Snake Oil Bullet by Craig Schaefer

Author:Craig Schaefer [Schaefer, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Demimonde Books
Published: 2024-09-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter twenty-three

“Iwas right, wasn’t I?”

Those were the first words out of Nadine’s mouth. Harmony squeezed the phone and took a breath.

“About?”

“You’re hunting for a man with no soul.”

“You tell me,” Harmony replied.

She laid out the case, just the highlights, illustrating each clue and leaving them at Nadine’s feet. The demoness paused a moment, taking it all in, and answered with a delighted chuckle.

“Oh my. When you frame it like that, I look rather guilty, don’t I?”

“The thought,” Harmony said, “did occur to me. If we had taken Bobby Diehl’s corpse back to base with the Trojan horse undetected and active, it would have sent up our location like a flare and opened a way to shut down all of our electronic security at the same time. Perfect opportunity for your people to break you out.”

“I’m torn, you know. On one hand it really is a wickedly clever scheme and I’d love to take credit for it. But no. This isn’t my doing or my people’s doing, and I can prove it. In fact, while normally I might find some amusement in leaving you in an agony of indecision, in this case I want you to have nothing but sweet, blissful certainty.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Nadine said, “you are facing off against a genuinely skilled opponent, and I intend for you to win. Distractions and doubts will only weaken you.”

Her voice dropped to a silken panther’s purr.

“You are mine, Harmony Black. No other will have you, and in the end, you will bend your knee to me and me alone. If some upstart thinks otherwise, it will be my great pleasure to correct them.”

She paused. Now her voice was bright and chipper again.

“For starters, let’s consider the timing. I was on my way to rendezvous with Josh Orville and his team to retrieve the casket when you and the puppy ambushed me with those nasty electric bullets. From there you took me into custody. I understand that no one on the heist team survived, correct? You killed my dear Josh.”

“Jessie killed Josh. I killed Ricky Corbin.”

“Ricky Corbin was pest control, and I hope you haven’t lost a minute of your beauty sleep over it.”

“Herbert West survived,” Harmony pointed out.

“And he’s not one of my people, which I’m sure you’ve independently verified. So here’s the thing, darling: my people can’t be hunting for Vigilant Lock’s headquarters because, at least as far as I’m aware, they don’t know you have me in the first place. Oh, I’m sure there’s suspicions being flung about, but I have a long, long list of enemies. When it comes to people who would like to make me vanish from the face of the earth, you aren’t even in the top three. Oh, and while we’re chatting…knight to f3.”

Harmony saw the board in her mind’s eye, crystal blue, the position preserved from their last phone call. Two pawns had already moved, the opening shots of the battle. Now Nadine’s white knight reared up and charged into the fray.

“Pawn to d6. And

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