“Okay,” he said, slowly, adding, “I guess.” He took a deep breath. “So. Five Vees. Is that it?”
The Vee’s smile broadened into a grin, which showed the tips of several of his upper teeth. For the first time, Garner noticed that Venn’s canines were somewhat sharper than normal in humans—just sharp enough, he thought, to puncture the skin. He shuddered.
“And me, I’m guessing,” he said.
“And you of course—yes. You will be a part of it, certainly.”
Garner nodded. “Okay. So—what do we do?”
Venn regarded Garner with a particularly unnerving gaze for some time before shaking his head.
“Right now,” he said. “Nothing.”
Garner restrained himself from responding sarcastically, of course. He felt a slight sting, for the remark had sounded like a dismissal. Instead, he waited.
After a while, th
