Hellboy: The God Machine Read Online Free PDF Page B

sounding like a teacher fishing for answers from her students.
    "They're all items of adulation," Abe said, stroking his chin with a webbed hand. "Strange objects to be certain, but inspiring devotion nonetheless."
    Kate tapped her pen on the tabletop. "And this is just the stuff we know about," she said. "Who knows how many other things may be missing."
    "Couldn't it also be just some bizarre coincidence?" Liz asked. Hellboy noticed a faint glow coming from the palm of her hand as she gripped the side of her mug--using her pyrokinetic talent to reheat the contents of her cup.
    "You've been with the BPRD for how long, and you still think there's such a thing as coincidence?" Abe asked.
    "I'm just not sure we should be getting worked up over a missing Elvis cup," she added, carefully taking a sip of her now steaming coffee.
    "What do you think, Kate?" Hellboy asked. He'd taken his seat and was digging into the second bagel.
    The assistant field director shook her head slowly. "I'm not going to sound the alarm yet," she said, "but this is certainly something we should keep an eye on." She placed the cap back on her pen and stood. "That's it for me," she said, grabbing her notepad and heading for the door. "And I can expect your report on the Graken incident when?" Kate asked Hellboy as she passed.
    "It's the next thing on my list," he told her in all seriousness.
    Both Liz and Abe started to laugh, and he gave them a look.
    "Keep it up, and you'll give me a complex," he said to his supposed friends as he stood and followed them from the conference room.
    "So, H.B.," Liz asked, "what's on the agenda now?"
    Hellboy shrugged, throwing his breakfast trash in a barrel beside the door. "Probably head back to my place, maybe watch a few videos, why?"
    "I thought you were going to do your paperwork?" Abe said, holding open the door that would take him into the corridor that led to their living quarters.
    "Right," Hellboy agreed. "Next thing on my list."

Chapter 2
    U sing the body of Stanley Thomas, Absolom Spearz smiled and waved from the porch of the old farmhouse. An annoying high-pitched peal filled the air as the truck from Advent Technology slowly backed down the rutted, unpaved road, delivering the supplies Spearz had ordered just days before.
    What fascinating times these are, he thought, recalling how easy it had been to obtain the equipment he'd need for his holy tasks--a brief conversation on the telephone, and then reciting the number he'd found on a card in his host's wallet. So much had changed since he was last flesh and blood.
    Spearz looked at the others standing on the porch with him, his faithful congregation. Geoffrey Wickham now inhabited the body of Mrs. Thomas, a fine-looking woman, and considering how homely Geoffrey had been in his time, it would seem he had made out quite well. Now if only Spearz could prevent him from constantly touching himself.
    "Brother Wickham," Spearz said to the woman standing beside him, her hand stuck within her coat, languidly massaging her left breast. "Restrain yourself."
    "Sorry, Absolom," Wickham said in an unfamiliar voice, pulling her hand from within the coat, a spark of shame in her deep brown eyes. "I know it's been weeks, but I never realized how wonderful it would feel--to be of flesh again."
    Spearz nodded with understanding. "All I ask is that you exhibit restraint when in public."
    The sound of giggling caught his attention, and he turned to look at the Thomas children--the young boy hosting the mind and spirit of Tyler Arden, and the little girl, Annabel Standish.
    "Did I say something amusing?" he asked them. He found it interesting that the youngest members of his congregation had found their way into the youngest bodies. Another example of the strange synchronicity affirming that the time of their return was correct.
    The children bowed their heads in reverence.
    "No, sir," Tyler said in a voice yet to feel the change of puberty. "It's just that we know how Brother