Free Fierce Lessons (Ghosts & Demons Series Book 3) by Robert Chazz Chute, Holly Pop Page B

who looks like a Stanford professor?”
    Victor shook his head. “There is only one.”
    “Merlin’s toying with the idea of opening a rift to the demon dimension. He sounds too impatient and unstable. There’s nothing more dangerous than a rift to the Ra right under us.”
    “Very well,” Victor said. “I’ll work on that angle from here and try to gather enough magic folk to contain Merlin. Let’s talk about your team. Who do you want to take to Stanford, or did you picture this as a Charlie’s Angels sort of situation?”
    “Any word on Rory?”
    “He’s still recovering from your last misadventure,” Victor said.
    I took a couple of deep breaths, determined to speak slowly. Mama said that Victor’s mood could slip into heat and sharpness easily. She blamed the fact that Trick had gotten so close to him and Lynda had nearly killed him.
    I thought Victor’s crankiness was really about mourning the loss of Samantha Biggs to the demon dimension. I missed my old boss, too, but Sam and Victor had had a fling once, a long time ago. I suspected it meant more to Victor than a lost weekend in bed. There had been no funeral for Sam. The night Castille Funeral Homes burned to the ground around me, I hadn’t seen Key, the battle demon, kill her. There was no body to bury. We were sure Peter Smythe had spirited her away, through a rift to Ba’al’s dimension. For what reason, I could not guess.
    I had pleaded with Victor to find a way for us to mount a rescue. Tears fell from his eyes as he refused. She was beyond our help now. “She may as well be on Mars,” he’d said. “We cannot go after her.”
    Seeing Victor this way now — abrupt and impatient and humorless — hurt me. The first day I’d met Victor Fuentes in a cemetery he’d exuded old world charm. In his role as conductor of the Choir Invisible, I gave no one more respect. Victor was my hero. I suspected he blamed me for failing to save Sam. Victor now acted almost as distant as she was. Victor, my greatest role model, seemed missing in action.
    “Iowa?” Wil nudged me.
    “Hm?”
    “Victor suggested some more sword singers for the ride West.”
    “The Circle of Knives is six bodyguards. They don’t know we’re coming. With a Magical to point them out, we could isolate them and take them one at a time, maybe. They’re humans. We won’t even have to kill them. We’ve got lots of non-lethal options in the arsenal. Let’s use them.”
    Manny nodded. “Waco.”
    I didn’t follow. “What?”
    “The government took down a religious nut who was stockpiling weapons.”
    “David Koresh,” Victor said. “I remember. He had some kind of cult down there. The government got a lot of heat because so many women and children died. They went in through the front door, guns blazing. The FBI used a tank, as I recall.”
    Manhattan nodded. “But the cult leader had been in town the day before, away from his compound. A couple of FBI guys could have arrested him and had him handcuffed and whisked him away without any trouble. Their tactical error was to choose the wrong battleground. We can do this quietly, as long as we nab the big bad’s bodyguards when they go out for milk or stop to take a leak, right?”
    I smiled at Victor. “This is why I need her with me.”
    “And you’ll need me for muscle,” Wil said.
    “And good looks,” Manny added.
    I rolled my eyes. When Manny had a new conquest, every day was junior high all over again. I’d have to keep Manny and Wil busy on this business trip.
    “And you’ll need me,” a man announced from a far doorway.  
    We turned and stared at Patton Oswalt, the famous comedian.
    “Wow! I, uh, I-I…um. Wow,” Wilmington gushed, obviously star struck. “You’re one of my favorite comedians!”
    The man sighed. “I’m not him. See, this is why I was huge in Eastern Europe but I still can’t fill a high school auditorium in goddamn Dubuque.”
    We said nothing. We stared. The likeness was so uncanny