Graveyard Shift by M. L. Rio

Author:M. L. Rio [Rio, M. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Published: 2024-09-23T14:00:00+00:00

3:30 AMEdie

Edie persuaded Tuck to go along to the newspaper office on the grounds that he should disinfect the bites and scratches on his hands and there was a first aid kit in the break room—no health insurance required. Theo was still stuck in the Box and would be the rest of the night, on account of an “arduous apology” he had to make before closing alone. No word from Hannah since she’d picked up Kinnan. Yes, she was driving, but that had never stopped her from texting before. Everyone was acting out of character. Tamar had simply abandoned the reception desk and seemed unconcerned about the consequences. She came straight from the library, and Edie put her to work with Tuck, hoping they could combine their weird superpowers to make some sense of Kinnan’s research. If Tamar could unpick the jargon, maybe Tuck could demystify the science. Edie erased the whiteboard and squeaked across it with a red dry-erase marker. FACTS? it asked. Salva veritate. So far, the list was short.

Edie cracked her third can of Diet Coke. Forget the cigarettes, maybe that was what was giving her cancer—if it was cancer, which it probably wasn’t, statistically speaking. FACTS! She sighed, slugged the Coke anyway. FACT: Diet Coke had more caffeine than regular, but still much less than coffee. FACT: That did not make it any better for you. FACT: Edie did not care. If she could make the story hang together, it could turn everything else around. If she had a good story, they might be in the running for another Pacemaker. If they were in the running for another Pacemaker, her worth as editor-in-chief wouldn’t be so much in question. If her worth as editor-in-chief wasn’t so much in question, her self-worth probably wouldn’t be either. If her self-worth was a little less shaky, she might be a little less freaked out about The Lump that was probably nothing. Probably. In any case, she didn’t care what combination of carcinogens it took—she was going to get the story straight if it was the last thing she did. FACT.

She had dumped a pile of snacks on the conference table along with the first aid kit. Tamar had chosen a Clif bar and bottled water and looked right at home there with her glasses on and her hair pinned on top of her head with an artfully twisted pencil. Tuck, on the other hand, had lived in the damp and the dark long enough that he squinted and cowered like a cave-dwelling salamander underneath the stark fluorescent lights. Edie had slathered the scratches and bites with peroxide and topical anesthetic, but his hands were still shaking. He’d eaten two bags of peanut M&M’s one at a time and tore into a third automatically.

“I don’t get it.” Tamar had Kinnan’s master’s thesis fanned in front of her, the most relevant passages outlined in green highlighter. They’d been at it about an hour, and Edie had about four more before she

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