‘Well?’
‘I….’
She put the object down on the desk between us.
I stared. I’d wondered what had happened to it. ‘What’s that?’
‘You know what that is.’ She folded her arms, standing up straighter behind her desk. She was still shorter than me, despite the heels and the power dressing.
I could see she took my tallness personally. ‘No, is it some sort of stick?’
‘No.’
‘It looks like a stick to me. Where did you get it?’
‘It was found….’
‘What, by the stick-finder general?’ I almost laughed at my own joke.
‘This is not funny.’
‘Well, as humorous sticks go, I can see it lacks a certain risible quality.’
‘We don’t like smart-arses here,’ she said it with conviction.
I reached out as casually as I could and poked my wand with my forefinger, trying not to react at the now-familiar surge of power. I could pick it up, one quick gesture and Maureen would be a newt…. I was so tempted. ‘It’s just a stick. So, what?’
‘It is a magician’s wand.’
I turned my shock into mocking laughter. I studied Maureen as carefully as I could while pretending scorn. ‘Does Paul Daniels know? If he’s lost it, there could be a reward.’
‘It is yours.’
‘What would I want with a stick, especially some conjurer’s toy?’
‘It was found in your desk.’
‘I… what?’
‘Hidden.’
‘Who’s been searching my desk, you have no right…!’
‘It is not your desk. It belongs to MalTech. We can search our property if we want, when we want.’
‘I didn’t put it there, it is not mine.’
‘Then you won’t mind if we dispose of it then?’
I shook my head as the rest of my body began to tremble. Molcur was right; the wand did now feel like part of me, a very intimate part of me.
‘Come on, then.’ Maureen snatched up my wand from her desk. I saw the look of distaste on her face as the magic reacted to her hostility.
‘Where are we going?’ I followed her to her office door.
‘To the incinerator.’
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