Titan Song by Dan Stout (top 10 ebook reader .txt) 📕

during my recap, but he spoke up now. “I think Weylan wants us to dig. He’s been pushing for it in all his public appearances. If he’s desperate to find the truth, he may think it’s buried under Titanshade. The Titan is one of the few stories that the Barekusu didn’t help form. Weylan wants to know what’s under our feet, but the city has so many moral proscriptions against digging inside the city limits. He thinks the only way we’ll do it is if he starts the hole himself.”

“Someone needs to stop him,” I said. “And it’s looking like that someone is us.”

“Carter,” Gellica said my name like a parent about to tell their kid that the street-corner imps on Titan’s Day aren’t real. “I’m a diplomat.” She pointed at Guyer. “She interrogates dead people. You and Jax arrest murderers in alleys. You need a spelunker with demolitions expertise.” She dropped her hands onto the couch, as if perplexed by the whole question. “Don’t you have a bomb squad or something?”

Jax chimed in. “There was no sign of explosives at the first sinkhole. There’s no reason to assume they’d change their methodology at this point.”

“There’s no reason to assume they won’t, either.”

“Alright,” I said. “We’ll just call up the bomb squad and let them know that they need to ignore their orders to go to the festival so that they can tag along for a forbidden excursion into the geo-vents that might get them killed, but will almost certainly end their career.”

“Wow,” said Guyer. “You really know how to sell me on this, don’t you?”

“This isn’t police work,” I said. “This is knowing that people are going to die, and there’s only one way to stop it.” I turned to Gellica. “The sad truth is that you’ve got more pull in the department than we do.”

“Used to, maybe,” she said. “After you arrested Paulus, any influence I had faded like morning fog. No one wants to stick their neck out for an ambassador sitting in jail. Or her lame-duck placeholder.” She traced the flower pattern on the couch that had once been hers. “No, until Paulus is released, we’re in this alone.”

“There’s another reason I don’t want to bring in more players,” I said. I was kneeling by the side table, and now pushed myself onto my ass. Jax and Guyer had a professional respect, and the trust of one cop for another. But I also needed them to trust Gellica. And while I couldn’t tell them her secret, I could make it clear I trusted her with my own. “The three of you know about my . . .” I waved my left hand, displaying the missing fingers. “My knack for feeling manna in the air.”

“A knack you said you’d explain,” Guyer said. “And tell us how it started.”

“It’s just a best guess.” I cleared my throat and began. “I noticed it about five years back. With my ex.”

“Your wife?” said Guyer. To my right, Gellica stiffened almost imperceptibly.

“We never got around to formalizing it.” I paused, then added, “We weren’t exactly together when she got sick. But people can matter even if you can’t make a relationship work.” Gellica looked away.

“Good news for you, considering your track record with relationships.” Guyer said it with a smirk.

“She had cancer.”

Guyer’s smirk faded. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take a little satisfaction in that. It was irrational, but on some level I wanted the entire world to feel Jenny’s loss. “When she was getting real sick, we tried an operation. Marrow transfer. Experimental treatment.”

The others said nothing.

“It bought her a little time. I was grateful for that, and I was grateful to the place that gave that gift.” I took a breath, and pressed on. “After the surgery the staff shifted her room unexpectedly a number of times. Because of “turnover” they said. I always managed to find her, even when the staff gave me bad directions. We used to joke that she was a magnet, pulling me home. But that’s exactly what she was. We were linked.”

I looked around my circle of friends.

“After she died, she went up the Mount, to be taken by the Sky Shepherds.” The broad-winged birds rode the thermals around the Mount, and carried the remains of loved ones back into nature’s embrace. “But they missed part of her.” I squinted, eyes stinging slightly. “And I felt it. For years, I felt her up there.” I cleared my throat. To tell any more would be too much. More than they needed to know, and certainly far more than I was willing to share.

“The place that treated you,” said Jax. “That created this bond . . .”

“The Cedrow Care Center.” I forced my jaw to relax. Even saying the words enraged me. Jenny’s suffering had made us both Harlan Cedrow’s first round of lab rats. “We were the early tests of the human compasses that eventually led to the discovery of the manna well.”

Guyer stared at me, mouth open. “Why haven’t you told the world about this?”

“Because I had zero proof,” I said. “Beyond a literal feeling in my bones. And now even that’s gone. The point is that Jenny and I had a manna bond. So all this talk about next gen manna and the strike? I don’t know if it’s even relevant.”

Guyer exhaled, a long, exaggerated breath that made it clear she thought all of this may be irrelevant.

“When you were in that C3 lab,” Gellica was restrained, her arms and legs tucked tight to her body, and there was urgency in her voice, “how many others were in there?”

I spread my hands. “Dozens. No idea if they got the manna bond or not. No idea if they’re affected now or not. Maybe there’s many people out there just like me.”

Beside me, Gellica winced, and I knew she was wondering how many other people shared our connection to magic. But Jax sat forward, a college kid happy to wrestle with a mental puzzle.

“Probably not,” he said. “The