Indexing Read Online Free PDF

we really don’t
have the time or manpower to deal with the police right now. I know this
is piling shit on top of shit, but seriously, if you make me try to talk to
some beat cop who doesn’t want to be here, I’m going to scream. And if I
scream, the bluebirds will find me.”
    Deputy Director Brewer blinked at me as if he had no idea what I was
talking about, and even less idea of how to handle it. Again, he recovered
quickly, shaking his head as he said, “I don’t know what you think you’re
doing, Agent, but you can’t simply—”
    “Demi Santos is a half-awakened two-eighty, as you would know if you had
stopped by the control van to read my mission log before coming out here to
confront me,” I said calmly. “In case you can’t remember the ATI off the top of
your head right now, that means she’s a Pied Piper. A Pied Piper at music
school with no control and no handler is a threat to public safety. She was
going to go live any day, and when that happened, a lot of people were going to
get hurt.”
    He went even paler, if such a thing was possible. “Are you saying we have
two concurrent memetic incursions?”
    The temptation to say yes and see him run was almost irresistible. I
resisted. “No, I’m saying Demi Santos is on the ATI spectrum, and is thus my responsibility,
not yours. She’s aiding us with this investigation.”
    “Aiding you how ?”
    “Jeff can explain better than I can, sir,” I said. “I assure you, it will
all be laid out very clearly in his notes, as well as in my own. For the
moment, may I please recommend that you leave the scene? You’ll be safer behind
the cordon.”
    His eyes narrowed. “Safer how?”
    Deputy Director Brewer had risen to his current position by being a
by-the-book kind of man. The trouble was, his book didn’t have any happy
endings, and it certainly didn’t have evil witches, wicked stepsisters, and
talking mice. Sometimes getting him to understand the reality of what fieldwork
entailed was more trouble than I had the patience for. This was one of those
times.
    “That hospital is ground zero for a sickness the likes of which we
haven’t seen in centuries,” I snapped, jabbing a finger toward the looming
shape of the Alta Vista Hospital. “There is a teenage girl asleep in there who’s going to kill us all if my team doesn’t prevent it—and
when I say ‘all,’ I mean everyone in this
city . That means coming up with an out-of-the-box solution. Enter Demi
Santos. Now, I can’t say for sure what’s going to happen to you if you’re still
standing here when she breaks out her flute, but I can say that you’re probably
not going to like it. The rest of us have been touched by these stories. We
have some resistance. You do not .
Now, with all due respect, sir , I
suggest that you get behind that cordon, before you get a hell of a lot closer
to ever after than you ever wanted to be.”
    There was a moment of silence. It stretched out long enough that I
started to worry I had gone too far. Then the deputy director nodded tightly,
said, “I look forward to your report,” and turned to walk back toward the
cordon.
    I stayed where I was, watching him go. When I was sure that he wasn’t
going to turn and come charging back, I sighed and made my own turn, heading
for the van. It was time to put my money where my mouth was and stop another
story before it got big enough to eat us all.
#
    Demi
Santos—who was nineteen, only two years older than our Sleeping Beauty—lifted
her flute to her lips, blowing an experimental note. According to the records
Jeff had produced, she was a natural musician. She didn’t have her first lesson
until she was sixteen. Six months later, she was already good enough to play
with any symphony orchestra in the world, and was going to college mainly to
get the paperwork to prove it. That kind of musical gift is one of the
characteristic hallmarks of the Pied Pipers—no matter how poor their
beginnings, they can always