Night and Day (Book 2): Bleeding Sky Read Online Free PDF Page B

was to secure the borders, land and
sea. Hell, we didn’t see a vamp in Denver till six months after the war
started.”
    “Makes
sense. You want to put a fence around the pasture so the cattle don’t wander
off.”
    “That
could be it.” He fell silent as Katie brought our beers. I noticed she kept
looking at Shuster’s pendant as she put the pint glasses on the
table.
    “It’s
like a candle to a moth,” he said after she left.
    “What?”
    He
tapped the pendant. “I saw you looking at it too.”
    I
shrugged. “Not like I haven’t seen pendants before. I was interested in the
design, though. It’s unique.”
    “It
is,” he said, taking a sip of his beer.
    “So
your company is owned by a Vee?”
    Shuster
shook his head. “No, I told you, I’m a consultant. Freelance.”
    “Then
why the pendant?”
    “I
do work sometimes for the GGO.”
    “I
don’t know what that is.”
    He
smiled. “Sorry. Governor General’s Office. They issued this to me so staff
knows I’m legit when I work at the Governer General’s headquarters, or any
of the Area offices for that matter.”
    “That
what you’re in town for? Governor General business?”
    “No,
like I told you, I’m freelance. The GGO is just one of my clients.” He
paused. ”But hey, the pendant greases the wheels anywhere I go, so why not
use it? It’s not like anybody is gonna ask me what kind of GGO business I’m
up to.”
    “Nice.”
    “To
answer your question, I’m in town for another client. You notice all the
people with the bright, colorful name tags?”
    “Yeah,
I’m a detective. I see things like that.”
    Shuster
laughed. “They’re all from Kinner-Hardwick. Middle managers. The company is
instituting some changes in their hiring practices, and they brought me in
to roll it out.”
    Kinner-Hardwick
is a big insurance company, offices all over the country. The people with
the name tags all looked happy to be here. Maybe they thought of it as a
vacation. Hopefully they didn’t plan to take in the nightlife. Or wander far
from midtown.
    “So
I’ve got a week of meetings, presentations, seminars. Afternoons with the
humans, evenings with the vamps.” He sighed. “Pretty goddamn boring stuff,
to be honest, but the pay is good.”
    “And
that’s what counts.”
    “In
my business, that’s all that counts,” he said. “So what about you? Loving
life?”
    “It’s
not bad,” I said. “Like you, I’m my own boss. When cases work out, when the
client leaves happy, I’m happy. Probably not as lucrative as your line of
work, but at least I don’t have to sit in a conference room.”
    “The
exciting life of a private detective,” Shuster said. “I hear you did some
work for the Area Governor’s Office here a while back. What did you think of
Bain? I’ve found him a real pain in the ass to work with.”
    “He
was like any other client,” I said. “Interesting that you know about that,
though. I didn’t know my business was common knowledge.”
    He
laughed. “Hey, Charlie, remember?” He tapped the pendant at his throat. “I
work with the GGO all the time. And most of the Area Governors. How do you
think I tracked you down?”
    “Phone
book?”
    He
shook his head slowly. “No,” he drawled. “I picked up the telephone, called
the Area Six operations center. Identified myself, asked them to find out
what they had on you. Were you still alive, were you still here, that kind
of thing.”
    He
paused. “The vamp system is like a well-oiled machine. Everything you want
to know about almost anybody is in their system. Twenty minutes after I
called, they got back to me with what I wanted to know. And more.” He paused
again. “Tough break, losing your partner like that.”
    “Yeah,
it was.”
    “How
did you and Thomas end up as partners anyway? He was a pretty well-known
figure in the right vamp circles, even up to the GGO. War hero.”
    “I
saw the medals