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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| a300264 | Now you've brought him in for a burglary that, unless I'm mistaken, didn't actually take place." "He was in the process of breaking into the building," she said. "We caught him in the act." Somehow, his smile grew even broader. "Really? He was in the building? Was he even in the parking lot? One of your colleagues says he wasn't." "How did you--" "Did my client have any burglary tools in his possession? Lockpicks? A crowbar hidden up his sl.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| c4d6d8f | If you even think about pulling another heist, I'll be there. If you rob a bank, I'll be in the vault waiting for you. If you so much as shoplift a candy bar, I'll be standing right behind you in the convenience store. Remember this room, because you will be back here. Soon." "Admission of the intent to harass my client," Perkins said archly. "Go fuck yourself," Harmony told him." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 0f32211 | The problem with security, real and bulletproof security, is that it's ugly. By way of example, take a look at a supermax prison or better yet, a liquor store in the bad part of town. The rich and beautiful want to feel safe in their homes, but they don't want to look out through barred windows or ruin their view of the canyon with strings of razor wire. There's always a compromise between safety and aesthetics, and that compromise is where.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 9b7b06f | In my experience, the handoff was the most dangerous part of a deal. If your client decided to pay you in bullets instead of cash, this was where it would go down. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 264c6b0 | Standing next to Caitlin was like walking into a lioness' den wearing a suit made of T-bone steaks. No amount of infatuation could make me forget what she was, or drown out the memory of Artie Kaufman's dying screams. So why did I linger on the steps outside the restaurant, flirting around the edges of a goodnight kiss like a teenager? | Craig Schaefer | ||
| a634f6c | There are few things more dangerous than a zealot with discipline | zealots | Craig Schaefer | |
| f24d657 | I can't hear you, people! Make some noise if you want a good show. How about death? Do you wanna see lots and lots of death tonight?" I took in the applause, the hollering, the hammering feet, basking in it. Then my arm shot up, pointing one finger to the ceiling. The guard-tower window exploded. A man plummeted from the tower, slamming on the concrete floor behind me with a splat like someone stomping on a tomato. He'd been torn open from .. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| e37dc0b | A marketing ploy, or proof of Illuminati mind control? Over the past week, the images have spread from Miami to Houston to LA, painted by ordinary citizens who claim to have no memory of the deed. Plagued by nightmares, these afflicted souls are . . . | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 9ad0b8e | Good evening, Eisenberg Correctional. This is your new warden speaking. You may have noticed that every single door in the prison has just opened. This is in keeping with our new 'leave whenever you want' policy. We fully encourage you to explore this exciting new option! Also, for your information, the guards have been complicit in a scheme to orchestrate inmates' deaths for profit, and you outnumber them by about fifty to one." I clicked .. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 7fab3cf | His eyes bulged. "How the hell...who are you people?" "She's the right hand of a demon prince," I told him, "and I'm her boyfriend. Probably should have found that out before you blasted me with a fire hose, huh?" "He did what?" Caitlin said. "Aw, it's okay." I gave Jablonski a shove, getting him moving up the corrugated metal stairs." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 0cdd6e6 | What about him?" one of Brisco's entourage asked, glaring at Jablonski. They all were, actually. He wasn't a popular man. I pretended to think about it. "Well, here's the thing. I promised I wouldn't kill him if he did everything I told him to, and he did." I patted Jablonski on the back. "So I guess here's where we part ways. Nice seeing ya, buddy." "Wait," Jablonski said, his head on a swivel as he backed up against the guardrail. "You ca.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 3502f3c | Oh. Oh. Well, that is useful information. Thank you, dear. Yes, yes, you're terribly thoughtful and I couldn't have a better best friend. Yes, we'll have to do a--" A con with a bloody spike in his grip charged at us, shrieking like a madman. Caitlin's free hand clamped down over his face. She wrenched his head sideways, his neck breaking with a sharp snap, and let his corpse drop to the concrete. "--a girls' night out when I get back," she.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| c30c27c | I chuckled. "Yeah, okay." He relaxed, sinking back in his chair, mirroring my smile. "But you know the old saying," I told him. His brow furrowed. "What old saying?" "Two people can keep a secret," I said, "if one of them is dead." He barely had time for the shock to register on his face as I grabbed his wrist and yanked up his right hand. I pressed the muzzle to his temple and his hand to the barrel. "No," he gasped, just before I pulled t.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| af65320 | Cait," I called over, "how much is this going to cost?" Sudden silence. Every eye in the room fell upon me, cold as winter ice. "Right," I said, holding up a hand. "I'm just gonna maybe shut up now." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 7676555 | Shape-shifter?" he snorted. "No such thing." I leaned back on his couch and tilted my head at him. "Gary?" I said. "You've got demon blood. You know I'm a sorcerer and that magic is real. Are you really gonna take the 'no such thing' angle with me?" He glanced down, biting his lip. "Yeah, okay," he said. "Fair point." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| ba1c3f7 | Do I look Lithuanian to you? | Craig Schaefer | ||
| bd76f25 | she spat a single word. A long, guttural, twisting word that evoked frozen Germanic winters. The trigger to the spell she'd been weaving for days. The toxic miasma above our heads exploded with a peal of thunder and her spite-fueled power crashed down on Cesar, one man alone in a torrent of death. The paper cut on his bicep ripped open, as if someone had taken pliers to his skin and given it one brutal, wrenching tug. Blood gushed from the .. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| b516823 | Whatever you did, man, you laid her to rest." I didn't lay Stacy's soul to rest. I sent her to hell. It wasn't my finest hour." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 8603bf6 | 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.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 63ff9a0 | 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." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| b737aeb | 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. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 03cea8f | 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. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| a3915a1 | 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. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| cd528a1 | 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. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| ce3eed0 | 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. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 5379735 | 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.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 3bbeb41 | 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.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 35fcf8c | 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. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 65616f7 | 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." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| a209292 | 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. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| d709a65 | 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." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| a5deda2 | I was about one demographic too old, one decade out of fashion, and two tax brackets too poor to hang with this crowd. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 1bb6197 | 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. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 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." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 8263153 | 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." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| a52ac46 | 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." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 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." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 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. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 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.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 4c82353 | 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.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| faceae5 | 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.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 50f6406 | 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.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| cb723ef | Apocalypso dancing! Sunday Sunday Sunday! You'll want to cut your wrists with the whole knife, but you'll only need the edge! | Craig Schaefer | ||
| d79e54c | You'll want to cut your wrists with the whole knife, but you'll only need the edge! | Craig Schaefer |