didn't make it feel quite fine. It felt like a theatrically tragicdisappointment, which was ridiculous enough to let Alis smile some of it away. "Although I might need you to come pick me up, honestly. I'll let you know in a while?"

"If I leave this parking place I will never get it back."

"That's what you said this morning when we went to the diner and that turned out fine!" Alis paused. "Was that only this morning?"

"It's been a busy day, babe. Romantic interludes and getting your ass handed to you by Lord Argent."

Alis groaned. "Did you have to remind me?"

"Yes. I need the fires of vengeance burning in your chest. I did not take two weeks out of my busy schedule for Lord Edward to lose his winning streak to a pompous ass like Argent."

"You didn't take two weeks out of your busy schedule at all," Alis pointed out. "You're a digital nomad."

"Do not bother me with such trifling truths," Jazz said with a sniff. "But do call me if you need me to come pick you up, okay?"

---