I decided to get that out there. I had wanted them to trust me, but now that I knew them so well, I felt bad doing that.

They stared at me for a long long time.  "It's not your fault you're a good liar."  Polly decided, smiling at me.  "You're right."  And she was.  She was even tighter than she ever could know.  "I would have been killed if I hadn't learned to lie well." 

That was a half truth.  If my CRFBL, or conscience remover for better lies, had stopped working, or never worked at all, then I would have been killed.  There was no learning in the equation.  "That's not true?"  Emil said, horrified.  "Well of course it's true.  What do you think keeps us going.  Not the want to kill babies I hope.  No.  If we fail a mission, or feel bad about something, or are injured, we're killed.  So we don't." 

Josh, uncomfortable, changed the subject.  "Speaking of injuries, did anyone wake up to weird noises last night?  There's blood in the hallway.  Don't know how I'm the only one who noticed."  I cringed, hopefully inwardly.  I had missed a spot cleaning it up.  I had noticed, but hoped no one else did. Someone did.

"I headed noises. I went into the hallway, and the was a man who was trying to commit suicide, I couldn't let him do this of course, so I took the knife away, and sent him off to a mental hospital that would help him." I lied. "You're lying." Emil accused me. "No I'm not." "But you didn't tell us about it when it happened. You would have told us if it was a stranger. Heck you woulda let him die if it was a stranger. But this was personal. No offence, if you wouldn't let him die.

"None taken. I wouldn't have cared, but I would have told you, and you would have. You would have helped him. "I thought you were a brilliant liar." Josh smirked. "I am. You didn't catch it did you?" "No." "Emil just knew that I was likely to lie, so applied extra reasoning, and my personality to the lie, to find they don't quite match up." "So what really happened?" Liv asked.

"When?" Liv rolled her eyes. "When-" "Wait a minute! You never answered my question!" "What? Why don't you like Porter?" "Answer this and I'll tell you. Why do you like Porter?" "I like Porter because-"

"Wait, you like Porter? Like, like like?" Josh asked.  I laughed. I don't even know what that could possibly mean! Like like like?" "No do you like like him?"  I realized he meant what Polly and Liv had called like. 

"Oh!  You mean like!  I don't think I like him!  Was that even what you were asking Liv?"  "Yes."  "Well I'll tell you why I like him as a friend then.  He's very nice, and he would bug me forever if I didn't and he reminds me a little of my old HQ."  I was referring to his cheating, but then I realized he really did remind me of someone at my old HQ.  "How could he remind you in any way, of that place?"  Emil asked, disgusted.