Chapters (42)
- DEDICATION
- EPIGRAPH
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- ALSO BY RICHARD KADREY
- CREDITS
- ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
As he put the box into his tool bag, Coop heard something strange over the steady sound of the siren.
The ping of an elevator.
From the moment the alarm started, Steve knew what was coming. Worse, he knew there was nothing he could do about it.
The second the elevator doors opened, he was crushed against the wall as Lloyd and half of his people bolted from the car and ran around the ninth-floor lobby like a pack of demented chickens looking for a way out. The ones not running around like they’d lost their minds were still in the elevator, pushing buttons at random. When the doors began to close, Steve put his hand between them. As they opened again, he hit the elevator’s emergency stop button, setting off yet another alarm, which, he figured, didn’t matter with all the other goddamn noise going on.
He walked calmly to the office Lloyd had drawn on his greasy map. But he stopped at the door. Steve didn’t go inside. He didn’t have to. From where he stood he could see the smashed display case and the spot where Caleximus’s box should be.
“It’s gone,” Steve shouted over the alarm. He noticed the shattered glass on the floor. “Someone’s taken it. And he might still be here.”
“I found the fire exit!” shouted Jerry from the far end of the floor.
“Good for you, son. You stay there and keep the door open. The rest of us are going to have a quick look around.”
“Dad, we have to go.”
“Not before we look. All of you chickens and slackers, take an office and check inside. The faster you do it, the faster we can get out of here.”
History has shown us that without very specific directions, it’s not uncommon for panicked groups of people to become even more panicked when trying to carry out orders shouted to them over the sound of a burglar alarm. While Lloyd sprinted to where Jerry waited by the exit, all of the other Caleximus worshippers ran for the same glass-fronted office at the same time.
Naturally, Steve thought, shaking his head. But then he noticed something: they hit something on the way in.
Which was strange, because as far as anybody could see, there was nothing there.