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Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 2 | Mari Moonrazor adjusted her ocular implants to simulate normal human eyesight as she gazed over the forest of evergreens toward the rising sun. Pinks and oranges burnished the blue sky, the sight gorgeous and still novel to someone who'd spent most of her life on spaceships and habitats. She couldn't, however, help but... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 3 | The wan sun did nothing to warm Mari as she sped over ice fields and away from the military outpost on a rented air bike, the wind needling her even through multiple layers of clothing. Her fingers were numb inside her gloves, and she could barely feel her toes, but she didn't care. She had done it.
She'd sneaked away ... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 4 | From the icy tundra behind the military aircraft hangar, Mari sat on her air bike and contemplated the gray smoke rising from the mountains. Unless she was mistaken, it originated from the clifftop she had just searched. Was someone bombing the wreck? Whoever had been approaching in a shuttle as she'd left?
When she'd ... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 5 | Kenji woke on his back, his vision blocked by something blue. He was shaking—no, shivering. The chill from cold hard cement seeped through his clothing and into his stiff body.
Before he figured out where he was, someone lifted the blue blanket off him. A tarp, he realized, feeling like a pile of lumber covered in some... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 6 | Mari did not find it difficult to locate Kim Sato's address in the directory of Zamek University's student and faculty housing, nor was there a security checkpoint that she had to navigate through to get onto the campus. But as she drove the air bike through the streets to the residential area, she noticed law-enforcem... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 7 | While Mari was debating if the crusher would allow her to stroll up and knock on the door, it surprised her by leaving its post on the single step that led up to the cottage. It walked across the grass and around the home to a fenced backyard. She leaned off to the side to see it spring over the fence and disappear int... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 8 | Kenji crouched in the shadows behind a tree several houses down from the cottage of Professor Dabrowski—now Minister Dabrowski, though from what the news said, he still taught a couple of classes on campus. Kenji watched as a crusher released Mari into the hands of two policemen. A third officer sat in the driver's sea... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 9 | Mari wanted to leave the university campus, having found nothing but trouble here, but she needed to get her terraformer back. Maybe it was naive, but she still believed it might be a way to prove her usefulness to the Kingdom government and get that meeting with the queen. And a diplomatic passport! Minister Dabrowski... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 10 | Kenji woke up in a brilliantly lit cell with the municipal police logo on a white wall, and he groaned. He didn't have the headache or sore muscles that he'd had after waking from being stunned, and didn't know if he should be glad Mari had used a tranquilizer on him instead. Mostly, he was embarrassed that she'd gotte... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 11 | Two hours passed before Lieutenant Hanabusa returned to Kenji's cell, not with the doctor but with two police sergeants in blue combat armor with rifles cradled in their arms. She lowered the force field and stepped back behind them.
"Come with us, Backer." The way she said his surname made him certain they had figured... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 12 | "Are you sure you don't mind sharing?" Mari sat at a table in Sato and Dabrowski's home, eating candies called chocolate-covered espresso beans out of a bowl while waiting to hear back from Dabrowski on his meeting with his government leaders and the bounty hunter. Kenji Backer, as Mari had since learned his name was.
... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 13 | Early morning found Kenji getting a ride in a police van across town toward a private walled landing area near Drachen Castle and Royal Intelligence Headquarters. He wiped his hands on his trousers, eyeing the imposing structures and the well-armed human and mechanical guards in the watchtowers.
If this freighter he wa... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 14 | Mari sat in a pod in the freighter's lounge and looked out a porthole as the craft flew along the coast north of Zamek City toward the planet's sole launch loop. Astroshaman ships had the fuel and thruster power to break orbit by themselves, even on planets with strong gravity such as Odin, but she'd learned that most ... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 15 | Despite calling him up to navigation, Captain Laser didn't say much to Kenji until she'd slid her freighter onto the launch loop and they were accelerating along tracks that left the coast and angled upward and outward over the Arashi Sea. She'd directed him into the copilot's pod, and it cupped his body, making their ... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 16 | After Kay left the lounge and Mari was done adding finishing touches to the account Kenji would use to make an offer on her terraformer, she rose from her pod to investigate the lounge. They had broken Odin's orbit, and she was alone in the room without a task to occupy her mind.
