Cool Hand Read Free Page A

shuddered. Too many lungsful of crazy smoke.
     
    Tom ended a call on his cell, and with Bian busy, he reported directly to me.
    “Nick Gray’s a couple of minutes away. We’ve got a few more kin coming,” he said. “I also put in a request to the Pack. Hope you don’t mind. A dozen of them will come out and help clean up.” He kicked the side of the pyramid. “Need to clear the whole site.”
    Felix had been adamant about the pack not getting involved in fights between Athanate, but all the paranormals understood the need to destroy evidence of us.
    I nodded. “There’ll be other bodies somewhere close. Find them. I guess they would have used the backhoe to dig a pit, so it shouldn’t be hard.” Saying it like that made it just business. Nothing to do with what those small bodies would look like, in the cold, dark embrace of the earth.
    I took a breath, pushed all the visions away. “Once you’ve done that, clear out any evidence in the house as well, and finish up by burning the buildings down.”
    Tom grunted, turning around to take in the pyramid and calculate the effort required to destroy it.
    “Anyway,” he said, “I guess that’s all of the Matlal remnants accounted for now.”
    I shook my head. I’d checked the bodies here, and there was still one missing. The silver-haired woman who’d been kicking my ass at Cheesman Park until the FBI showed up and saved me. I guess that confirmed she was the one who’d given Nick the information on how to find this place. He’d told me earlier in the week she was willing to provide insider intel—in return for joining House Farrell. Had that been part of the ‘anything’ I’d promised him? My head was still fuzzy, but no, I remembered Nick had asked for me to talk to her. I’d agreed that. Then he’d said she was looking to join House Farrell. I was sure I hadn’t agreed to that. How had we left it?
    Crap. I was getting into enough trouble as it was. If I couldn’t remember important stuff like this, things were only going to get worse.
    Tom and Paul moved down a tier to talk with David.
    “This is bad. It’s not just that they weren’t running—” Tom started.
    “Hold it.” I stopped him.
    As the smoke cleared from the barn through the gaping ruin of the door, my brain was clearing too. My wolfy nose was still in shock from the smells and the smoke, but my wolfy ears had recovered.
    Over in the back corner of the barn were some tool cabinets, looking so ordinary they were out of place. Something had rattled over there.
    As soon as I took one step toward the cabinets, a girl—maybe a year or so older than the other children—slithered out from the narrow gap between them and sprinted for the door, clearly terrified.
    Tom held his hands up and moved to block her. Julie was at the door. They’d catch her as gently as they could.
    I stayed focused on the cabinets, my nose twitching. Something drew me there.
    There was no one hiding between them, or on top, or under them.
    Still.
    Away from the smell of the braziers, my wolfy nose told me they weren’t empty.
    I put the HK down and knelt beside the right-hand cabinet. It was an old wooden cupboard that had been pressed into service to store tools. The right door hung a little ajar, and I slowly pulled it open.
    He was jammed in what had been the bottom drawer space. It didn’t look possible, but he’d managed to squeeze himself in there and half turn so he was stuck. It looked like we’d have trouble getting him out.
    His face was only a few inches from mine, partly obscured by an old wooden-handled screwdriver he was clutching like a knife. He was shaking with fear, his eyes staring, round as an owl’s.
    The last thing I wanted to do was reach in and drag him out, or traumatize him any more.
    I eased back a couple of paces, bending low so I was level with him and he couldn’t see the gun lying on the ground behind me. I watched him, ignoring all the stuff going on in the rest of the barn.