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8603bf6
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With that fence it's a total blind approach to the back door, I thought. Anyone could be hiding around that corner. Guards don't care. They've run this route a thousand times for a thousand days; they can't manage to stay alert. Company should mix up their shifts better-- "It's embarrassing, isn't it?" Harmony Black dropped into the chair beside me. She set down a cup of coffee and ruffled her own copy of the newspaper. "No operational disc..
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Craig Schaefer |
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63ff9a0
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Cameron furrowed his brow at me, like he didn't know what I was talking about. "We put Mr. Faust through the usual test," Fleiss said pointedly, as if she was feeding a bad actor his lines. "Oh, the test." Cameron's gaze darted between us. "Of course, right. Well, I...I take it he passed with flying colors?" If I hadn't, I wouldn't be breathing. Apparently Cameron didn't know what his own people were up to."
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Craig Schaefer |
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b737aeb
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The machinery joining the vats was a nightmare jumble of pipes and flanges. Since you couldn't really hire a professional plumber to set up your deathtraps, some clever techie on Angus Caine's payroll must have done it himself with whatever parts he had on hand.
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Craig Schaefer |
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03cea8f
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It looked like a cutoff valve. Assuming I had any idea what I was looking at. Assuming it would work. Assuming the whole rig wasn't an elaborate fail-safe, a trap that would start the killing rain as soon as I turned the wheel. That was a hell of a lot of maybes.
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Craig Schaefer |
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a3915a1
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A fresh bottle of Jack waited on the end table, but for the first time in weeks I didn't feel the need to pour a nightcap. The music was better.
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Craig Schaefer |
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cd528a1
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The pink sun tumbled from the sky like a shooting star, turning day to night in the space of a trembling breath. What rose in its place was a moon made of rotting meat, its vast surface pitted with crawling black mold, glowing in a starless sky.
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Craig Schaefer |
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ce3eed0
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I moved low across the lawn, keeping it smooth and quiet. I didn't expect a lot of resistance--professional grave robbing, as a career, was about a hundred years past its sell-by date--but I figured they'd have a few uniforms on the grounds keeping a lookout for kids and vandals.
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Craig Schaefer |
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5379735
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You must understand, Mr. Faust, that this is not the only world that exists. Like the petals of a snowflake, other dimensions weave and lace around our own, sometimes touching our planet, sometimes violently drilling through it. The tunnels were ancient relics, the doomed efforts of some long-dead sorcerer to create a permanent bridge between our world and another." "What other world?" He didn't answer at first. He got up, took a pair of mi..
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Craig Schaefer |
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3bbeb41
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Viridithol," I said, my blood running cold as I pieced the story together. "You reckless, dumb sons of bitches. You put samples of plant life from another fucking dimension in a drug and fed it to pregnant women. And you were, what, surprised when the kids came out looking like that?" "It was a tiny sample," he said, shaking his head. "Just...just the tiniest fraction, given to a small portion of the test group. We thought we had it under c..
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Craig Schaefer |
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35fcf8c
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Whatever the Garden had once been, now it was seething with corruption. Abundant life. It makes me laugh, in retrospect. Mr. Faust, did you know that there's a medical term for abundant life? For cellular life bursting out of control and running wild.
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Craig Schaefer |
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65616f7
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He was already an accomplished sorcerer, insofar as we can gather, and he began having visions of the Garden. He felt it calling to him, promising him the power of a god." "Is that before or after he started killing kids?" I said."
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Craig Schaefer |
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a209292
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He was convinced that he could steal a human's life force, drain their soul dry, and use that power to turn himself into the Garden's conduit and master. It was very trial and error, though. Several hundred victims worth of trial and error.
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Craig Schaefer |
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d709a65
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Imagine if somebody gave you a trophy for 'making such a great effort to be a real human being.' You'd be pissed." "That's one way of putting it."
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Craig Schaefer |
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a5deda2
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I was about one demographic too old, one decade out of fashion, and two tax brackets too poor to hang with this crowd.
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Craig Schaefer |
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1bb6197
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The Nook was in a perpetual state of slightly organized chaos, like it had been hit by a tornado followed by a slightly mad librarian with bold new ideas about the Dewey decimal system.
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Craig Schaefer |
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8a1c89d
|
Hey, Nadine?" I said. She glanced my way. "I normally have strong objections to hitting a woman," I said, "but if you talk to my girlfriend like that again, I could see myself getting over it real fast."