Curious about the captain and the crew,... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 17 | Mari sat cross-legged with her back to the wall in the cargo hold, the constant acceleration of the freighter keeping her in place as effectively as gravity. It wasn't quite the same as being on a large vessel that spun and created artificial gravity, but it was enough so that they didn't have to spend the whole trip l... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 18 | Mari gazed out the porthole in the freighter's lounge as she tried to find sign of Zhor's ship on the route she'd earlier determined it was on. Thanks to what was likely a slydar hull, no scanners in the system could see it. When Zhor had been speaking to Kenji, she'd been able to locate his vessel through its comm sig... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 19 | The space elevator was a fancy name for a thick cable that rose up from Sif's anchor station on its rocky red surface to a base carved into a huge asteroid that acted as a counterweight at the top. Sif didn't have as much gravity as Odin, but it still required a great deal of fuel burn for ships taking off from its sur... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 20 | Mari sat in the copilot's pod, splitting her attention between locating resources on the station's network that she could take over and gaining access to the computer system on Zhor's ship. Not only was the ship's network well secured, but she had learned that a sentient intelligence controlled it, something similar to... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 21 | "La madre que te parió!" Laser swore, lunging to her feet.
Mari didn't know what that meant, but she agreed with the sentiment.
Kenji's team was in trouble, the freighter was now surrounded by three enemy vessels, and it was only a matter of time before they all opened fire. Mari was keeping Zhor's ship busy by fencing... |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 22 | When Captain Laser's freighter came down once again onto the landing pad across from Drachen Castle, it was morning on Odin, and no fewer than twenty uniformed people waited outside.
From the copilot's pod in navigation, Kenji eyed them on the display, trying to tell if they were all Kingdom Guard and Fleet uniforms, o... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 2 | "Daisy! It's that warehouse!" Palette shouted, head sticking out of the pochette hanging from Daisy's waist.
The warehouse the creature pointed at was noticeably shorter and older than the surrounding structures, and rather mysterious. But Magical Daisy, who knew what was going on inside, could find it only grotesque.
... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 3 | [ POV: Pechka ]
During her work as a magical girl, she'd been spotted a few times. The rule of thumb was to keep hidden and act in secret, but if a very young child—someone who wouldn't see them as an oddity—happened to catch a glimpse, there was an unspoken understanding that there was nothing much to be done about it... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 4 | [ POV: Magical Daisy ]
The skeletons had proven surprisingly fragile—about as strong as human bones, perhaps. They broke from Magical Daisy's kicks and shattered under her punches. This sort of violence stirred a visceral disgust within her, but she was what you'd call a veteran. She would have quit long ago if this we... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 5 | [ POV: Pechka ]
The high-rise building was completely empty on the inside. Pechka could see no traces of it having been used as retail space or an office building, and no sign that it had been lived in as an apartment, either. There was truly nothing. There were only floors and rooms with broken glass windows that let ... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 6 | [ POV: Magical Daisy ]
The maid Daisy had saved introduced herself as Nokko. She was dressed like a traditional maid, her platinum-blond hair tied up on both sides with ribbons, and she even had a mop in hand, decorated with the same ribbon. Age-wise, she appeared about ten years old and stood a head shorter than Daisy... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 7 | [ MASTER SIDE #1 ]
The classroom was wreathed in flames.
The ancient wooden building didn't have any fire sprinklers installed, as it should have, and there was more than enough fuel. Fire spread from desks to chairs, bookcases to wallpaper, as window frames and glass melted and ran in the heat. The red of the flames i... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 8 | She moved the cursor, closing the video player and browser with a few clicks, then shut down the computer. With the computer off, the one source of light in the room was gone, leaving only darkness, the smell of mold, and the voices.
