Dead Red - M.R. Forbes Page 0,16

way to animate the dead without alerting him to your theft, and the means to help you disappear from his sight. It will not prevent your eventual confrontation. Nothing can do that. It will buy you the time you so desperately crave, as will the medicine I have provided. I will give you more when the Hua is returned to me."

I'd been promised more meds before. "How do I know you won't take the Hua and run?"

That same angry snarl was all the answer I needed. "I am no cheat, no charlatan, no thief. My promise is my bond."

"I'll need resources. Help."

"Fran will assist you with anything you require."

"What about Ms. Red?" I felt her lips on mine, her arms around me at the airport. The last time I had seen her, on her way back to Japan.

"What about her?"

"I'll steal the artifact. I don't want to kill her." What could I say? There was one soft spot left in my cold, dying heart, and she still had a place in it.

"Kill her or not as you see fit, but consider this: once you have stolen the Hua she will be left powerless against the more dominant Houses. You may be hesitant to take her life and destroy House Red. The others will not be so kind."

I knew it was true. The only reason House Red still existed was because they didn't know Jin wasn't actually a wizard. She wasn't even sensitive. The artifact changed that. It had some kind of power, though I had no idea what the nature of it was. Taking that power was almost the same as taking her life.

"Black will protect her," I said.

"If he can't do it secretly, he won't do it at all. He can not and will not risk his own position for the niece of his former lover."

I knew that was true, too. I sat in silence, trying to think. Tarakona was a patient man. He waited a few minutes before he interrupted me.

"Do we have an agreement, Baron?"

He used my ghost name intentionally. This was business. Strictly business. I glanced back at Fran. She hadn't moved a single muscle. I don't know if she had even blinked.

"Yeah. I'll do it," I said.

"Excellent. Fran will debrief you and help get you set up with whatever you need. She will be your conduit to me. I will not speak to you again unless you are delivering the Hua. A simple warning not to cross me, necromancer. As easily as I can help you extend your life, I can shorten it as well."

The phone line went dead. Tarakona was gone.

I drew in as deep a breath as my corroded lungs would allow. Evade the Reapers, steal the Hua, and try to keep Jin alive in the process?

This was going to be fun.

ELEVEN

Fran-tastic

"Follow me," Fran said.

I took a moment to hack a bit, and then circled the couch to join her, leaving the phone off the hook. Like David, it had outlived its usefulness. I could only hope I wasn't next.

"Fun guy," I said, referring to Tarakona.

"Do yourself a favor and keep your mouth closed," Fran said. She led me to a junction between a staircase that went to the upper floor of the house and a doorway into a small office. "I'll debrief you in the study. You'll tell me what you need, and then you're to take an injection of the meds upstairs. You'll have two hours to rest before you get started on the job. Do you understand?"

"Do I need to set an alarm?"

"I'll wake you."

She ushered me into the study. A monitor was sitting on a mahogany desk. A leather chair was positioned on each side. She moved around to the bigger one and sat, pulling out a keyboard and hitting some keys. The monitor turned on.

"We've been keeping a close eye on Ms. Red," Fran said. "She's been a tough one to follow because someone is doing a great job of covering her tracks behind her. We suspect Black is using his influence to hide her, and we're certain he's offering her some measure of protection while she gets her feet under her."

An image appeared on the monitor. Jin. I would recognize the chunky hair and small features anywhere. I felt a stirring in that place in my heart and another one further down. Whatever it was, she still had it.

"I know what she looks like," I said.

Fran sighed and reached towards the monitor, drawing two circles with her