Exton

When I learned that Pandora needed someone to coordinate things with the searchers, I volunteered for the job. The cemetery can spare me for a while - the residents won't mind - and I can do something no one else can do.

Yep, that's right - me, Jack, the guy with no fangs, no claws, no magic - I can do something none of these people can do.

I can go without sleep indefinitely.

I don't like it - it's not fun - but I can go for days, weeks - hell, forever, for all I know. It's not like it'll kill me.

So I get a cell phone that everyone calls in at, a notepad and a box of pens, and lots of coffee. Oh, and I get to ogle Patti's ass, a lot. That'll keep a man up in more ways than one.

Which is good, because so far as I can tell, all the information we've gathered adds up to a big fat zero. Maybe Mortuis can make something of it, but I'm just a regular guy.

So I answer the phone and drink coffee and take notes and drink coffee and flirt with Patti - kind of desperately, as if we both want to take our minds off what I'm doing - and drink coffee. Now and again I get a hug or a kiss and once in a while I administer a goose as Patti goes by. It never fails to elicit a shriek and a laugh from the room. God knows we need something to keep our spirits up.

I just wish I felt like we were doing more than trudging in endless circles....