Free Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic: The Thirteenth Rib (Kindle Serial) by David J. Schwartz Page A

give him another report. Flood wasn’t about to give her a moment to reflect, though.
    “Mr. Ay, we need to debrief,” he said, motioning to another agent who stood near the door. “Agent Gray will get you started while Agent Wilkins brings me up to speed.”
    “I just wanted to know who she was working for,” Hector said.
    “Yes, well, if we’re going to bring you in on this we need to make sure that we all understand each other, OK?”
    Hector sighed. “OK.” He glanced back at Joy before following Agent Gray out of Flood’s office.
    Flood took a deep breath. “Three days in and you’ve already blown your cover.”
    “He’s in charge of security. He knew I’d been on campus this morning.” Joy failed to stifle a yawn; she covered it with the back of her hand instead. “Sorry, sir. I haven’t slept much.”
    “There’s coffee on the table,” Flood said. She was surprised by his offer, but she didn’t hesitate to pour herself a cup.
    “He must have some type of surveillance set up. He knew about the keys. He knew I had a gun.”
    Flood crossed his arms and glared at her. “I’m not done yelling at you yet.”
    “Oh. Well, it’ll keep,” Joy said.
    He was silent for a long moment, to remind her that he was in charge. He shook his head. “ If he’s clean,” he said, waving toward the door Hector had followed Gray through, “then we’re OK. If not…you heard about Seoul?”
    “I know they stopped a Heartstopper attack.”
    “They didn’t so much stop it as stumble upon it. No one in custody. But they found a conjuration ritual set up in an empty storefront.”
    “Which suggests that the attacks were actually intended to animate major demons by harvesting the life force of the dead. Seven attacks in crowded public places, with at least forty-one dead in each attack. So counting the attack last night—”
    “—night before last.”
    “—seven major demons may have already been animated.”
    “Maybe not seven; we think the first couple of attacks may have been dry runs.”
    The coffee was lukewarm and bitter; Joy drank it all down just to get it over with.
    “Somehow,” she said, “that’s even worse.”
    “I agree,” said Flood.
    “Why bring it up? Have you found a connection between the Heartstoppers and the trafficking through Gooseberry Bluff?”
    He made a face. “Nothing concrete, no.”
    “Let’s compare the dates.”
    “What?”
    “The dates.” Joy poured herself another cup of coffee, suppressing a shudder at the smell. “Look, we know that last night was unusual in that it broke the pattern. It came three, four months early. What if there’s a rhythm to the timing of the Heartstoppers and our traffickers? Do you have a calendar?”
    For about half an hour that evening Joy didn’t dislike Benjamin Flood that much. They went over the reports from the Heartstopper cases — Minneapolis was the only attack they had a complete file on, but the dates for the others were easy enough to find — and compared them with the three, now four, cases of demon trafficking at Gooseberry Bluff. Once they added in the failed Heartstopper, the pattern was obvious.
    “Six weeks,” she said. “Six weeks before every Heartstopper, someone moves a shipment of nameless demons through Gooseberry Bluff.”
    Flood nodded. “For the last twenty-one months, anyway. Before that they must have been moving them from somewhere else.”
    “Do we think this is connected?”
    Flood shook his head. “Well, it doesn’t look like coincidence, but that’s not saying much.” He looked up at her. “We’ll work this angle. That was good thinking.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    “We’re not done yet. You still fucked up with Ay.”
    “Yes, sir. Sir…it occurs to me that if AD Shil’s murder is connected to this case, I might be in danger.”
    “I don’t think you’re that important, Agent. But that occurred to me yesterday . I’ve already set you up with a security detail.”
    “You