Listless in an Ivy Halo
an excerpt

He thought, fluorescent light. "Flit thru genes co," he said out loud. "Reflecting slut ho. Fortnight cell use. Flustering lo tech.

Converse All Stars. "Transverse locals. Call rates revness. Resolvent car lass. Stern as coveralls. Travellers as cons."

Green Cardigan. "Regan cigar den. Cadging nearer. Grecian danger. Careening grad." Not exactly definitions, but at least they are words, more or less.

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The man sat there quietly for a moment, looking at the trees and the water.

"You know, you see in all the old spy movies that operatives meet in parks and talk about matters of intrigue, but actually sitting here and about to talk about something that could mean both of our lives, I feel very exposed." He didn't look at her until the last bit of this speech, but when he finally did, Hannah found that she didn't know what to say. She swallowed mutely.

He looked around casually, and said, "We should stand up and walk around, but not right away. No sense in drawing attention to ourselves."

"Yeah, obviously. We don't want that," Hannah stammered. "You seem like you know what you're doing."

"Do I?" he asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "Imagine that. I really have no idea."

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before the young man stood up and held his hand out to her. She took it, grateful that it wasn't as clammy as the rest of her felt, and let him lead her back the way he had come. He continued to hold her hand, but she found it comforting rather than alarming, as she would have a few days ago.

She felt like she had gone over a threshold, and was now living someone else's life. She also had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't doing such a good job with it.

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They had reached the third floor landing and Oz produced a key to unlock the door. Inside, it looked like a cyclone had traveled through a library, a paper factory, a Radio Shack and briefly through a vacuum bag and then had come to this room and died a slow, painful death, with much writhing and scratching at the walls. It was messy.