Free The Graveyard Game by Kage Baker

your daughter. And she was a good operative, before the incident. Mendoza did good work.” Porfirio sighed. “But I have family of my own I’m looking out for, so I don’t ever want to see you or hear about this again.”
    “Family?” Joseph sat up, sudden comprehension in his face. “Is that what you’re doing here?”
    Porfirio nodded. “They’re descendants of the brother I had when I was mortal. I’ve kept track of them all down the years.”
    “The Company lets you do that?”
    “They want to keep me happy. I’m a problem solver.”
    “Oh,” said Joseph in a small voice. “One of those guys who gets rid of—”
    “Yeah. Anyway, this is all your responsibility now, right?” Porfirio stretched. “Find out what happened to her, if you can. Help her if you can. If you can find out what happened to a Zoologist and Cinema Preservationist named Einar, that would be nice too. But I never met you, I never talked to you, and you’re going to stay the hell away from me and my family for the rest of your eternal life.”
    “You got it,” Joseph agreed. He looked across at the window,where the rain beat steadily but with less and less punctuation of lightning. “I guess I’ll be going now. Thanks for the help, all the same.”
    “You need a ride anywhere?” Porfirio relaxed somewhat.
    “No, that’s okay.” Joseph gave a slightly embarrassed grin. “My canoe’s tied up at your neighbor’s dock. I’ll just row back up the lake to the public campground. I’m supposed to be on a fishing vacation, it’s part of my gradual retirement. Smooth, huh?”
    Porfirio almost smiled. He stood, and Joseph stood, and they went out through the kitchen, where Joseph cast a longing eye at the Halloween candy.
    “One for the road?” he suggested.
    “What the hell.” Porfirio tossed him an Almond Joy. He caught it neatly and slipped out through the back door into the steadily falling rain, silent as a coyote. Porfirio went to the window and watched. A moment later he saw the dark shape of a canoe moving out on the lake, and a dark oarsman rowing. It backed around and headed north, and a moment later was lost in the rain and the night.
    Porfirio locked the door and slid its deadbolt home. He keyed in the security combination that protected the house. Returning to the living room, he turned the lever to extinguish the gas fire, went to the front window, and drew the drapes against the night. He leaned over the pumpkin and blew out its little candle. Darkness, and a plume of white smoke.

Joseph in the Darkness
    W ELL, THAT WAS THAT . Now I knew where Mendoza was, if only in a general way. I knew I couldn’t rescue her myself; and Lewis had no chance at all. There were only two immortals I could turn to.
    One of them was Suleyman, the North African Section Head. He’s built up a private power base in Morocco, a huge machine, employs mortals and immortals alike as his agents. They do a good job for him, too, because he’s a good man. Believes in all that Honor, Integrity, and Service stuff that was so important to you, Father. I’d trust Suleyman with my life . . . but I didn’t think he would trust me. We go back a ways, he and I, so it would be sort of hard for him to believe I was really only trying to find my daughter. See what happens when you get a reputation for being a slimy little guy?
    The other one was you, Father, and I hadn’t seen you in a thousand years. You’d turned rogue, gone underground, and I hadn’t lifted a finger to help you. Never even looked for you, though you gave me a clue. It sat undecrypted in my tertiary consciousness for ten centuries, because I was scared to look at it. It might even be useless by now. I guess you’d tell me it serves me right. But Mendoza, and the operatives she took down in her fall, is paying for my cowardice.
    The whole sin thing works just like the Almighty said it does: innocent people get punished for things they didn’t do. Unto the fourth and fifth