first encounter with Verne Domingo you began to enter our business. And now that you've connected Jackie MacLain to his old family—"
"I should've known; your people are the ones hanging around Paula MacLain."
"Not just us," the Jammer said. "Them, too. The other side. Once you contacted her and someone started the paternity test, somehow they got alerted. Up 'til now the kids had gotten away with it—the baddies had lost track of them. Not any more."
"So who are they, then?"
Achernar and the Jammer exchanged glances. "At this point, you're better off not knowing," Achernar said, with the Jammer giving a reluctant nod. "I know you will find these kind of answers very unsatisfactory, but in the main it's true."
I sighed. "Look, if you're not here to give me info, just what do you want from me? And why all the futzing around instead of just setting up a meeting?"
He acknowledged my frustration with another faint smile. "To answer your second question, Pantheon doesn't really exist, so to speak. Currently, as far as any official sources are concerned, I am at a psychological convention attending various seminars, and tomorrow morning I will be presenting a paper of my latest research, no doubt to considerable controversy . . . though somewhat less direct mockery, thanks in part to your own Morgantown Incident making people more open-minded."
"Seminars . . . You're Dr. J. T. Achernar!"
His movement was the seated equivalent of a bow. "Correct."
"Now I start to understand. Your name was one of the more prominent ones I came across when doing paranormal research."
"I had good reasons for being willing to be open-minded myself," he said. "My research has provided few unambiguous results, of course, but as you may now suspect—"
"—part of that is deliberate." I finished. "If you made the wrong things public, it could get very dangerous for a lot of people."
He nodded. "As for what I wanted to accomplish by coming here . . . by letting you know exactly who was behind Jeri, I would like to make it easier for you to understand if we start sending hints in your direction. We may ask for help, through her, or you might get a request for an interview—perhaps even with Dr. Achernar—or in some other manner either request your assistance, or offer some subtle assistance of our own. But we have to avoid being visible. This is a shadow war, Mr. Wood. The world at large does not know of these