Alice described what she had learned as clearly as she could, then asked Klein:
"Do you have any suggestions for handling this?"
"...Report it to the Church?" Klein answered, predictably enough.
Alice choked. She realized that asking Klein about this sort of problem was a terrible idea, so she quickly returned to her original point:
"...Forget it. Stay away from Hazel."
"That might be hard..." Klein gave Alice a helpless look. "I can't skip every party she attends... Oh, right. There's something I need to tell you."
Alice turned to him.
Klein chose his words carefully as he brought up Winifred:
"Do you know Winifred Grigori? After you went upstairs with Hazel..."
He gave her a rough account of what had happened after she went upstairs. When he finished, Alice pressed her lips together and began studying him with a suddenly grave expression.
"...What are you doing?" Klein grew nervous for no apparent reason.
Alice stared at Klein for over ten seconds without finding a suitable question. She realized that friend, colleague, or any similar word seemed inadequate to describe their relationship, so questions suited to those relationships seemed wrong to ask.
After turning it over in her mind, Alice found that ally was the word that fit them best. It sounded too distant, but what bound them together really did seem to be a shared goal. Though that goal was gone now, at least their goals did not conflict.
...What if they did?
Alice opened her mouth but ultimately left that all-too-real subject alone. Instead, as Klein grew visibly more nervous, she reached out, swiftly ran a hand over his hair, and declared:
"Hmm. It feels much nicer than that rat's fur..."
"?" Klein's eyes widened. Before he could react, Alice vanished from where she stood, leaving him clutching