Free Blind by Francine Pascal

of them probably spent all night telling Gaia’s Most Embarrassing Moments stories to each other.
    The enemy team was definitely winning the recruitment drive.
    Gaia shook her head. She was almost there. A few more minutes and she would know who was behind the gray notes.
    She jogged across a street through light traffic. New York might be the city that never sleeps, but the neighborhood around Fort Tryon Park was definitely taking a power nap. There was no one on the sidewalks, and only a few lights were on in the nearest apartment buildings. As Gaia slid in between the trunks of the huge old oaks at the park’s perimeter, an odd hush fell around her. The park might be small,but the trees did a great job of blocking the sounds and lights of the city.
    Like the surrounding neighborhood, the park was very serene. Lighting was sparse. Gaia found herself walking from one small pool of light, through wide areas of darkness, and into another temporary patch of brightness. It was too cold for crickets or frogs, though something small could be heard moving in the bushes. A wind kicked up, rattling the few dry leaves that remained on the trees. The moon rose up over the buildings to the east and added a pale pewter glow to the shadows.
    â€œAll right,” she said to the darkness. “You can stop trying to scare me. Won’t work. Wish it would, but it won’t.” Only she did feel something, a weird tingling at the center of her chest. Was this a last little touch from her uncle’s amazing Technicolor psycho serum, or was being creeped out a different emotion from fear?
    A few steps later she came up a slight rise and saw the Cloisters ahead. The Hudson River shone through the trees behind the building, its surface rippled with moonlight. The building itself seemed like something that had been lifted right out of medieval Europe and dropped on New York. An alien visitor sneaking in on the city from another time. Another world. In the moonlight the building was all strange angles and dark pools of shadow. Roman columns. Gothic arches.Bas-relief statues too dim to make out in the faint light.
    Gaia walked slowly, looking for her unknown partner in this midnight blind date. There was no sign of anyone waiting outside the building, so Gaia made a slow circle until she found a way through a covered arcade to the interior. The incredible unbroken quiet continued as she passed through a row of smooth pillars, across a pitch black walkway, and past more pillars into a moonlit central plaza.
    Waiting for her in the center of the open space was a tall, solid figure in a trench coat. There was a fedora hat on the stranger’s head and shadows across his face.
    Her father? Gaia took a half step forward. No, the shape was wrong. Tall, but not quite tall enough. Too thick. Not Loki, either. “All right,” she said to the stranger. “I’m here. What do you want?”
    The figure raised his head, and moonlight fell across the features of a wide, weathered face. “Gaia?”
    Gaia blinked and stared in surprise. “George?”
    A moment later, before any part of her brain that had anything to do with thinking could even start to kick in, she was hugging him. Life in the Niven household had been unpleasant, to be sure, but compared to what had come after, those days in the brownstone now seemed like a fairy tale. At least then she’d had Sam. And Mary. And Ed…
    When she realized that she was still hugging the retired agent, Gaia stepped back. “Um, yeah. Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to be you. I figured more, somebody looking to put new holes in my head.”
    George smiled at her, his big teeth visible even in the poor light. “It’s all okay,” he said. “I don’t mind.”
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” asked Gaia. “Did you send the note?”
    â€œYes,” George said with a nod.
    â€œAnd the first