You don't know the half of it.

Andrew climbed into Pat's compact sedan and they set off. As she pulled out of the parking lot, it occurred to him that he hadn't asked her anything about herself.

"So, Pat, what do you do?" he asked.

"I'm independently wealthy," she said nonchalantly.

"Oh." He wasn't sure how to follow up. "Do you, um- what do you do for fun?"

"Other than cute guys I meet at the gym?" she asked with a wink. "I play guitar and write songs. I've even been in a couple of bands, even though I'm between acts right now."

"Wow. What kind of music?"

Pat turned into a small residential area near campus. "Mostly folk-rock these days, although I've had a lot of different phases. Have you ever heard of the Tallahassee Hammer Trio?"

Andrew shook his head and she laughed. "Good! It's not a real band."

"It's not?" Andrew asked. He felt like he had completely lost control of the conversation.

"Nah, I like to fuck with people by making up bands and seeing how much they'll pretend to know them. I got one guy to say he went to high school with the drummer of a band called Waffle Flop Funhouse!"

He chuckled nervously. "Glad I passed the test. What would you have done if I had lied?"

She shrugged. "Probably the same thing I'm about to do anyway. It's not a dealbreaker, but I like to gauge how honest people are before I get to know them."

They pulled into the driveway of a well-manicured three-story townhouse. Andrew exited and followed her across a small path of paving stones to a recessed entrance.

"Nice place," Andrew said. "Do you live alone?"

"Yeah," she said. For a tiny moment he thought he saw her smile falter before she was ushering him enthusiastically into the foyer. When she flipped on the light, the first thing he saw was a large framed script on the wall. Looking close, he could see tiny pinstripes of hand-lettered runes.

"What is this?" he asked. "It looks like-"

"A golem script," she said. "From back before they started using the printers. Look at the calligraphy... isn't it spectacular?"

"Are you into golems?" he asked, straightening up. Suddenly Lilith's cautionary suggestions reoccurred to him.

"You could say that," she chuckled. "Adam! Come on out!"

A golem appeared from a nearby doorway and stood silently before them. Andrew looked it over as it waited impassively for another command. Unlike the golems he had dealt with, it was immediately obvious that this thing was not a human. It had the face and body of an average thirty-something man, but it was completely hairless. Wearing a pair of jeans and a tight-fitting white T-shirt, Andrew thought it almost looked more like a mannequin than a person. Had he not seen it walk into the room a second ago, he might have thought it was a very detailed sculpture made out of some flesh-like plastic.

"Cool," he said nervously. "You've got one. Uh, hi, Adam."

The thing smiled at him and replied in kind with a deep voice. Seeing the face animate briefly before returning to complete placidity was quite unnerving.

"Oh, sorry," Pat apologized. "Does he make you nervous? Most people haven't dealt much with golems."

"No! Not at all," Andrew lied. "I, uh, I think they're cool. I've never seen one, is all. I mean other than like on YouTube or-"

"Adam, restrain him." Pat commanded and before Andrew could process the command the golem had his arms locked behind his back in an iron grip. His eyes widened and he tried to flail, but it was useless.

"What the fuck?" he cried as Pat stepped out of kicking range. "Tell it to let me go!"

"I had such high hopes for you after you passed the first test," she said. "It's a shame you flubbed the second one so badly. Adam, his phone."

The golem retrieved it from Andrew's pocket and handed it to her. She held it up to his face and the facial recognition software unlocked it. Ignoring his protests, she opened the contact list and scrolled down until she found what she was looking for. Andrew strained against the golem's impassive arms to read what she was doing until she held the screen up for him to see.

we have a problem. it's about chambers. can't talk, very urgent. 1408 pygmalion ln. lmk your eta

The recipient was Madison Hill.