Free Over My Head (Wildlings) by Charles de Lint Page A

lose that other agent in the mall. Just leave it at home the next time you go out and don't want him to know."
    "But I might need to make a call."
    Cory shrugs. "So get a burner. You can even forward your calls to it if you have to."
    "So are you following me, too?" I ask.
    "Sure," Cory says with a grin. "But it's not so stalkerish as it sounds. I was coming by to talk to you. When I saw you heading out, I decided to tag along and see what you were up to."
    "In other words, you were sneaking around."
    "Hey, that's what coyotes do. Anyway, I was coming up to talk to you when I noticed Solana pull up. I figure he has to be using a GPS tracker. It's not like he's got our skills."
    " We can track people like that?"
    Cory taps the side of his nose. "You can if you've got the right nose."
    I look in the direction where Cory pointed.
    "What do they even want with me?" I say.
    "I don't know. Why don't you ask him?"
    "It's getting creepy. First they show up in time to save me from getting my ass hauled by Erik—"
    "Sorry to disagree, dude," Des breaks in, "but they totally went to town on your ass."
    I ignore him. "Which is like they're looking out for me, but then they stopped to hassle us when we were leaving school."
    "What did they want?" Cory asks.
    "To see if I had an alibi for when Clint Gaillard got killed." I see Cory trying to process the name and I add, "He was the guy who was running security at ValentiCorp."
    Cory nods. "Oh, yeah. Him. I heard it looked like he'd been killed by a Wildling."
    "Was he?" Des asks.
    "Don't know. I'd have to see the body firsthand. But back to your little problem here. I'll handle the high school bully if you'll do something for me. Go talk to Auntie Min."
    I shake my head, exasperated that no one wants to cut me a break. I just want a bit of down time before getting back into all this crap. Two weeks haven't been nearly enough.
    "We've already had this conversation," I tell him through clenched teeth.
    "I know. I'm not saying to do whatever she wants or even to agree with her. Just talk to her. Give her a little respect."
    "Why do you even care?"
    "Because she's got every damn bird, lizard and rat in Santa Feliz reminding me to ask you, and I'm sick of listening to them."
    "You can understand regular animals?"
    "I can if she sends them to me. So are we good with this deal?"
    I sigh and close my eyes, trying to think. I've been intending to talk to Auntie Min at some point down the road, and I really don't want anything more to do with Erik, so I decide to tell Cory what he wants to hear.
    "Sure," I say.
    "Okay, then. It doesn't have to be tonight, but soon."
    Before I can respond, Cory shifts into coyote shape and trots across the road. When he gets to the garage door, he goes through it like he just stepped through an illusion, not a real door.
    "Holy Batman!" Des says. "How did he do that?"
    My guess is he stepped momentarily into the otherworld, where there isn't a garage door, and stepped back out again once he was on the other side.
    "Ninja coyote skills, I guess," is all I say. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
    I know Des wants to hang around to see if we can tell what's happening inside, maybe talk with Cory when he comes back out, but I'm done. He hesitates as I push my way out of the hedge and start to walk away, but a moment later he's scrambling along after me.
    "Hey, slow down," he says, looking back over his shoulder. "Do you want Solana's tracker to show you motoring along at the speed of a car?"
    "Good point. Sorry."
    "Nobody seems to be following us," he adds when he's facing front again.
    "He doesn't have to."
    "GPS. Right. Dude, this is so messed up."
    "The Feds are just like the elders," I say. "They want something from me, but I can't figure out what it is."
    "At least you can just ask Auntie Min. She seems pretty straight-up to me, in a roundabout kind of way."
    He grins and I nod. You could say the same thing about Agents Solana and Matteson, but the truth is, I don't