Free Edge of Dawn by Melinda Snodgrass

right.”
    â€œEddie also wants you and the sword at the Rochester research facility as soon as you can manage it.”
    â€œYeah? Well, that’s not going to happen real soon.”
    â€œWhat’s up?”
    â€œI need to come home for a day or two. I’ll take a commercial flight.”
    â€œCall me with your itinerary and I’ll have a car waiting at the Sunport.”
    â€œThank you. You’re the best. I also need Cross. Is he out back?”
    â€œHe hasn’t been around for a few days,” she said.
    â€œLeave messages for him at the usual drops. Tell him to get back and wait for me at Lumina.”
    â€œGot it,” Jeannette said, and hung up.
    Anxiety and a nervous knot in the stomach propelled Richard to his feet, and he walked out into reception. Azura/Amy looked up.
    â€œWould you please book me on a flight back to Albuquerque?”
    â€œWhen?”
    â€œToday.”
    The red hair bobbed as she nodded and bent to her computer. She gave him an odd look, but just nodded again.
    Richard returned to his office. Since he was a police officer, he had the option to travel with his weapons, but it often led to questions and delays. Easier to leave the guns behind, though the thought of that made a place between his shoulders itch. Everything about Titchen was making him twitch. He shook off the feeling. Just because the man had turned up twice didn’t necessarily mean anything. Coincidence was not causation. Removing his suit coat, he shrugged out of his shoulder holster holding the .40-caliber Browning. He then bent and removed the ankle holster with the Smith & Wesson .38 snubby, and placed them both in a bottom desk drawer. He felt strangely naked without the dragging weight of his weapons. He touched the hilt in its holster at the small of his back for reassurance.
    Azura/Amy tapped on the door and stuck her head into the office. “I’ve got you booked on a direct flight out of LAX leaving at four fifty. Okay?”
    â€œSounds great. When should I leave for the airport?”
    She pulled her cell phone out of a pocket and checked. “One thirty. I was about to get lunch. Want me to bring you something? The food at the airport is awful.”
    â€œThat would be very nice, thank you. Club sandwich with avocado on wheat bread. Lemonade.” Richard dug out his wallet and handed her a twenty.
    While he waited for Azura/Amy to return, Richard read through his e-mail. There was a note from Eddie reminding him about Chen. Another team, researching ways to save the world’s reefs, needed another $2 million. The energy division wanted an appointment to present their proposal.
    â€œMaybe Lumina should add a cloning project,” Richard muttered to the room.
    The outer door opened, and Azura/Amy returned carrying a plastic sack and a to-go cup. Richard joined her in the outer office to eat. He ate quickly, constantly checking his watch. At one o’clock, he balled up the sack and tossed it away. “Well, I better get going. And we better do that … um … that inoculation.” He reached into the holster at the small of his back and removed the sword hilt.
    After two years at this, Richard still hadn’t figured out the right approach. If he had the sword already drawn when a person entered the room, that was sort of alarming. Unless someone was really enamored of the Highlander movies, seeing your boss with a long black blade shot through with silver lights in his hand was never comforting.
    The other option was to draw the blade in the person’s presence, though when he pulled his hand away from the base, and the aforementioned long black blade suddenly appeared out of his hand, it was also disconcerting if not downright alarming. Azura/Amy had that whole Goth thing going, but she was a young woman, and meeting her with a sword in his hand seemed like a rather unsubtle metaphor, especially given her evident interest.