Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One)

suppose. Natural enough on their side. I mean, if you opened a path to another time on Earth, you might get dinosaurs trotting out of it, right? Is a dinosaur a monster, or just another animal?”
    “I suppose that depends on whether or not you’re selected for dinner.”
    The ambulance showed up a few minutes later. McKesson waved them toward the landlady. He gave them the impression he was a cop arriving on the scene and I was the discovering witness. When the paramedics were busy goingthrough the motions with the corpse, he beckoned to me. I followed him. Together we walked out to his car, which was parked out on the street.
    “We can take off,” McKesson said. “The old lady is their problem now.”
    I found myself glancing over my shoulder at the dead woman in the breezeway. I wondered if I would end up like that someday. Maybe it would happen in an alien desert under three strange moons.
    McKesson climbed into his car and pressed the lock button, just in case I got any ideas about climbing in with him.
    “Now disappear quick,” he said, “or you’ll be stuck when a patrol car shows up.”
    I didn’t disappear. Instead, I leaned near his driver’s-side window and kept talking. “We didn’t find Holly.”
    “She’s gone, and I have to get going too. My best advice is to forget about her.”
    “I can’t do that.”
    McKesson checked his watch. “I’ve got to go.”
    “What? Are you late for a wedding or something?”
    He twisted his lips. “Police business,” he said.
    “Just show me your watch for one second.”
    He made no move to do so. In fact, he scooted his sleeve down over his watch, so I couldn’t see it at all. At that moment, I became certain he was heading to the site of yet another event.
    “You’ve detected another rip, haven’t you? Somewhere else?”
    McKesson shook his head and stared through his windshield. He put on his seatbelt.
    “You might want to step back, sir,” he said out of the side of his mouth. “I don’t want to run over your toes.”
    I had no idea where McKesson might go next, but Holly’s apartment was clearly a dead end now. I recalled that when searching for a kidnap victim, the odds of finding them were the highest in the first half hour after the crime. If McKesson knew of another rip showing up, I wanted to be there to check it out. It was the only lead I had.
    “Come on,” I said. “I’ll listen. I’ll even follow your rules this time.”
    “I don’t need a partner, Draith.”
    “These things are appearing all around me anyway. You’re going to end up coming back to wherever I am. Why not let me check them out with you?”
    For some reason, that argument got through to McKesson. Maybe because it was true. He hit the unlock button and I ran around the car, half expecting him to pull away before I could get to the passenger door. He didn’t. I climbed in, and we drove off together down the dark streets.

McKesson and I drove through the city, following his watch. It pointed downtown, and after circling around the southern end of the Strip a few times, he and I looked up. Our eyes met. We’d both figured it out at the same time.
    “Why the Lucky Seven, again?” McKesson groaned. “Rostok’s going to be pissed.”
    “Will he come out and scold you?”
    “No, he never comes out of his domain. Most of them don’t. He’s like a spider in there. But he has plenty of goons to do his complaining for him.”
    Thinking of Bernie Kinley, I had to agree. That man definitely qualified for classification as a “goon.” I craned my neck out the passenger window and stared up at the towers. They formed two oblong shapes, thrusting upward side by side, looking like a giant tuning fork aimed at the sky. At night, the building was more attractive. I liked the way the walls ran with green lights.
    McKesson parked his car, and we crossed the asphalt toward the eastern tower. I thought about the location of other recent rips. I could see a pattern.
    “They’re chasing me, aren’t they?” I asked.
    “The Gray Men? Maybe.”
    “No, not maybe. I was at Holly’s place yesterday. About a dozen hours after I left, they kicked in her door. Now they are popping up at the towers, where I spent most of today. They are one step behind me.”
    He turned his head to look at me. “You think a rip is going to open in Mrs. Townsend’s room again?”
    I nodded. “A strong possibility. Only Jenna’s not there—I moved her, fortunately. She should be