"And so the villain was apprehended... Man, Snow White's sooo cool," came a satisfied-... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 9 | [ POV: Magical Daisy ]
A flourish of trumpets rang out from Genopsyko's magical phone as its screen glowed with all the colors of the rainbow. She dropped the phone, and it skittered across the base of the fountain to smack into the mermaid statue, where it stopped, screen side up. A band of light expanded out of the s... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 10 | [ POV: Pechka ]
Pechka was still confused, but she was locked into playing the game. She personally had a ton of things she'd rather do than train or pave the way for future candidates, and she didn't find the reasons she'd been brought to this game in the first place to be particularly convincing. She wanted to apolog... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 11 | [ POV: Shadow Gale ]
The nurse in black, Shadow Gale, twirled the wrench in her right hand and the scissors in her left before dropping them both into the holsters at her waist. She couldn't help but laugh at herself for doing something so cliché, even in such a strange situation. She put a hand to her chin to wipe awa... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 12 | [ POV: Magical Daisy ]
Magical candy functioned as currency in this game, and it was obtained by defeating monsters. In other words, this reward was the whole point of going out to try to beat monsters. So for now, if nothing else, they should be trying to collect more candy, because that was guaranteed to be useful to... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 13 | [ POV: Pechka ]
With the town as their base, the party hunted for monsters on the grasslands and built up their candy stash. They also simultaneously explored to gain information on the area quest or other useful hints for completing the game. It was risky to break up the party, but with the map they'd rolled from R, t... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 14 | [ POV: Shadow Gale ]
Just like when they'd first started the game, the scenery changed instantaneously. The sudden change made Shadow Gale's feet unsteady, so she grabbed on to the back of the wheelchair to keep from falling. This was that forcible transportation, all right.
Magical girls filled the square. It was quit... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 15 | [ MASTER SIDE #2 ]
"What's the meaning of this, pon? Did Fal perhaps mishear something?"
Countless monitors filled the room in systematic lines, displaying countless areas from within Magical Girl Raising Project, such as the wasteland, the grasslands, the interior of the towns, and other yet-undiscovered areas, as if ... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 16 | [ POV: Detec Bell ]
Detec Bell was a detective.
Equipped with her deerstalker cap, prop pipe, and magnifying glass, she looked just like a female Holmes. But she wasn't merely a magical girl with a detective-themed costume. She was a detective, because Shinobu Hioka, when she wasn't transformed into Detec Bell, actuall... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 17 | [ POV: Pechka ]
Just like before, Pechka changed clothes and went to give Ninomiya her homemade lunch. When she cut in line, no one complained. She could only hear them whispering "It's that girl again" and "Who is she?" The first time, it had made her proud and happy and excited, though with a pain deep in her heart, ... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 18 | [ POV: Shadow Gale ]
Until a few years ago, Kanoe's grandfather was the one in charge of the Hitokouji estate. Chronic disease had taken his legs and his sight, and he had needed a special wheelchair to get around, but his mind was healthy as could be. When it came to finance, human resources, investments, contracts, c... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 19 | [ POV: Pechka ]
She'd gotten herself a pot.
The shop stocks varied by town: The wasteland shop carried recovery items, while the mountain shop had encyclopedias. Each shop also provided weapons and armor that were more powerful than those in the previous area. The wasteland store sold plain weapon and shield equipment,... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 20 | [ POV: Nokko ]
Fourth year, class two at Manabegawa Elementary No. 3 was a "good class."
On sports day and during cultural festivals, the whole class worked together as a group—but when people screwed up during these events, they were never scorned or belittled. If they did well, the whole class shared in the joy, and ... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 21 | [ POV: Pechka ]
"All right, Fal has a few corrections and announcements to make, pon."
The square was once again full of magical girls, just as it had been the other day. Some were sitting on the fountain edge, while others leaned against the walls of buildings. It was quite the spectacle, even though Pechka had alread... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 22 | [ POV: Nokko ]
"Now, calm down." Pfle, her hand still outstretched, addressed the girl with the sword. Not a speck of blood stained the blade. It shone like silver under the intense light of the sun.
Nokko was doing her best to restrain @Meow-Meow from running over to Genopsyko. "Yumenoshima hurt! We have to...we have ... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 23 | [ MASTER SIDE #3 ]
"Sooo, how'd it go?"
"Oh, it was just awful, pon. Everyone was crying and screaming. They tried to kill Fal, pon. Could have been turned to giblets and mincemeat if Fal hadn't been a hologram, pon."
"I see, I see." The girl's cheeks relaxed into a slight smile. Putting her left index finger to the fr... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 24 | [ POV: Shadow Gale ]
"Player deaths don't make items disappear," said Pfle. "So then what happens when a magical phone is destroyed? What about the items inside?"
