Page 84 of Tell Me Why
“Brought your dinner,” she said, and he smiled wistfully, rising.
“Thank you,” he said. “Come sit. I’ll just be a minute.”
The feed was functional and quick, perhaps ninety seconds or two minutes, in all, then Leonard dismissed the young man and came to sit along the fountain from Tina where he could look her in the face.
“I’ve… been wanting to talk to you,” he said after a moment, and Tina frowned.
Was he going to try to recruit her against Tell? She hadn’t thought of it until just this moment, but it was intriguing. She could play the double agent, dig into the organizationthat Leonard was working with and report it back to Tell. Or Leonard could be smart enough to tease her along and manage to keep all of the useful information away from her, give herbadinformation, and sneak away the secrets she accidentally gave him about Tell and what he was doing.
Was Tina clever enough to play a double agent?
She liked to think that she was, but she was also aterribleliar, and… that made the whole thing dubious.
“Okay,” she said, trying to remember Isabella or Tell, and just coming out as Tina. Eager, credulous, interested.
Well.
That was fine.
She didn’t have to remember how to be Tina in the midst of all of the rest of it.
That was an upside.
He frowned.
“Why are you with Oscar?” he asked.
Oh.
Hewasgoing to try to recruit her.
“Um,” she said, and he shook his head.
“I don’t…” he went on. “I’ve known a lot of young vampires. Been around them, anyway. They aren’t like you.”
“Well, no,” Tina said. “Oscar isn’t like most other vampires, either.”
Leonard shook his head.
“You haven’t been around a lot of vampires, have you?” he asked. She shrugged.
Hard to know what would actually be important, here, and what she should keep to herself, but at the same time, she wanted him to keep talking to her.
“Not a lot, I guess,” she said. “Oscar doesn’t hang out with a lot of them.”
“Have you met Ginger?” he asked, leaning in slightly.
“What do you know?” Tina asked, and he leaned in just a bit further, confidential.
“I know that he’s playing at being someone he isn’t,” he said. “He doesn’t remember me, but I remember him from a long time ago.”
Problem.
This was a problem.
She wasn’t sure what to do about it, but demonstrating panic was probably the worst of her options.
“He has his reasons,” she said. “And I don’t question them.”
