Free Interesting Places (Interesting Times #2) by Matthew Storm Page A

“Something spicy with noodles.”
    Oliver had decided he wouldn’t bring
up the subject of talking kittens, but he was still curious about last night.
“How was your date?”
    “It was fine. She liked the shrimp,
and she thinks you’re very well-trained.”
    “She said that?”
    “Not in so many words,” the cat said.
“We don’t really have language. Well, not the way I do now.”
    “You’re welcome, by the way.”
    “Oh,” the cat said. “Thank you. I
won’t pee on your bed anymore.”
    “Thanks.”
    Later, over rice noodles that Oliver
had cut into very tiny pieces so the cat could eat them without making a mess,
Jeffrey said, “Do you think you could?”
    “Could what?”
    “Make her talk? Make her like me?”
    Oliver sighed. Was this all anyone
was going to ask him about anymore? “No. Not yet, anyway. Maybe someday.”
    “Oh.”
    “Would you really want me to?”
    The cat thought it over as he toyed
with a piece of chicken. “It would be nice to have someone like me around. It
gets lonely, being unique.”
    Oliver nodded. “I guess that makes
sense. Maybe someday, when I have some control over this thing I can do. I
can’t now. I’d probably just turn her into a clock or something?”
    “A clock ? Why would you turn
her into a clock?”
    “It was just an example.”
    “Oh. Okay. Do you want to watch Star
Trek tonight? You’ve earned it.”
    “No.”
    They watched Doctor Who instead.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 8
     
     
    A week went by during which nothing
of any special note happened. There were no incidents involving ancient
vampires, none with werewolves, and no aliens made their existence known. To be
fair, Oliver had yet to meet an alien and wasn’t entirely sure they really
existed. Then again, he wouldn’t have been at all shocked if during his reading
he’d learned that Artemis and one of her previous teams had repelled an
invasion from another galaxy at some point in the past. Very little took him
entirely by surprise anymore.
    Oliver finished going through the
files he’d been assigned just before lunchtime and went into Artemis’s office
to report. He waited as she set a clothbound book she’d been reading aside and
was surprised to see he recognized the title. “ The Other Side of the Sky ?”
he asked. “That seems like an odd choice for you.” He’d read the book as a
teenager. It was the first in a series of fantasy novels about a man who
traveled to a magical world and became a wizard.
    “Why is that, Mr. Jones?”
    “Because it’s not an ancient text
written in a language I can’t understand. I didn’t know you read for fun.”
    “I do, but today I am not. You are
familiar with the book?”
    “I read it a long time ago. It’s kind
of a Tolkien knockoff, if I remember it right. Elves and fairies and all that.
Did you know the author disappeared? I think it was during the 1950’s. He went
for a walk one day and nobody ever saw him again.”
    “That may not be entirely correct,”
Artemis said. “However, it is not important at the moment. You have finished
the files I gave you?”
    “I did.”
    “Did you learn anything interesting?’
    Oliver thought it over. Everything he had learned had been interesting, but he knew full well Artemis was going to
want him to say something specific. “I was surprised the Loch Ness Monster was
real.” According to the file, it had died of old age in 1847.
    “Ah, yes,” Artemis nodded. “The poor,
lonely creature. Last of its kind for all those years.”
    Oliver hadn’t thought of it that way.
The file hadn’t referenced other Loch Ness Monsters, but logically, the
creature had to have ancestors. “Yeah. I guess being unique really isn’t easy.”
    “Are you referring to me, Mr. Jones?”
    “No, I was thinking of Jeffrey,
actually. He said it could be lonely. I guess the same thing is true for you,
though.”
    “Is it?”
    Oliver’s eyes widened. “Oh, my god,”
he said. “Are there more of