Page 139 of Coerced

“It’s all tied into something living when it shouldn’t.” He frowned. “The process to animate zombies gained their attention.”

“I can understand the seed of that hypothesis.” Travis tapped his fingers on his chin. “If you can bring someone back from the dead, you should be able to find a way to keep someone from dying in the first place. Completely bass ackwards, of course.”

I put the zombie thoughts on hold for right now.

“What’s Hubler’s code name? And do you know the names and code names of the other Alchemists?”

“I only know Hubler is Fire.” Argaud shook his head.

“You got anything else that would help?”

“They’re big into something Hubler calls the Great Experiment,” he said. “I don’t know exactly where the lab is, but it has to be near New York City. His employees there conduct experiments on nephilim.”

“Like what kind of exp—”

“Basic human medicine,” he interrupted Gigi, “combined with whatever ideas they come up with. Bioengineering, DNA restructuring, and transplants mixed with demon grafting and hosting.”

Murder and torture. That’s all those big words mean. Murder and torture.

We went on asking questions for about twenty more minutes until I was sure we’d gotten all we were gonna get from him. Then I thanked him for his time.

“Don’t make me out to be a martyr or a victim or a good guy,” he barked. “We aren’t friends, Harker. I’m helping you in order to achieve one of my own goals. That’s all.”

“You’re right. We ain’t ever gonna be friends, and we both have different reasons for what we’re doing.” I met his eyes. “I can still say thank you.”

Because that’s whatshewould do. What she would want me to do. How many times had she encouraged me to “hold out a hand instead of cut one off”?

Not that I ever in my life cut someone’s hand off, as I’d pointed out to her.

I turned and motioned Gigi and Travis toward the door. Travis signaled the guard and they left the room, but Argaud called my name and I looked back.

“You’d better remember your promise.” He narrowed his eyes, his voice dark with a threat both of us knew he couldn’t carry out.

“I’ll remember it,andI’ll keep it. My word on that.”

Argaud glared at me for another second, then stepped up to the glass again. He waited until I leaned in as close as I could.

“Hubler has a Divine artifact,” he whispered. “He wears the ring of Solomon.”

While I stood there in shock, Argaud jerked his head in a quick nod, spun on his heel, and headed for the exit.

How in the world did he get Solomon’s Seal?

Shaking my head, I went out my exit, too. Our silent guard escorted us to the reception area, but I had a brainstorm and hesitated before I picked up the pen to sign out.

“Uh, since we’re here, there’s another prisoner I wanna talk to. To follow up on an old case for Rome. Do you mind? I’ll be quick.”

“Long as we’re here,” said Gigi with a shrug, “you might as well.”

Ms. Chapman cleared it with the Guardian, and I went to see a necromancer’s apprentice.

37. Property of Mira Kuznetsova

Rome

I came awake slowly, feeling worse than I had before I’d fallen asleep. The way I’d been moving to compensate for my injuries must have aggravated the rest of my chest and back muscles, because now everything ached.

I looked around to see who was nearby before I got up. If it was John, I could ask for help. If it was Mira, I’d have to explain very thoroughly why I needed to visit the bathroom and hope she’d let me.

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