bag. Sometimes we all go out together. "

She walked past me, still waving her fingers in the air to dry her nail polish, and headed down a short hallway. "Supply room's in there—pens, paper, what have you.

Not that we really need it." She didn't pause as she passed the open doorway. "And here are the bathrooms. Any questions?"

"I think that covers it." I felt queasy as I went back to my desk. This wasn't what I'd had in mind. They'd made me feel so important, so special, and here I was in a low-rent version of the secretarial pool. With any luck, I'd stay so busy that I didn't have to spend much time in this depressing office. If verifiers were so important to the company, I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't have better working conditions.

I sat at my desk and, for lack of anything better to do, started opening drawers to see what was in there. I'd just found a stash of multicolored sticky notes when the office door opened and a frazzled-looking woman came in. She was slender to the point of being skinny, with a halo of frizzy hair surrounding her face. I couldn't tell if she was middle-aged or if it was just the effect of her skinniness combined with the obvious degree of stress she was under that made her look that old. She crossed the room without acknowledging me and sat at the desk across from Gary.

Angie leaned back in her chair. "Don't let her get you worried. They didn't catch Rowena before she nearly went around the bend. It's not the job. She's just that freaked out all the time." She then turned back to her desk and started on a second coat of nail polish.

I'd been heading around the bend myself before I found out I wasn't imagining things, so I could sympathize with Rowena. I got up and went over to her desk. "Hi, I'm Katie," I said to her.

She looked up at me, then blinked like she expected me to disappear. Then she squinted, and at last she said, "I'm Rowena." There was something vague about her voice, like she lived in her imagination most of the time. If she really was the dreamy sort, then I could see where being able to see magic all around her would be enough to send her right over the edge.

Gregor's phone rang, and he grunted a few times while taking down some info. Then he bellowed, "Angie!"

"Just a sec, boss," she said, still painting her nails. "I need to finish this hand."

He came out of his seat, his face turning red. "I don't remember the last time we had a personal grooming emergency around here, but we've had plenty of verification emergencies!" he bellowed. He looked a lot like Mimi did before she turned evil.

Angie ignored him, continuing to apply polish to her nails. He grew even redder. And then he turned green.

I blinked like Rowena had, but he was still green, and his eyes were red. It was almost like the Incredible Hulk, but he didn't get bigger, just scalier and greener, and horns sprouted out of the sides of his head. I'd heard about having monster bosses.

I'd had monster bosses. But this was ridiculous.

Angie painted the nail of her pinkie, then screwed the lid shut on her bottle of polish and stood up. "Okay, Gregor, what is it?" she asked.

"They need you down in Sales. You need to see Hertwick. Take the new girl."

"C'mon, Katie." I got up to follow her. "You mind getting the door for me? My nails are wet."

I was eager to get out of there, so I rushed ahead of her to get the door open. Once it shut behind us, she said, "Don't worry about Gregor. He's all bark, no bite. He may roar and turn green, but he's cast a spell on the office that keeps him from being able to hurt any of us when he's in monster mode."

"What is he, exactly?" I hadn't seen anyone like Gregor in the city, and with the rate that people fly off the handle, you'd think I'd have seen at least one person turn green.

"Oh, he's human. Used to work in R and D, and then there was an accident. Rumor has it he was working after hours, trying to find a way to make himself look more fierce, and this is what happened. They moved him where he couldn't do any harm, and that cutie Owen got promoted into his old job." She gave me a sidelong look.

"Did you get to meet Owen on the grand tour?"

I knew it was tacky of me, but I couldn't resist playing this particular card. "Yeah, but I knew him before. He was the one who spotted me in the first place. He was in on my testing, and then he was with Rod when they first told me about the job." I tried to sound casual, like the whole thing was no big deal.

"Whoa, you are so lucky. I just love it when I get called to R and D, which doesn't happen often, or to some big executive meeting. He's a total hottie. Too bad he can't talk, but he's cute when he turns red."