could hold on to a co-org over that much water defied logic.
Brynner retrieved a plain metal box from the bag Lou held, and set it on the trunk right behind my seat. From it, he pulled two silver daggers. The blades glowed with a tint of yellow, where amber coated them.
Heinrich Carson’s blades, made famous in half a dozen movies. Where the blades came from and how he’d manufactured them were secrets the elder Carson took with him to his grave.
Brynner finished adjusting his knife sheaths and glanced toward the crowd barrier. “Any civilians?”
The cop shook his head. “Two unaccounted for, but if there’s anyone left, they’re good as dead. No one’s going in there after them. You want to line up and shoot through the windows?”
Brynner opened his mouth in wordless astonishment, then found his voice. “You think there might still be someone in there and you didn’t check?” He clenched his hands into fists, his face flushed red. When he spoke, he did so through gritted teeth. “I’m going in.” With one arm wrapped across his chest, he jogged toward the building.
“Lady, you’re going with him, right? It’s against policy to act alone.” Our driver, Lou, looked down at me from outside my window.
I rolled down the window to answer. “I don’t think he cares about policy.” What sort of man would take that kind of risk for people he didn’t know? As for me, going into a building full of co-orgs wasn’t in my career plan. I shook my head. “I’m not that kind of field operative. I don’t even have a weapon.” Being a translator, I didn’t get a gun at graduation; I received a complete copy of Thule’s Encyclopedia Hieroglyphica.
Lou cursed and walked to the trunk, pulling out a box. He threw my door open and tossed the box in my lap. “Deliverator, with standard co-org ammo. Every third bullet’s a wax pellet loaded with pine, silver, and holy water. I checked the ammo out this morning after the priest blessed our armory.”
“I told you, I’m not that kind of field operative. I’m an analyst. I read hieroglyphics.” I set the box down and scooted across the seat.
“You’ve got to be kidding.” He didn’t bother trying to hide his contempt. His shock.
Lou could get over it. I didn’t have years of training on how to waltz into dangerous situations and kill the dead. Now was not the time for a crash course.
Until the screaming started.
BRYNNER
At least Grace Roberts had the good sense to stay in the car. After her arbitrary field promotion back at headquarters, I’d worried she might decide that a pay upgrade meant a responsibility upgrade. If she got killed as part of my team, it would be my fault.
I went in through the doors and ducked behind the front bar. From across the dining room came shuffling footsteps. I peeked in the mirrored wall of the bar, using it to find out what we were dealing with. A flicker of movement caught my eye. I watched the form in the mirror. The graceless movements. The lurching lack of balance.
A shambler. The disjointed movements made it clear. When a Re-Animus was done with a corpse, it could choose to let it go. Remnants of the Re-Animus would keep it moving, but unintelligent. The result was a co-org, to use Grace Roberts’s term, without direction.
It would move aimlessly, until something caught its eye. Then it would attack. Sharpened fingernails, razor-sharp teeth, and inhuman strength made a shambler plenty dangerous.
Nothing I couldn’t handle, or didn’t handle a dozen times a year. I waited until it dragged past, then vaulted over the bar. My ribs sang out in pain, letting me know I hadn’t taken a vacation. Hadn’t rested.
Rest was for the dead.
My feet caught a glass as I leaped over, and it crashed to the floor in shards. The shambler jerked around, looking in my direction.
I held still. Without a Re-Animus driving it, the shambler would be attracted to movement and sound. Despite the name, fresh ones could almost run.
This one was fresh. A corpse less than a day old. Dark spots along the fingers where blood pooled, eyes that weren’t sunken in. Good and bad, in a way. Given time, the Re-Animus could strengthen a corpse. Give it insane power.
This one hadn’t been dead long enough for that. Whatever the Re-Animus did, it did, and let the corpse go. I held still, willing even my breathing to stop. It turned, a wheezing breath escaping