Hellboy: The God Machine Read Online Free PDF

stunning this morning, Kate," Hellboy said as he wiped cream cheese from the corner of his mouth. "That a new blouse you're wearing?"
    She smirked. "Yeah, like you'd really notice. Keep this up, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Manning take you out of the field until your paperwork's caught up."
    "Ouch!" Hellboy grimaced.
    "So where is Tom this morning?" Abe asked, expertly diverting the subject.
    Good one, Abe. I can always count on you.
    "Yeah, where is he?" Hellboy joined in. It wasn't like the Director to be absent from a morning meeting. "Surprised not to see our fearless leader, especially with the grub and all."
    "The Director's running a little late, I guess," Kate said, quickly glancing at her watch before picking up her pen and removing the cap. "So, who wants to start?"
    Liz sat forward in her chair. "Now, hold on. I hate cliffhangers. Is Hellboy going to tell us how he kept the Graken from going on the warpath or not?"
    She reached for the carafe of coffee and refreshed her cup.
    Hellboy spread what remained of the cream cheese on the other half of his bagel. "I promised 'em I'd bring their boulder back, and then I had to swear on a sacred woodchuck."
    Abe stared with dark, glistening eyes. "Sacred woodchuck?"
    Hellboy shrugged, mouth full. "Could'a been a weasel, I guess."
    Liz stared at him. "You're making that up."
    "Would I do that? It'll be in the report."
    "And if you can't bring this rock back, what then?" Liz asked.
    He finished chewing and swallowed. "Then the Graken Spriggin will lay siege to the world."
    Kate sighed, picking up her notepad and turning to a fresh page. "So what've we got, people? Should we be worried?" She looked around the table. "Abe, what did you find?"
    Abe cleared his throat. "As you saw in my report..." He glanced briefly in Hellboy's direction.
    Hellboy coughed suddenly into his hand, the barking hack sounding an awful lot like kissass.
    Unfazed, Abe continued. "The missing item is a cup supposedly used by Elvis Presley before going on stage for what would be his last live performance in Indiana's Market Square Arena on June 26, 1977."
    "You get to check out stolen Elvis memorabilia and I get Graken Spriggin? Where's the justice in that?" Hellboy asked, crumpling up his napkin and throwing it down onto his plate.
    "The cup had been purchased for an undisclosed amount from an online auction, and was being transported by courier to its new owner in Massachusetts. The vehicle ended up at the bottom of the Merrimack River in Lowell. The driver was killed, and the Elvis cup was not recovered. The suspicion is that it was stolen right after the accident."
    Kate gave Hellboy the evil eye as he started to hum "Don't Be Cruel." "What've you got, Liz?"
    She set her coffee mug down and ran her fingers through her straggly, shoulder-length red hair. Hellboy guessed she hadn't bothered to shower this morning, catching every possible moment of sleep before the meeting. He was half-surprised she hadn't shown up in her pajamas.
    "Nothing as cool as a missing Elvis cup," she assured them. "I've got a water stain that looks like the Virgin Mary. Evidently it was caused by a combination of renovations to an office building and heavy rains last spring. Word got out, and the faithful started flocking to the building. The guy who owned the place even started to charge admission."
    Hellboy stood and rummaged through the bagels again. "So what happened," he asked, picking up a sesame-seed-covered bagel and sniffing it. "Somebody steal the water stain?"
    "Not exactly," Liz said, running her finger along the rim of her mug, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. "They stole the wall."
    Hellboy froze. "C'mon, a hunk of wall was stolen out of an office building? How is that done?"
    "Same way a boulder is taken from a yard and a cup is stolen from a truck in transit," Kate answered. She set her pen down and looked up from the notepad. "So, we have a pattern. Anyone see any logic in it yet?" she asked,