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Craig Schaefer |
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8263153
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Security?" I asked. "Like the Chippendales Nadine brought with her? I'm not kidding, Royce, I think those guys are off-duty strippers. I hope you're not paying her a consultation fee." Royce arched one eyebrow. "Oh, no, I think we can do better than that."
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Craig Schaefer |
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a52ac46
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This should set you free. It's okay, Stacy. You're going to a better place." "Um, Daniel?" Caitlin said beside me. "Yeah?" She shook her head. "You do know she's going to hell, right?" I froze, my fingers tight on the pouch's ties. "What?" "Far be it from me to read off the litany of her sins, but the girl was hardly a beacon of virtue."
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Craig Schaefer |
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7f41b4c
|
How do you feel about sushi?" she asked. "After a week of hospital food, I'd eat my own shoe and like it. Sushi sounds great."
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Craig Schaefer |
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e011c1c
|
You know all those movies where the bad guy gets captured, but it turns out that was the key to his master plan all along? Not gonna lie. I'd always wanted to do that.
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Craig Schaefer |
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19717e4
|
What is this?" Artie squirmed helplessly in the chair. "What, you want revenge? Is that what this is all about? You think that's gonna make you feel better?" Movement caught his eye, beyond the wall of blackened glass. Outlines of figures in the dark, seated, watching intently. An audience? "No," Stacy said with a wistful sigh. "No, Artie, you don't understand. Revenge won't make me feel better. Besides, you aren't worth it. This isn't abou..
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Craig Schaefer |
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4c82353
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Stacy," Artie snapped, "I don't have time for this shit, okay--" "The first message, which she said you'd understand, is that she's one of Caitlin's sisters. She's going to make sure you stay properly entertained until Caitlin comes back to deal with you personally." Caitlin. The memories hit him like a fist to the face. The chase through the house. The contract. The fire. Caitlin. No tears now, Artie. This is just a taste of what's to come..
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Craig Schaefer |
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faceae5
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Readers familiar with the Vegas Strip will have noticed the changing of casino names. This was done to provide a certain amount of legal cover (since the real casinos might not look kindly upon accusations of getting friendly with a guy like Nicky Agnelli) and allow for certain deviations from reality when necessary. Just assume that Daniel Faust's Vegas is a slightly skewed version of our own, glimpsed through a smoky glass. That said, eve..
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Craig Schaefer |
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50f6406
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Hie!" it cried in a buzzing voice, like a thousand flies fluttering their wings in unison. "You! On our wavelength! Carry our message! It's heavy, made of rocks!" "You aren't real," Sophia repeated like a mantra, shaking her head violently as she rummaged through the cluttered pantry. "You're a hallucination, not real, no, nothing to see here." "Apocalypso dancing! Sunday Sunday Sunday! You'll want to cut your wrists with the whole knife, b..
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Craig Schaefer |
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cb723ef
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Apocalypso dancing! Sunday Sunday Sunday! You'll want to cut your wrists with the whole knife, but you'll only need the edge!
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Craig Schaefer |
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d79e54c
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You'll want to cut your wrists with the whole knife, but you'll only need the edge!
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Craig Schaefer |
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17d49fd
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Static blared from the blood-streaked screen of her boxy television set, and a fallen lamp cast angled shadows over Sophia's mutilated corpse. Her murderer wasn't human. It was a faceless wooden mannequin with jointed limbs, like a life-sized version of an artist's posing doll. One of its hands ended in a wooden nub, the other in a jagged, rusty knife. The mannequin hunched over her body and plunged the blade into Sophia's stomach over and ..
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Craig Schaefer |
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fcad580
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I didn't murder Carl Holt, but to be fair, I had been planning on it. My girlfriend got to him first. She snapped his neck and left him dead on his partner's kitchen floor. I just burned the house down when she was finished. Nobody should have been able to connect me to that mess, though. Nobody.
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Craig Schaefer |
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22b0127
|
Carl Holt," I mused, fighting to keep the surprise from my voice. "Oh, I remember him from the news. Wasn't he that corrupt cop who was killed with his buddy, the Satan-worshipping porno director?"
