The Shoggoth Concerto by John Michael Greer

Author:John Michael Greer [Greer, John Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Founders House Publishing LLC
Published: 2019-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

TEN

A Fallen World

AT 7:00 SHARP THE next evening she left the sidewalk on College Street and went to the main doors of Hancock Library. It was a crisp, cold night, with a sky full of stars overhead, and the walk down from the converted garage left her exhilarated. That day she’d only had one class, Intro to Orchestral Arrangement at 2:30, and so she’d been able to spend the whole morning and most of the afternoon in Sho’s company. The intensity of their winter break together had faded a little, but every moment she spent away from her broodsister still felt a little like wasted time.

Once inside the library, she glanced around, uncertain, then spotted Darren at the same moment that he noticed her. He hauled himself out of the chair where he’d been sitting, crossed the room to her. “I’m glad you could make it,” he said in a low voice. “Come on.” Before she could ask any questions he led the way further into the library.

He stopped at a door marked STAFF ONLY in a quiet corner, waited until nobody but Brecken was in sight, tapped on the door once, then twice, then twice again. Moments passed, and then a lock clicked and the door opened. He ducked through it, motioned for Brecken to follow. She gave him an uneasy look—there might be good reasons, of course, not to go into an unfrequented place with a man she didn’t know that well—but she followed him anyway.

On the far side was a cluttered room with metal shelves around the edges and piles upon piles of old hardback books in the middle. Another young man, plump and smiling, with black horn-rimmed glasses and a shock of unruly black hair, closed the door behind them.

“Stan, this is Brecken, who I told you about,” Darren said then. “Brecken, Stan’s a friend of mine. He’s in the library science program, and does work-study here.”

“Did Darren say anything about this?” Stan said, gesturing at the books.

“No.” Brecken glanced from one to the other, uncertain.

“It’s like this.” He turned, walked over to the books. “The director of library services told us right before break that we have to cut our book holdings by twenty-two percent.” His smile crumpled and fell. “Eleven thousand books. This is just part of it.”

Brecken gave him an appalled look. “Why?”

“Nobody knows. We’ve got the shelf space, we’ve got the money, but we’ve got to clear away the quote deadwood unquote, no other explanation given. And the books aren’t even going to be sold. They’re going to be destroyed.”

Brecken opened her mouth, and then remembered the Woodfield Consolidated School District and the way it had gotten rid of its art and music programs, and closed it again.

“It’s going on everywhere these days.” Stan picked up a book from the pile, gave it a sad look. “University libraries, public libraries, you name it.” With a little bleak smile: “I’ve got a new theory about the burning of the Library of Alexandria. I

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