"If he's concerned about it, he could find out where you've been easily enough,"

Owen said. "Don't worry about him."

"I'm not worried about him. I just don't want to deal with him." I turned to Jake.

"Make sure he gets home okay."

"I'll take care of him. C'mon, boss. Let me get you home. I feel responsible."

"You are responsible." But Owen was grinning at his assistant, so I felt better about his condition. "And I can get home by myself."

"You shouldn't go on the subway in that condition," Jake insisted. "You're just asking to be mugged."

"Let them try." There was that edge to his voice again that sent a chill down my spine. I left him and Jake still arguing and headed to Verification.

The moment I stepped through the door into the office, the green color began to rise in Gregor's face. By the time I made it to my desk, he was in full monster mode.

"Where have you been?" he snarled. "That was a particularly long lunch."

"I've been with Mr. Mervyn the entire time," I said, draping my jacket over the back of my chair. "A situation came up where he needed my help. You can ask him about it, if you like." I almost surprised myself with my calm tone, but I hadn't survived a year with Mimi without learning how to deal with a boss in the midst of an outburst, and there I didn't have the CEO on my side.

Gregor changed back into his human form so rapidly he looked like someone had stuck a pin in him and let all the hot air out. Then just as rapidly, he swelled up again.

The change was so sudden that it was more funny than scary. "And what's this I hear about you making recommendations about my department to Personnel?"

Oh, that. It crossed my mind that maybe I should have at least pretended to follow the chain of command when I'd suggested having verifiers placed in other offices, but as it had grown out of my comment about having the monster boss in the one place where the employees could see the green skin, I hadn't really thought of talking to Gregor first.

But I was in no mood to deal with someone desperately trying to hold onto whatever power base he could after what must have been a devastating demotion. "It grew out of a conversation I was having with Rod about other matters," I informed him with as much ice in my voice as I could muster. For a moment I allowed myself a fantasy of suggesting him as a test subject for that new spell.

"You have a complaint to make, you make it to me."

I faced him directly and said, "I've only been here three days, and I've seen enough already to know that this has to be the worst-managed department in the entire company. You're treating extremely rare and valuable people like cattle, and it's a miracle you haven't lost your entire staff by now. There, now I've complained to you. And now I'm going to talk to Personnel again."

Actually, I was going to bitch to Rod about the way he must have broken the news to Gregor to piss him off like that, but Gregor didn't have to know that. He could stew about what I was going to report. I imagined he'd gotten in some trouble for lying about having his anger-management problem under control.

I gathered my belongings and stalked out of the office in a beautifully dramatic exit, if I do say so myself. I just wished the big-picture stakes weren't too high for me to threaten to quit, but I couldn't get the image of a faint and shaken Owen out of my mind.

For once, I felt like I had a real mission that I had to help carry out, no matter what the inconvenience to me might be. And if I could do something about that inconvenience, well, so much the better.

I hoped Rod was ready for Hurricane Katie.

twelve

I still had a good head of steam going when I reached the personnel office. "Is Rod in?" I asked before Isabel had a chance to greet me. "He's in a meeting—an employee review up in P and L—but he should be back any minute if you want to have a seat."

She didn't have to ask me twice. I sank wearily into the overstuffed chair in front of her desk.

"Can I get you some coffee?" she asked. "How about a margarita?" She grimaced.

"Ouch. Let me guess, Gregor?" I nodded. "How do people work under him?"

"Don't ask me, sweetie. I just know there was a resounding sigh of relief when he was reassigned after his 'accident.'" She made air quote marks with her fingers and smirked. Then she perked up. "I can't give you a margarita on company time, but a group of us are getting together for a girls' night out tomorrow. You should come.