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Craig Schaefer |
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8d4146e
|
Your traveling companion is a highly successful narcotics dealer." I held up a finger. "Point of order. She was arrested for marijuana possession twice, growing it once, and all three times the charges were dropped. She's never seen the inside of a courtroom." Harmony's lips curled into a pert half-smile. "And that, Mr. Faust, is why I call her 'successful."
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Craig Schaefer |
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0a4209e
|
C'mon, clock's ticking. Let's go pick a fight with an evil billionaire wizard.
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Craig Schaefer |
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3b0fc2c
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A use-name is an alias of sorts in occult circles. True names have the power to conjure and bind, but we have to call each other something or else the entire supernatural world would be reduced to "hey, you" and "that guy over there." "Caitlleanabruaudi," she said, or something similar to it, but my mind suddenly felt fuzzy and some of the syllables sounded like they could only be pronounced by a mouth with two tongues."
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Craig Schaefer |
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e6ab1c2
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There are some sounds, and some languages, that are so alien to our nature that the human brain naturally rebels at them. You'd think we'd take that as a hint. "Caitlin?" I managed to stammer, the rest slipping away from me. "Caitlin," she echoed. A sliver of tongue flicked across her pomegranate lips, as if tasting the name and coming away satisfied. "Yes. You may call me that. Now go."
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Craig Schaefer |
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41c0b81
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The only thing more dangerous and unpredictable than a junkie is a junkie with a loaded gun.
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Craig Schaefer |
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88e56f5
|
Luck comes naturally when you make it yourself.
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Craig Schaefer |
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1f2e6b0
|
Can he?" Margaux said. I shrugged. "He wouldn't be the first racket boss to get taken down in Vegas, not by a long shot, but he's got access to the kind of resources no human gangster could dream of. Bugsy Siegel didn't have a direct hotline to hell." "Actually," Bentley started to say, then shook his head and fluttered his hand in the air. "Never mind." --
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Craig Schaefer |
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d2d4835
|
It was professional courtesy backed up by the promise of mutually assured destruction. He could take out any one of us, if he put his back into it, but he knew that would bring every magician in the city down on his head at once. That was one fight nobody would be walking away from.
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Craig Schaefer |
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1363549
|
Yeah." Gary nodded. "She said that too, that it was your gun. Said this whole thing was your idea." My eyes narrowed to slits. Rookie technique. Make me think Jennifer was in the other room, rolling on me, so I'd do the same to her. One problem: Jennifer was my sister. Not by blood, people like us don't mark our family lines by blood, but she was my sister. She'd put a noose around her own neck before she'd put one around mine. I looked at ..
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Craig Schaefer |
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74a3a72
|
I looked at Harmony. Harmony looked at Gary. She knew he'd overreached and blown it. So did Lars. Only Gary himself was too dumb to figure it out. I cleared my throat.
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Craig Schaefer |
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74c62f6
|
There was a modern family for you. Demon mom, human dad, cambion kid. Just like Caitlin and me, minus the kid and the wedding rings. Wasn't sure how I felt about that.
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Craig Schaefer |
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cd6000b
|
How about you, Dan? What do you do for a living?" Well, Ben, until recently I was a hired wand for the biggest gang boss in Las Vegas, but we had a falling-out, so mostly I just run short cons and sometimes busk on Fremont Street doing sleight-of-hand tricks for spare change. I guess you could say I'm sort of a criminal bum. "I'm between jobs right now," I told him. "The economy being what it is."
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Craig Schaefer |
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2bc2720
|
Hey, you don't have any financial background, do you?" "I robbed a bank once," I said, and Caitlin kicked my shin under the table. To their credit, Emma and Ben favored me with polite chuckles. Melanie smirked. I liked the kid. "Daniel is too modest," Caitlin said."
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Craig Schaefer |
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5477e5f
|
So, Emma. Where are we on the ranch project?" "We're signing tomorrow. Things couldn't be running any more smoothly." "Ranch project?" I asked. Emma beamed at me. "It's a coup." 4. "What kind of coup, exactly?" I asked, though part of me thought I might be happier not knowing. Damn my curiosity."
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Craig Schaefer |
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0dde89b
|
She tapped her iPhone and showed me the screen. An aerial photograph looked down over a sprawling, dusty desert ranch. I half expected to see a tumbleweed rolling down the main thoroughfare, or maybe a couple of cowboys out for a high noon showdown.
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Craig Schaefer |