"When a magical phone is destroyed, the items inside return to their original locations, pon. If there's an event item, that event will reactivate. Items sol... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 25 | [ POV: Detec Bell ]
Presenting the results of her investigation into Magical Daisy in front of the whole crowd had felt good. Detec Bell had really felt like an ace detective. Even though her life had been in danger then, too, she'd been terribly proud and gotten really into it.
The problems came afterward, once they'd... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 26 | [ POV: Nokko ]
Nokko walked around visiting people, but she didn't find Genopsyko. Detec Bell's party claimed to have seen her, so she had to be alive. But Genopsyko never showed herself to Nokko or @Meow-Meow.
Nokko activated the map application, figuring perhaps she could use it in her hunt for Genopsyko, but the loc... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 27 | [ POV: Shadow Gale ]
The newest unlocked region was now the city area. But despite its title, it was of course not the kind of city you'd see people living in now. It was more of a cyberpunk-style sci-fi area. The aesthetic consisted of jumbled-up cables and wires, and the level design was even more of a mess. It was s... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 28 | [ Detec Bell ]
Becoming a magical girl offered many opportunities to observe many strange things, starting with the girl herself. But still, not many of them would see something as unreal as this.
It had to be a mile or two away, but even so, the feeling that the brutal conflict might spill all the way over to them kep... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 29 | [ POV: Pechka ]
They'd been deceived. If they died in the game, they would die in real life, too. But they couldn't escape now. They had to keep playing the game. There was no other choice.
Next after the city area came the subterranean level. After passing through the gates, they emerged in a little room, removed the ... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 30 | [ POV: Nokko ]
Three days had passed, and the magical girls had gathered once again in the wasteland town. The atmosphere in the square was dour. Cherna Mouse had beaten Pfle, and Detec Bell's party was celebrating the height of their fortunes...or not, apparently. Detec Bell was by herself, a significant distance away... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 31 | [ MASTER SIDE #4 ]
"I can't take this anymore, pon. People are dying, pon. I can't let you keep doing this, pon." The strain in Fal's voice escalated further.
"Why not? Things are just getting started now, right?" The girl seemed more relaxed. Her right hand left her glasses so she could snap her fingers, and the noise... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 32 | [ POV: Pechka ]
Cherna Mouse fell. What happened after that, Pechka watched with total detachment.
Someone checked Cherna Mouse's magical phone, yelling out that it was one candy short. Another blamed Pfle for this, since she'd been the one checking all the phones, yet another took her side, defending her, and then the... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 33 | [ POV: Shadow Gale ]
Kanoe was getting lost in her thoughts more often. Or, more accurately, she was just zoning out and not even trying to hide her contemplation. That was something she'd never done before, and her parents and older brother were concerned. But when they asked if something was on her mind, she would gr... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 34 | [ POV: Detec Bell ]
They buried Cherna Mouse's body at the edge of town. They placed the sunflower seeds she'd loved in her grave, saving one extra for once they'd filled the hole. That seed sat on top of the mound of earth as a grave marker. Her giant sunflower seeds were, of course, not something that really existed.... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 35 | [ POV: Pechka ]
When they went back into the game, they began in the wasteland area. No matter where they were upon logout, they'd return in the wasteland area. Simply put, it seemed they would be forced back to their starting points every single time. When Pechka checked the locations of her fellow party members on th... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 36 | [ POV: Nokko ]
They hadn't been able to figure out why Cherna Mouse had died. At the very least, Nokko hadn't been involved, so that meant someone else had done it. There was some panicking about how maybe the master had done it, but based off what they had seen of the master's character thus far, it seemed unlikely th... |
Magical Girl Raising Project 2 - Asari Endou.txt | 37 | [ MASTER SIDE #5 ]
"Fal?"
No voice responded to the girl's call.
"Faaal?"
The room was dead silent. The magical phone was still off and didn't activate. The corners of the girl's mouth quirked into a little smile, one that might warrant the label "twisted." She reached out to the magical phone, stopped right before tou... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 2 | It was a good day for dreaming. It was late in the afternoon, the sun throwing long shadows when it could manage to break through the thick woods, but for the most part the translucent golden light was tangled in the tops of the trees, leaving the forest floor mysteriously shadowed. The hot, humid summer air was redole... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 3 | [ Three Years Later ]
"Faith," Renee said fretfully, "make Scottie stop. He's driving me crazy with that whining."
