Free Dirty Little Misery (Miss Misery) by Tracey Martin

get me the information I’d needed on Victor Aubrey, she’d done a bit more poking around. I supposed her appreciation of the Gryphons and all they did for humanity couldn’t overcome her curiosity. The Gryphons had patched the security hole she’d created, but before they did, Steph had discovered a file with my name on it, and four other similar files. One of those other files had Victor’s name on it. Given what I knew about our magical similarities, this was interesting.
    To put it very, very mildly.
    Alas, our names and “Philadelphia” were the only readable parts of the files. Steph had tried to decrypt them with no luck.
    She chewed her fry slowly. “I might have gotten the name of someone who could help, but I’ve been warned he’s not necessarily trustworthy.”
    “I’m looking for someone to break the encryption on what are stolen, probably top-secret Gryphon files. Anyone willing to do that is unlikely to be trustworthy by definition.”
    She made a face. “True. But you’re working for them, so don’t you think—”
    “No.”
    “But you might be able to find out more by poking around.”
    I threw my lemon wedge at her. “How? Poking around, asking about information I’m not supposed to know in the first place?” When Steph didn’t answer right away, I went on. “If you don’t trust this guy enough, I can ask Lucen. I’m sure there’s someone among the satyrs who can do it.”
    That got her back up. “Forget I said anything. I’ll set up a time to talk to my guy. Just consider this a warning. We don’t have any idea what dirt those files might have on you, and if he can decrypt them, he’ll be the first to find out. If it’s something you’d rather not be shared…”
    “Point taken.” I drained my beer and tucked into my fish. “And don’t worry. I have an idea for how to deal with the lack-of-trust situation.”
    Steph gave me a wry look. “Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?”

Chapter Six
    For the second day in a row I woke up to my cell phone’s ringtone. This time, however, I was in my own bed, which cut down on the disorientation. Rubbing my eyes, I checked the caller ID.
    Also, for the second day in a row, it was the Gryphons. “Yeah?”
    “Jess, it’s Andre. Sorry for the lack of notice, but the lab finished analyzing the Newton blood samples an hour ago. Can you come in to talk about it?”
    I rolled onto my side and sat up. Sunlight glowed around the edges of my curtains. It was almost noon. Apparently, I’d really needed to catch up on my sleep. “Yeah, sure.”
    “Great. Can you get here by two? We’re pulling together an official team meeting.”
    Beyond my door, I heard one of my roommates thudding about in the hallway. That’s when it dawned on me. “It’s Sunday. Don’t you people get any time off?”
    Andre laughed, but it sounded humorless. “Occasionally they let us out of the cage, yeah. But seriously, we got nine dead people in Newton. Time off will be in short supply for a while.”
    “Yeah, right. Nine dead people.” And a possible connection to the satyrs. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood, wishing I could crawl back under the blanket. “I can be there.”
    Two hours was plenty of time to shower, eat and hope the magic analysis had discovered something totally different than what I feared. It was also, as it turned out, a long time to try to dodge my roommates. Geoff cornered me while I was in the kitchen settling down with the egg white omelet I’d made myself.
    “Where have you been?” Geoff stretched his hairy arms and took a soda from the fridge.
    “Busy.” I dumped salsa on the eggs, silently cursing myself for not taking breakfast into my bedroom.
    Geoff rested his elbows on the tiny counter. His casual stance was a total cover-up. Inside, he was a jumble of discomfort, and the taste of it did not mesh well with my breakfast. “Val ran to the store. If you have a minute, we should talk when she gets