″Oh! Finally got a ping from the network!" Shadow descended abruptly and Callahan tightened his grip until she touched down on a roof across the street from a burger joint. She connected to Machiko's implant and sent, [Hey, we're finally out of jamming range. We need you to pick us up right now!]

[Jack's team is on the way,] Machiko replied. [They're tracking your signal.]

[Good. Thanks, boss.]

"What?" Callahan shook his head. "What ping? What're you talking about?"

"Cybernetic comlink implant." Shadow pointed at the side of her head. "It's linked to a network at the agency I work for. I just requested extraction."

"Oh. That's pretty cool." He grinned and let out a relieved breath.

"It's definitely proved itself useful -- when it's not being jammed by the bad guys, at least." She pointed at the burger place. "We can wait in there and grab a quick meal if you're hungry. Looks like there'll be a lot of people inside. Plenty of witnesses, so the goons who chased us wouldn't be willing to try anything even if they could find us." At least, she hoped they wouldn't be that stupid. She aimed another reassuring smile over her shoulder. "You'll be safe in there."

"That's, uh … good to know." Yet another confused look flickered over his face.

"By the way, we're not in the air anymore. You can let go."

"Oh!" His face turned red again as he placed his feet on the roof and took a step back. "Sorry."

[Shadow,] Machiko sent, [are you okay?]

[Yeah, we're both fine. We'll be in the burger place on the corner.]

[Shadow, that guy's not Callahan. He informed us that he couldn't get to the meeting just before the jamming started.]

[What?]

[Ramirez and her team picked Callahan up at his house. He spotted a suspicious van across the street so he stayed put. The van left the scene when Montoya started walking toward it. We have Callahan in one of our conference rooms.]

"You okay?" Not-Callahan reached out to touch her shoulder. "You're staring off into space."

"Oh, I'm just giving the boss a rundown on what just happened." To Machiko, she sent, [So who the hell is this guy?]

[We don't know, but if you were pursued by EGI security, he's probably with them.]

[I'll keep him at the burger place, then. Hey, do we have anyone at the Foundation named Darius?]

[We do not. Who is he?]

[I'll see if I can find out. Stand by.] Shadow spotted a maintenance ladder and pointed at it. "We can get to the street from there. Come on."

Shadow slipped her hand into his as they entered the building. While holding the door open for him, she caught a glimpse of another of his goofy grins.

I sure hope he's not just pretending to be such a nice guy. Now that I've gotten the idea into my head that we could have something together, if he turns out to be one of the pricks who were chasing us …

"Ah, there's an empty table right over there." He pointed.

"Cool." Shadow smiled, nodded, and followed Not-Callahan over to the table. She slid the menu screen out from the edge of the table, placed an order, and pushed the screen back into its slot. Then she shifted around for a moment, trying to get her tail into a comfortable position, and finally got up, turned the chair around, and sat backward on it. She rested her arms on the back of the chair, smiled at Not-Callahan, and hoped she didn't look as suspicious as she'd suddenly become.

"Now that I have a moment to think about it," Not-Callahan said as he placed his order, "I've worked up a bit of an appetite."

"Me, too. Oh, I just realized I never introduced myself. My name's Shadow."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Darwin Madigan." He grinned and reached across the table. She shook his hand and chuckled.

Okay, he just went ahead and told me his name. Assuming it's not a cover identity. But he's not even trying to pretend to be Callahan, so …

She decided to cut right to the point. "Any idea why those guys were after you?"

"Me?" He shook his head and looked genuinely bewildered. "I haven't done anything aside from trying not to be picked on at school. With wildly varying degrees of success." He shrugged. "Some of the jocks are harder to avoid than others."

"So … you don't know anything about Evolved Genetics, International? Specifically, something big they've been up to lately?"

"Never heard of 'em. Who are they?"

"It's a bioengineering corporation."

"Like genetically modified crops and whatnot? Or … people like you?"

"A little of the former, but mostly so they can appear legit. Mostly the latter."

"I thought there was a ban on producing more chimeras."

"There is. I'm guessing they're either defying it or planning to. Underground labs producing more of us have been found occasionally, so it might be something like that."

"Huh. I don't have a problem with more of you being created. I mean, it'll have to be done someday to prevent all these new species from going extinct. But I am dead-set against forcing them to be toy soldiers like the original ones were."

"We're definitely on the same page, there. We figured you might have some vital info about that, since they seemed so determined to capture you."

"It doesn't make any sense that they'd be after me. None at all. I don't work for that company and, as far as I know, none of my relatives ever worked there."

A motion in the corner of her eye drew her attention and she turned to find a robot wheeling up to their table with a pair of trays. She smiled and took her tray from it.

"Aw, thank you." She didn't know if the bot was an AI or just a simple automaton, but she'd made it a personal rule to always treat them no differently from anyone else. It was partly a way to be remembered positively in the event of any of them gaining sapience later, but more than anything else, she just considered it the right thing to do.

Both of them took a few bites of their sandwiches and sipped their drinks before Darwin spoke again.

"Okay, so, since it's unlikely those guys were after me, could they have been coming for you?"

"Huh. I suppose it's possible." A realization slowly sank in and she grimaced. How did I not even consider this? "When I was briefing the boss on what happened to us, she said the guy I went to the park to meet wasn't able to make it. He caught someone surveilling him, so he stayed home and notified my boss. She tried to tell me, but that's when someone jammed our comms. They may have been trying to get me just to see if I knew anything."

"So … okay, so … you weren't there to meet me?" Darwin shook his head quickly as if he'd been slapped.

"Looks that way." She took another bite of her chicken sandwich, sipped her root beer, and frowned. "Why were you there?"

"It was a blind date my friend Darius set up."

"A blind …" Shadow stared at him for a long moment. "You just happened to be there at the exact time and place I was sent there to meet an informant?"

"L-looks that way." He shrugged. "He set me up with a girl from school, Bianca Zadzisai. We were going to meet there and go see a movie or something." His eyes opened wider and he gasped and pulled his phone out, stared at the screen, and winced. "There's a flood of texts from her asking where I am. She must've started sending them after my phone was jammed."

"Oh, no." If he's being honest about that, it's a damn shame. That poor girl must think he's been in a car accident or something.

"Oh, hell." Darwin dropped the phone, leaned forward, and facepalmed. "She's pissed."

"Seriously? She's pissed off instead of worried about you?"

"See for yourself." He pushed the phone across the table and rubbed both hands over his face.

Shadow picked up the phone and skimmed the last few messages. Whoa. I don't think I've ever seen a single person use that much profanity in such a short time. She pushed the phone back and covered her mouth with her hand.

"That's just not right." She reached across the table and laid her hand over his. "Y'know, if this is how she reacts instead of considering the possibility that something might've happened to you, then you might be better off without her."

"Huh. I suppose." He managed a shaky smile, turned his hand over, and clasped hers. "I can't imagine having as good a time with her as I just had with you, anyway."

"Really? This was fun?"

"Well, once the fear wore off and I started getting into the spirit of things, yeah."

"So, uh … you'd be open to the possibility of a second date?"

"I would, yeah." He grinned.

Well, at least tonight wasn't a total loss, then.