Cloak of Iron by Jonathan Moeller

Author:Jonathan Moeller [Moeller, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

13

BUYER BEWARE

We arrived in Seattle at around ten in the morning Pacific time, and Neil and I set up for our visit to Mr. Kavathyr’s warehouse. The Master of Thieves had a shell company for his business deals in human society named Brighter Solutions Incorporated, and his cheerfully named warehouse was on the opposite side of Lake Washington from the airport.

Neil and I checked into a hotel using false IDs. It felt too easy. When I had been Morvilind’s shadow agent, I had spent a lot of time meticulously crafting and maintaining fake identities I could use when necessary. Now I just logged into UNICORN and created a fake ID whenever I needed it, and it was perfectly legitimate since it was issued from the government database.

Our cover story was that we were two sales reps from a computer company in the city to meet clients, which allowed us to take separate rooms at the hotel. That was just as well. I didn’t actually think Neil would be stupid enough to try and seduce me. If he did, I would have to burn his face off, and that would just be awkward. Besides, I didn’t really want to share a hotel room with anyone except Riordan.

I changed into a variation of my Corporate Bitch outfit, slipped my aetherometer and a small revolver into my purse, and headed into the lobby. Neil waited for me by the front door. I have to admit he cleaned up really well. He was wearing a crisp black suit with a blue tie. Neil had been flirting with the stewardess on the flight…and I was pretty sure that she would have been willing to come back to the hotel with him.

“Not bad for a man who’s two hundred and forty years old,” I said.

Neil brushed a fleck of dust from his sleeve. “In all fairness, I think I’m actually closer to two hundred and fifty.” But I was a hundred and eighty if you counted the Eternity Crucible, so who was I to complain? “Ready?”

We got into our rental car, a bog-standard Lone Star Motors sedan that smelled a little of bleach, and set off across Seattle for Kirkland.

I let Neil drive because I wanted to watch the city and the skyline as we passed. Old memories flickered through me. I hadn’t been back in a long, long time, but I had been born in Seattle. I had lived here with my parents until they had died of frostfever and Morvilind had found me. The memories were only bits and pieces – looking up at the Space Needle with my mom, gaping at its height. Or going to a park by the waterfront with my mom and dad, giggling hysterically when we went on the Ferris wheel.

Or my first day of kindergarten, when we all watched that video of Tarlia executing the last pre-Conquest Congress and President.

I still remembered the address where we had lived. My mom had made me memorize it and recite it back to her in case I ever got lost, and nearly two centuries later, it was still in my head.

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