She shook her head, and I nodded. “I might not have helped with an active cover-up, but I sure as hell enabled a passive one. And never mind that I thought it was the right thing to do at the time, choosing a life that might do some good over one that wasn’t. You stay passive long enough, it’s the same as doing wrong.”
I’d learned my lesson, but it came back and haunted me anyway. And more people had died.
I took that thought and locked it into the book of deal-with-later. And I would, but right now I had more immediate concerns. “You okay?” She seemed way too calm for everything that had gone down, even with her recently acquired jadedness.
“Yeah. I think I am. I mean, that’s why I’m here, right? For the people who get caught up in the bad luck and the cosmic alignments they can’t do anything about? When it’s not a Talent-driven crime, not really, not what they handle,” and we both looked back at the PUPs, who were now putting things back in their kit, presumably finished. “It’s current-driven, though. And that’s me. Us.”
I could feel myself duckface, unable to argue with that even though it felt a bit like hubris. “Yeah. I guess.” I’d never thought that deep about it, beyond a need to keep people from getting lost. I guess… she was right, in a way. A lot of people had gotten lost.
“So how do we stop this from happening again?”
And there was the question of the hour, maybe. “I don’t think we can. People — human or otherwise — they do damage. All we can do it put back each stone, one at a time.”
She frowned at me. “Yeah, about that. I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I laughed, and yeah, I was right, that hurt too. “You need to read more poetry.”
And then Pietr was there, kneeling next to us. “A car’s coming. Medic’s at the office, take a look at you both.”
“I’m fine,” Ellen started to say, and he shut her up with a look. “I’m not going to explain to Wren Valere how I let you go without a full checkup, so shut up and do as you’re told. And that goes for you too, Hendrickson.”
I lay back on the ground and stared up at the darkening sky, the lights coming on around us from street lamps and office buildings. I was alive. Ellen was alive. Nobody else was going to die tonight.
“Yeah, okay,” I said. “Okay.”
<<<<>>>>
Acknowledgements
This story, and this series, could not have happened without the enthusiastic support of Kickstarter backers, who told NY publishing that yes they DID want more Cosa Nostradamus! Thank you, so very much.
Copyright & Credits
The Work of Hunters
Sylvan Investigations #3
Laura Anne Gilman
www.bookviewcafe.com
Book View Café Edition
November 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61138-564-9
Copyright © 2015 Laura Anne Gilman
www.lauraannegilman.net
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form
whatsoever. For information/permissions, contact [email protected]
Interior Design (eBook): April Steenburgh
Cover Design © 2015 Tiara Lynn Agresta
About the Author
Since her first novel in 2004, Laura Anne Gilman has established a reputation for herself with darker—edged fantasy, both urban and epic. She is the Nebula—nominated author of Silver on the Road, Book 1 of The Devil’s West (October 2015), The Vineart War trilogy, and the Cosa Nostradamus series, plus more than forty short stories, including two “Year’s Best” picks. Her story collection, Darkly Human, will be out from Book View Café in 2016. She also wrote the “Gin & Tonic” mystery series under the name L.A. Kornetsky.
Currently based in Seattle, she’s on Twitter as @LAGilman, and at http://www.lauraannegilman.net
About Book View Cafe
Book View Café is a professional authors’ cooperative offering DRM—free ebooks in multiple formats to readers around the world. With authors in a variety of genres including mystery, romance,fantasy, and science fiction, Book View Café has something for everyone.
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