The White Gold Score by Craig Schaefer

Author:Craig Schaefer [Schaefer, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction, Horror, Dark Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery
Amazon: B01C86LWS2
Publisher: Demimonde Books
Published: 2016-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

13.

Back in the rented Camaro, riding shotgun while Jennifer perched in the rear seat, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Wow,” I said, “when you’re a fan, you are a fan. I thought we were gonna lose her, but that detail about her grandmother? Perfect. You remembered all that from one interview?”

“Not in the slightest.” Caitlin flashed a smile, cranked up the air conditioning, and threw the car into drive. “When I was making my calls back at the hotel, I ordered a bit of quick research. I thought we might need an emotional pry bar to get into Tanesha’s head, and I was right.”

“So your people went and read through a bunch of interviews?”

“No, silly. They found her. Tanesha’s grandmother is in hell.” Caitlin touched her finger to her lips. “Shh. No telling.”

“Ooh,” Jennifer said. “That just got dark.”

“Dark,” Caitlin said, “was her repeated insistence on knowing when her son-in-law was going to be joining her down there. Anyway, she was very cross at the idea of her granddaughter being threatened. Happy to throw a bit of help our way.”

The sky blossomed ocher and candle yellow as the sun shimmered its way down, blurry behind a rippling gauze veil of smog. We were all in agreement that when it came to getting this job done, sooner was better. On the phone to his supplier, Dino had said Winter Court was the band who’d be unwittingly ferrying his drugs cross-country. I hadn’t heard of them, but a quick Google search enlightened me. Some neo-goth thing with classical influences, a quartet of artists in black mascara who dressed like vampires without the fangs and played the electric violin. Not my style of music—give me B.B. King or Bo Diddley any day of the week—but the tour dates on their official website commanded my full attention.

Their kickoff show was on Friday night; then the tour buses rolled out. We had three days to seal the deal and rob Dino blind.

Fortunately, Tanesha and her backup band were night owls. She’d booked the studio time and sent out the rallying call, leaving us with nothing to do for a couple of hours but wait. We found a diner down the street from the studio, juicy burgers and fries and fountain drinks, and ate while we hammered out the details.

“Don’t think a guy like Dino’s big on cold calls,” Jennifer said, clutching a quarter-pound burger in both hands. Ketchup leaked out the other side, dripping from a curled lettuce leaf and spattering the paper place mat. “How are we gonna get his attention?”

“A little social engineering,” I said. “I think we need Pixie for this job.”

“The mysterious Pixie. Am I ever gonna meet that girl in person?”

“Who’s Pixie?” Caitlin asked.

“Mercenary hacker,” I said. “Probably the best on the West Coast. She’s a little idealistic, but if I tell her I need help fighting the bondage of capitalism and the elite bourgeoisie, she’ll generally go along with the plan. Right now I’ve got her working on tracking down Lauren Carmichael.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.