Playing with Fire: A Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count)(28)

The cop didn’t seem at all impressed, and the woman shot her partner a glare. “I’m Lieutenant Downing. Please, call me Janet. My partner is John Winfield—a cadet.”

Wonderful. A green recruit thought he was better than the one person in the city who stood between him and getting turned into a stone statue. He’d never know how fortunate he was I would never intentionally put someone at risk of exposure to any dangerous substance, no matter how much of an asshole he was. I abandoned my effort to mask my difficulty with speaking English and said, “Here how this work. I go to con-tam-in-ate-ed area. I clean. You stay safe. Do as I say. You no close-er than twen-tee feet. More if able. You watch, bored. Un-der-stand? When fire start, you ex-ting-guish when told. Neu-tra-lize when told.”

“Copy,” Janet replied, straightening. “If you don’t mind me asking, ma’am? What’s your certification level?”

Explaining all of my qualifications would make my mouth hurt, so I bumped my nose on Perky’s chest again, careful to keep my horn clear of him. “Purr-key?”

Few dared to scratch my chin, but I enjoyed the feel of his fingers digging into my fur. “Miss Gardener is a top-tier specialist, Officer Downing. Chief Quinn calls her in on critical cases as a consultant. Right now, she’s the only one in the city capable of handling all classes of gorgon material. She’s also certified in the handling of other substances. I’ve worked with her before. She’s very good at her job. She has a perfect record preventing additional exposure.”

“What containment gear will you need, Miss Gardener?” Janet frowned, her gaze sweeping over me. “We don’t have equipment for centaurs or equines, but I think given ten minutes, we can put something together. We’d have to wait for someone to bring suits over, though—the hazmat crew isn’t even here yet.”

There were no hazmat crews at the building yet? Where were they? New York had multiple response teams. In the time it took me to get Perky to Wall Street, one of them should have already arrived.

Perky chuckled. “That’s not necessary. Miss Gardener doesn’t need equipment to handle gorgon bile. As she’s going in without a suit, there are a few ground rules you will both need to follow. Should Bailey tell you to stand on one foot and cluck like a chicken, you will do it. She will be contaminated during the clean up. If you make the wrong move, you will end up being a statue. If you let her do her job, you’ll be safe. Cadet, you stick close to your supervisor.”

“Yes, sir!” both replied.

After giving me a final scratch and untangling his fingers from my fur, he turned his full attention to Janet. “If anything happens to her, Chief Quinn will be exceptionally unhappy. There are three people qualified to handle large scale incidents like this, and two of them are out of town for an unknown period of time. Her safety is your responsibility.”

To her credit, Janet didn’t laugh outright at Perky’s comment, but her lips curved in amusement. “I think she is the one protecting me, sir.”

“Don’t tell her that. It’ll go to her head, and we’ll never hear the end of it.”

While tempted to nip Perky for teasing me, I turned my attention to my job so I could hunt down something to eat and a quiet place for a much-needed nap. “Where bile?”

Janet turned to the building and pointed up. “Twenty-first floor, ma’am. I’ll give you the full details inside.”

As I had hoped, there were side doors, sparing me from having to bust through the glass revolving doors. Janet held the door for me, but before I could do more than take a single step, the cadet blew by me. The temptation to snort fire at him stirred. Smoke trailed out of my nose.

Perky yanked on a handful of my mane. “Don’t. Chief Quinn really will kill me if I let you attack an officer, even a useless cadet with an attitude issue.”

“One nip?”

“No, Bailey. Behave. Please.”

I sighed. “You stay here, no puke on other cops.”

“If you promise not to tell anyone this happened, I’ll pay for your dinner tonight.”

“Sold. Be back soon. May-be. De-pends on bile.”

“Good luck.”

I eased my way through the door, lowering my head so my horn wouldn’t slice through the door frame. It was a tight squeeze, but I made it into the building’s lobby. A short flight of stairs led up to a spacious room, its marble floors broken by columns rising to an arched ceiling. I tossed my head high and leapt up the four steps, landing with my hooves clattering on the tiles. The sound echoed, and the eerie silence unnerved me. “Too quiet.”

“It rather is.” Janet waited for the door to close before joining me. The cadet glared at me, taking the steps two at a time.

“Where ell-ee-vay-tur?”

“This way.” Taking off at a brisk walk, Janet guided me to the elevators. The sheer number of them astonished me. How many people did they cram into the building to need so many elevators? “Here’s the situation. Somehow, someone put gorgon bile in the ceiling. We think they used a time-delayed blasting cap and a minor amount of C4 to break the vessel containing it. Headquarters is unwilling to send anyone in hazmat suits in, as they don’t know if there are more explosives. I have a camera and a monitor with me, so you’ll go in and photograph the scene. Once you get close, I’ll evaluate whether it’s too dangerous to proceed with clean up.”