Free Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) by Michael Richan

functional.”
    “They’re more self-aware, more ambitious,” Winn interjected.
    “They know they’re ghosts,” Deem continued, “and they take
advantage of it, behaving a lot more like living humans. They run operations
like what you saw in The Gentry. We named them ‘Callers’ because they seem to
call the shots in St. Thomas. Didn’t really know what else to call them.”
    “These are ghosts who are running a business,” Winn said.
“They work together with a common cause, conducting the training and selling
the graduates. They keep other ghosts as slaves. That one that came at you last
night,” he said, looking at Steven, “that was a worker, a ghost they’ve trapped
there. It had no idea it was a ghost, it thought it was a normal person, doing
a job like you or I going to work. The Callers run the whole operation.”
    “Did we see any Callers last night?” Steven asked.
    “No,” Winn said. “They don’t do the work. They’re on the top
floor of the hotel, running things. All the ghosts they’ve enslaved think of
them as the town elders, like the mayor and council. In a way, they are.
They’re in charge, they’re calling the shots. Everything in St. Thomas is
happening because of them.”
    “So if they’ll know Jason is gone,” Roy said, “what do we
do?”
     “We’ll need a doppelganger,” Winn said. “One of us will
replace Jason in the trance. Probably me, since I’ve done it before. They do the
trainings during the day and early evening, and they all sleep from around midnight
to sunrise in the hotel. The trainees all sleep on cots in the basement. I’ll
go in, wake Jason, and tell him you want to talk to him for a few minutes.
Provided he’s willing to go back, I’ll take his place in the hotel until he
returns. You’ll be able to talk to him at the motel when he comes to in his
body. If you can convince him to leave, he’ll still have to return and play
along with the training until we can do the extraction.”
    “How does the extraction work?” Steven asked.
    “Same approach as the doppelganger,” Winn said. “We go in and
he leaves. Then the doppelganger leaves, and covers his tracks so he can’t be
found. You son will go into hiding until they lose interest. They don’t have
much power outside of this region, the downwind area.”
    “But Michael knows about him,” Roy said. “He knows where he
lives.”
    “Then we’ll have to take him out at the same time,” Winn
said. “That’s going to complicate things. This is going to take a bit of
planning.” Winn smiled, leaning back in his chair as he thought. The complexity
of the situation seemed to appeal to him, to make it more interesting.
    “Do you know how to handle it?” Steven asked.
    “No,” Winn said, smiling, “not yet. But I love a challenge.”
    Steven was crestfallen. Deem reached out and grabbed his
hand.
    “He’ll figure something out,” she said. “He always does.”
    “Thank you,” Steven said. “I just feel so helpless, and
responsible.”
    “It’s not entirely on you,” Roy said. “It’s my fault we
didn’t take out Michael back when we dealt with Lukas. You wanted to, but I
discouraged it. I was wrong.”
    “We might have to track them separately,” Winn said. “Two of
us handle your son, and the other two handle Michael. Something like that.”
    Steven looked at Winn. He could see the wheels were turning
rapidly. He felt better about relying on him.
    “I’ll handle Michael,” Roy said, “if it comes to it. Steven
should stay with Jason.”
    “They’ll need you for the switch,” Deem said to Winn, “so
I’ll work with Roy on Michael. You can work with Steven on Jason.”
    “Hold your horses,” Winn said. “I’m not sayin’ this is the
plan just yet. I want it all thought through before we start divvying up
sides.”
    “How long before the plan is solid?” Steven asked.
    “We can try the first part tonight,” Winn said. “Get him out,
let you talk to him.