Free Dragon Coast by Greg van Eekhout Page B

guy.”
    â€œI mean different weird.”
    â€œHow so?”
    Daniel thought back to Catalina, to the single hour he’d spent with Paul before he killed him. Paul had a slow, distracted manner of speaking, as if he had to concentrate on being in the same room as others because the most important part of him was somewhere else. It reminded Daniel so much of his father.
    And with that realization, he knew how to play his brother.
    It wouldn’t even be the hardest part of this job.
    The hardest part would be Daniel’s mother.
    *   *   *
    Daniel looked around the bleak, ten-by-twelve storage unit and felt like a heel. He put on a sunny smile anyway. “Okay, so, you’ve got a fridge stocked with goodies and a microwave.”
    â€œAnd a cot,” Em said. “And a strip of canvas stretched between some aluminum rods, which I suspect is some kind of chair. I’ve got magazines. Books. Plus a radio and a chemical toilet. I’m all set.”
    â€œWe’re aiming to be back from the North in six days, but if something goes wrong…”
    â€œIt could be longer. It could be never. I know, Daniel. I was at the meetings.”
    A mechanical hum and the soft gurgle of osteomantic fluid bled through the wooden crate that filled most of the space. Inside the crate was a gleaming steel tank, and inside the tank was the gestating golem Isaac Slough had grown from a single strand of Sam’s hair.
    â€œI hate to leave you here by yourself. It’s just that—”
    â€œYou don’t trust anyone enough but me to guard Sam’s new body,” Em said. “Neither do I. I’ll be here when you get back, no matter how long it takes. I’ll keep him safe.”
    â€œThere could be hounds. Thieves. Other osteomancers. Even without a consciousness, the body contains Sam’s osteomantic essence. The golem is probably the richest trove of osteomancy in the realm.”
    Em sank into the camp chair and rested her rifle across her lap. Nearby, she’d placed ammo boxes full of explosive ruhk eggs. She cracked open a paperback.
    â€œBring me a beer when you get back,” she said.
    â€œYou don’t drink beer.”
    â€œI know, but it’s the kind of thing you and Moth say to each other. I thought you’d know it means go away, do your job, and let me do mine.”
    â€œOkay, Em.” He lifted the roll gate, letting in the last sunshine Em would see for quite some time. “Seriously, tell me what I can bring you back.”
    She set down her book and looked thoughtful. “You’re going to San Francisco. They make chocolate there. Better than ours. You’re a cook with an osteomancer’s nose, so you should know what good chocolate is. Bring it to me. Bring me the best.”
    She returned to her book, this young Emma with a gun on her lap, guarding a crate containing half the key to the job’s success.
    â€œThe best ever,” Daniel said, shutting her in.
    *   *   *
    Cassandra registered no surprise when she found Daniel on the front porch of her Mar Vista stucco cottage. She gave him a tired smile, a quick hug, and let him inside.
    â€œYou changed your face.”
    â€œHow’d you know it was me?”
    â€œGive me a break.”
    He stood in the middle of her living room, taking in her mismatched but harmonious thrift-shop furniture and her small selection of perfectly chosen vases and candlesticks and knickknacks. Cassandra almost never stayed anywhere more than a few months, but she’d developed the art of making a temporary place look like a home she’d lived in for years.
    â€œSorry to drop in on you like this, Cass. I was hoping you might help me with some—”
    â€œYou need papers.” She handed him a file folder. “It’s all there.”
    There were Northern California internal travel passes, identification, and work licenses for the team.