Faith put aside the potatoes she was peeling, wiped her hands, and went to the screen door, where Scottie was slapping at the screen and making the little snuffling sounds that meant he wanted to go outsid... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 4 | "Daddy didn't come home last night."
Monica's face was tight with misery as she stood at the window of the dining room. Gray continued eating his breakfast; there wasn't much that could curb his appetite. So that was why Monica was up so early, since she usually didn't crawl out of bed until ten or later. What did she ... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 5 | Gray managed to make it almost half a mile before the shaking became so hard that he had to stop the car. He leaned his head on the steering wheel and closed his eyes, trying to fight off the waves of panic. God, what was he going to do? He had never before been as scared as he was now.
Bewildered pain filled him, and ... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 6 | It was ten-thirty that night when Gray and Dr. Bogarde left the hospital in Baton Rouge. Gray's eyes burned with fatigue, and he was numb from the emotional roller coaster he'd been on all day long. Monica had finally been stabilized and undergone surgery, and was sleeping peacefully, under sedation. She had gone into ... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 7 | Twelve years later, Faith Devlin Hardy returned to Prescott, Louisiana.
Curiosity had been her companion on the drive up from Baton Rouge, and she hadn't thought much beyond her reason for going back. Nothing about the road was familiar, because when she had lived in Prescott she'd seldom ventured farther than the smal... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 8 | "Yes, that's right. I want everything handled in the agency's name. Thank you, Mr. Bible. I knew I could count on you." Faith's smile was warm in her voice, something Mr. Bible must have heard, because his reply made her laugh aloud. "You'd better be careful," she teased. "Remember, I know your wife."
She hung up the p... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 9 | Ed Morgan made a point of meeting Faith at the door as she entered the grocery store. "Sorry," he said, not looking the least bit regretful. "I don't have anything you need."
Faith stopped, and gave him a cool look. "You don't know what I need," she pointed out.
"Doesn't matter." He folded his arms and smirked at her. ... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 10 | Faith was dripping wet and shaking with both cold and reaction when she reached her car. Her hands trembled as she tried to fit the key into the lock, and it took her several tries before she succeeded. Crawling in, she collapsed against the steering wheel, pressing her forehead hard against the cold vinyl. Idiot! she ... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 11 | Monica took her time in the bathroom, needing the privacy to get herself back. It was always slightly alarming, that loss of self, of personhood. Michael didn't seem to feel it; he was always content, a little drowsy, when he moved off of her. She could hear the squeak of the bed now as he moved, probably to put out hi... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 12 | Faith hung up the phone, a puzzled frown on her face. That was the sixth time she'd called Mr. Pleasant and not gotten an answer. He didn't have a secretary; Mrs. Pleasant had filled that role, and he hadn't had the heart to replace her when she had died. Mr. Pleasant had checked out of the motel; rather, the key had b... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 13 | The fax machine was humming, so Faith didn't hear the car turn in to the driveway. When the knock rattled the front door, she leaned over to look out the window. She couldn't see who was standing on the porch, but she could see the gray Jaguar parked behind her car, and she sighed as she went, coffee cup in hand, into ... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 14 | Mr. Pleasant's office was located on the top floor of a two-story building. Faith climbed the stairs, hoping against hope that she would find him there, that his telephone had been out of service, that he would be all right. A malfunctioning telephone wasn't much of a possibility, because if he hadn't been able to call... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 15 | The next day, Faith found the note inside her car, lying on the driver's seat. She saw the folded piece of paper and picked it up, wondering what she had dropped. She unfolded it, and saw the block letters.
She leaned against the car, a light breeze fluttering the paper in her hands. She didn't lock her car at home, so... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 16 | "I'll carry it in, see if we can get any fingerprints. The plastic would be our best bet, since it hasn't been disturbed." He glanced toward the house. "Is she okay?"
"She was pretty shaky when I got here, but she's settled down now."
