Pacific Fire by Greg van Eekhout

Author:Greg van Eekhout [Eekhout, Greg van]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, General, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780765328564
Google: UkasoAEACAAJ
Amazon: B00LKO5JNS
Barnesnoble: B00LKO5JNS
Goodreads: 22238140
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2015-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

Em rented a two-seater pedal boat and bought a couple of ice cream sandwiches. The ice cream would help them look like tourists, she explained. Sam was skeptical, but he wasn’t going to turn down ice cream.

This was a peaceful place, with walking paths winding through green lawns and palm fronds gently swaying in the breeze. Vendors sold snow cones and papaya spears. Children chased soap bubbles and dogs chased butterflies, and couples of families in row boats meandered around Echo Park Lake, a blue pond reflecting white clouds. Sam saw nothing frightening here. None of the horrors Daniel talked about when he spun his tales of LA. At least not at first.

Sam and Em pedaled across Echo Park Lake, past lazy flotillas of ducks and geese, out to a tiny, grassy island in the center of the pond. A half dozen stakes were planted in the grass, and upon each stake was mounted a severed head.

The island’s only living inhabitant was a prematurely wrinkled man tanned like a horse saddle. He wore a straw boater, a blue pinstriped seersucker jacket, and white trousers. A shiny metal change dispenser was clipped to his belt.

Flashing bleached teeth, he called out his spiel: “Fifty shells a piece gets you a ten-minute visit and an oral history of the island and its denizens. Oh, excuse me a sec. Yaw!” He thrust a pole at a pigeon that had landed on one of the heads. The pigeon cooed and flapped away, but not before depositing a white blob.

“Do you have to clean that?” Sam asked.

The Keeper of Heads glanced at the head. “His relatives are behind on maintenance fees, so, no. You kids want the tour or not? It’s free to look at the heads from the pond, but once you’re landed…” He squinted at Em. “You look familiar. Do I know your family?”

“You might have met some of my sisters,” Em allowed.

He didn’t look excited to see her. “You’re very young. Why’d they send you?”

“Can’t say. Operational security. Speaking of which…”

A couple who looked as wholesome as a white picket fence approached in a rowboat. They even had a picnic basket.

The Keeper stopped talking about anything to do with the Emmas and went back to his tourist spiel: “Starting from the far left, we have Adrienne Chu, who worked in the kitchen of Sister Tooth. As I’m sure you’ve read, she attempted to sneak basilisk venom into our dear matron’s soup. Sister Tooth was wise to the diabolical Miss Chu from the very moment she was hired, of course, and the soup never had a chance of reaching her lips.”

Chu’s head was just a skull with a few shiny patches of snail-colored skin and strands of hair. The crime and trial and execution must have all happened some time ago. Probably all on the same day.

The Keeper continued to tell the tales of the executed criminals. Each had committed a heinous crime, and each was told in a manner that made them come off as hideous and evil but inadequate to the task of achieving their goals.

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