The Anathema Read Online Free PDF Page A

she concluded, nodding to herself. “Chandi will use Grigori. Renton, find out where Alex is now. If I know that boy, he is bound to upset Grigori sooner rather than later. Let’s arrange for sooner, shall we? Oh, and call Katya, would you? It is time to put her to work as well. It’s time for Alex to learn something useful.”
    “If you say so, though I still think using Katya is a bad idea. She’s unpredictable at best. However, that’s your call. So, you and I are going to hang back and watch things develop?”
    “No, silly boy,” Anastasia scolded, sitting back down behind her desk, which always made her look younger than she actually was. “We do what we do best. We make friends.”
     
    * * *
     
    The girl on the other side of the table from Emily was built like a bird, with sharp features and wrist bones like sticks on her neatly folded arms. Her skin was an even, lustrous brown, her hair cut short and fashionable, almost boyish, and she had small, round spectacles that hung precariously from her nose. Chandi Tuesday was often mistaken, Emily knew, for an Indian, but she was in fact from Abu Dhabi.
    “Emily Muir,” she said in a clipped British accent, with a smile that seemed as perfunctory as a fold at the end of a toilet paper roll in a gas station bathroom. “ So good of you to come.”
    Emily was too flustered to do anything but nod, smile, and take the proffered chair. Chandi kept her waiting while she made a show of reviewing the files in front of her. Emily knew that she must have read them already – in fact, Chandi Tuesday had such a reputation for exhaustive preparation that she would not have been surprised if the girl already knew them by heart.
    Emily tried looking for her halo, and saw nothing, as she had expected. Chandi Tuesday was an F-Class Operator, and rumors hinted at the potential for M-Class in her future. Emily didn’t need to peak at the contents of the reports on the desk to know what they contained.
    “I have reviewed your reports in regards to Alexander Warner,” Chandi said, still looking down at the papers in front of her. “And I have a few questions I’d like to ask you. That is,” she asked, glancing up briefly, “if you aren’t too busy?”
    “No, not at all,” Emily said dishonestly, running one hand through her still damp hair. She had been showering when the summons had arrived, and she hadn’t taken the time to dry off before running over here. She would regret it later, of course. Her hair, if not dried properly, became insufferably poufy. “What would you like to know, Miss Tuesday?”
    “The two of you seem to spend considerable time together,” Chandi said, running one finger along a line of text. “But, it is not entirely clear to me whether or not the two of you have developed a romantic relationship. Tell me, what progress have you made?”
    “Well,” Emily said, fluttering her hands in front of her, “as you said, we spend a lot of time together...”
    “Then you aren’t dating Alexander Warner?”
    Emily hesitated for a moment, and then shook her head reluctantly.
    “Not exactly. But we have been seeing a lot of each other! I have been tutoring him for homeroom, and we eat breakfast and dinner together almost every day. We’ve been on dates, and I’ve had him over to my house.”
    Chandi Tuesday raised one pencil-thin eyebrow, so that it peaked out from behind her ridiculously mousey glasses.
    “Then your relationship is a physical one, yes?”
    “Not yet,” Emily admitted, biting her lip. “It’s not exactly easy. Alex is very shy, and he’s never had a girlfriend before, so he isn’t exactly sure what to do, and…”
    Chandi raised up a hand to interrupt her.
    “You are telling me that it is difficult to convince this boy to sleep with you?”
    “Y-yes,” Emily said, her cheeks burning. “I know how ridiculous that sounds, but it’s true. I have been trying.”
    “Really?” Chandi said, looking skeptical. “I don’t