"Okay." Still using the pen, Mike closed the flaps and stared down at the box for a f... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 17 | Faith was boiling mad by the time she left the courthouse, though she had kept her temper mostly under control. Gray had badgered her all the way to town about moving out of Prescott, and to her fury, Sheriff McFane had agreed that she might not be entirely safe, living alone as she did, and with no close neighbors. Fa... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 18 | He carried her onto the porch, where the screens would protect them from the mosquitoes and other biting insects. Frightened almost out of her wits by his abrupt appearance, a panic that wasn't much relieved by recognition, Faith could do no more than cling to his shoulders as he lifted her in his arms and carried her ... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 19 | The telephone drove her crazy that day. Faith thought about unplugging the damn thing, but reminded herself that she still had a business to run. She didn't have a separate line for the fax, so the phone had to stay in operation. She did let the answering machine screen her calls. Unfortunately, most of them were from ... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 20 | "Same person," Sheriff McFane said. "No punctuation."
"A deliberate signature?"
"Maybe, but could be it's just a departure from his usual style, sort of camouflage." He frowned at her. "Mrs. Hardy—Faith—Gray and I both told you the other day, living out there all by yourself could be dangerous."
"I'm not going to move,... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 21 | Faith had never been more embarrassed in her life. When she got home, she dashed into the house and locked all the doors, as if that would do any good. She had no clear memory of the drive home, but she could recall in excruciating detail every step she had made through the courthouse, with her face flaming and her thi... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 22 | Monica cried for a long time after Gray hung up, her arms folded on top of his desk and her head resting on them. Hot, salty tears dripped onto the polished surface and she rubbed them away with her sleeve, not wanting to mar the finish of his desk. She had never felt more lost and confused, even when Daddy had left.
N... |
After the Night - Linda Howard.txt | 23 | "The bastard," Monica kept whispering in a drained, lifeless voice. "The bastard."
Faith sat in a county patrol car with Monica, holding her when she cried, letting her talk as she would. The door on her side of the car had been left open, while the one on Monica's side had been closed; a subtle splitting of hairs on t... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 2 | Casper knew better than to conference Burns and Wilkins again, so he contacted them separately. Wilkins reported—disappointingly—that the guardian was only at Natalie Bradford's house on Fridays. Casper knew that wasn't true, so it meant the guardian was too stealthy to be noticed unless she meant to be.
Not good.
Wilk... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 3 | Ghorm's email dinged on the monitor to his left. With a pneumatic hiss, the chair spun and his hollow's greasy hands worked the mouse over its distended lap. Reading the email, he felt cold fear fill his vast center. "Mr. Saxby," he said in dulcet tones to his cabal-mate. "Oh, dear Mr. Saxby, did you realize—there is a... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 4 | Enya had evaded Ms. Cross too long and agreed to meet her at the beginning of March. Outside, a heat spell had turned New Petersburg into a city of slush, and runoff trickled down the exterior brick walls of the office. They sat opposite one another, Enya perched on the sofa's edge. Ms. Cross had populated a coffee tab... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 5 | [ Muse ]
The March thaw had been a feint, all that water transformed into ice by a frigid cold front next afternoon. New Petersburg was a beautiful, crystal city, the guardrails, cars, and lampposts glistening. Stray snowflakes tumbled from the sky and melted on Natalie's cheeks where Enya met her after school to walk ... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 6 | The email was priority flagged and held an audio file, curtailed to the interesting parts. Listening sent a shiver through Ghorm's hollow. He hit an icon on his screen to dial his second-in-command and on the eighth ring, Mr. Saxby picked up.
"I have you on speaker," Mr. Saxby intoned. "Afraid I'm elbow deep in your pe... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 7 | Following Dust's instructions, Enya took the train to Whitechurch and walked toward Graystone University, sniffing around the bars for asura. She caught the scent outside one called Pandora.
Inside, the tall ceilings made it less claustrophobic than Enya had anticipated. One side room had a number of televisions anchor... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 8 | They sat in a shadowed booth, Muse burning down another cigarette and swallowing two shots of whisky before she explained.
"Two years back, my friend Drake tells me there's a flesh-riding cabal that's recruiting. Never been in one, and with the asura population in New Petersburg going up, I figure, 'Why not?' Could use... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 9 | Muse proved persuasive enough to draw Enya into a conversation—or, at least, to sit and listen to Muse's end of one. The asura expounded elaborately on her experiences with humans and their drinking rituals—it involved a lot of waking up in distressed or mysterious circumstances. But whatever else Muse could do, she co... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 10 | [ Achilles' Heel ]
Enya flew across the city's uneven roofs. The distant muzzle flashed, a flicker of warning before its thunderous shot struck her outthrust palm. The force hurled her backward, feet planting into a building side; the mortar popped, bricks cracking in a dusty spiderweb of fractures. Enya's calves tense... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 11 | Casper had studied details of the Bradford security system emailed to him by the benefactors; studied Sgt. Mark Brody's dossier and patrol patterns using Wilkins' surveillance. Brody wasn't his idea of an easy fight, but at least he wasn't some kind of hell-spawned demon.
The backyard had three motion detectors. Casper... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 12 | Enya tore across Commonwealth Plaza and sprinted the rooftops in Garden Heights, cutting through backyards and taking risks with being seen. She didn't care. The sight of flashing lights at Natalie's house made her heart lurch.
They were parked out front and Enya froze atop a house across the street.
An ambulance sat i... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 13 | Kessler spun a full circle to survey the scale of the disaster: all down the Whitechurch street was shattered glass, not a storefront, car window, or light left intact; the doors to four cars were torn off their hinges; the strobe of crime scene technicians' cameras highlighted gore plastered to a hood; a small media c... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 14 | [ Gazing Long into the Dark ]
Enya scouted the Primrose construction site. The partly finished residence highrise was nine floors, nothing but skeletal girders on the top five, and surrounded with dirt mounds and rusted trailers. It had the faint odor of an asura and Enya's claws ached to murder it, but she needed to w... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 15 | [ Those Who Fight Monsters ]
Her friend's nightmares had never hurt Enya as completely as after she'd learned she caused them. Once being close to Natalie had been electric; what remained was a crippling hole in the deva's center, one that introduced her to a unique torture every time the girl whimpered in her sleep.
E... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 16 | [ A Reckoning ]
The blizzard's cold came in through every uninsulated surface of the metal trailer, came into Carol through knees pressed too long into the floor, wrists rubbed raw by shackles, her head clouded by the sour smell of her own vomit. If she lay down, the icy floor would suck the heat from her shivering mus... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 17 | Four kerosene space heaters blew warmly against Ghorm's flabby mass, keeping him comfortable in the cavern of Primrose's third floor. Bare wood frames separated the chambers, marking where someday contractors hoped to erect walls. Taped-down cables spread in elaborate webs of Ghorm's design and black tarp sealed every ... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 18 | Enya sucked the last of Ghorm from her fingertips, swallowing him into the burning hell that had already ended Splat and Tooloo. It might have pleased her any other time. Tonight, their terror only reminded her of Natalie lying afraid in the snow.
She leaped to the hole above, struggling through because her limbs buzze... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 19 | She returned to the burning lab, knowing the asura could use mortal currency to purchase leverage against Natalie. Slashing the safe open, she shoved money and one-kilogram gold bars into it, slowed by poison and her missing arm.
Sirens wailed in the distance, a sound distorted by the swimming in her head. She zipped t... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 20 | [ Hollow ]
For the third time since Enya Miller had come out of the institution, Kessler stared at a New Petersburg crime scene reduced to chaos.
It took the fire department a half-hour to extinguish the third floor and the process frightened about a dozen soaked dogs, countless mice, and several monkeys out into the f... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 21 | O'Rourke copied files onto a portable drive, running a hand through his thinning hair. Sweat plastered his stiff shirt to his chest and his brain zinged over what he'd found, disassembling the pieces he had so he could fit the new information.
Yes, this computer held secrets—a tingle of excitement and fear electrified ... |
The One Who Eats Monsters - Casey Matthews (Part 2).txt | 22 | Kessler tracked the disintegrating blood drops up a stairwell and into the blistery air on the unfinished fourth floor. It led to a streak across the floor where someone had crawled, disappearing beneath a heap of collapsed cinder blocks. Dragging a block from the stack, he aimed his flashlight into the crevices.
He sp... |
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