The Serpent's Curse by Lisa Maxwell (read an ebook week .TXT) 📕

word that we’re searching for her. If she has allies in this city, they might warn her off.”

“We’ve kept everything in-house, like you wanted,” Cooke assured him.

“There haven’t been questions about the increased patrols?” Jack wondered.

Cooke shook his head, clearly self-satisfied with the job he’d done. “We’re already dealing with a bit of an issue in Chinatown right now—a possible outbreak of plague.” He shrugged. “It’s been easy enough to explain the increased patrols throughout the city as being related to that. There’s enough negative sentiment about the Chinese in the city that nobody has questioned our methods. If anything, the citizens approve of keeping a tighter watch on the foreigners, and they’ve welcomed the increased surveillance. They don’t care who else we might be watching for.”

Good. “President Roosevelt sends his heartfelt appreciation for all you and your men have done to help protect our great nation,” Jack said solemnly. It wasn’t exactly a lie. He was sure Roosevelt would have appreciated Cooke’s assistance if he’d had any notion that Jack was still tracking the Thief. But while the president had been upset by the events at the world’s fair, he didn’t understand the true threat that feral magic posed to the country. Roosevelt cared about assimilation of the immigrants who brought the feral magic to the country, but he didn’t understand that maggots with that sort of wild, dangerous power could never be truly American. Simply forcing a maggot to speak English would never be enough, not unless or until the power they carried was neutralized.

Cooke preened all the more. “Myself and my city are gratified to be of service to the president.”

“You have my personal appreciation as well,” Jack added. “I know that in the past our respective Brotherhoods have been at odds, but the events of the last few weeks have illustrated how important our mutual cooperation will be in this new century. I’m glad that men like yourself—modern men of action and intelligence—have the foresight to understand that our shared enemy requires new alliances.”

“Alliances?” Cooke glanced at him.

“Unity against a common enemy,” Jack clarified. He looked to Hendricks. “The medallions.”

Hendricks gave a sure, obedient nod, removed a small linen pouch from his bag, and offered it to Cooke, who took it with some confusion.

“The Veiled Prophet Society and their Jefferson Guard offer you a token of our shared Brotherhood,” Jack explained. “It is time to put our differences aside. It is time to act as one.”

Cooke opened the pouch and removed one of the medallions to examine it. “What is this?”

“This is a device that the Jefferson Guard developed back in St. Louis. The Veiled Prophet Society uses them to detect feral magic,” Hendricks explained. “And now… so shall the Vigilance Committee.”

Cooke seemed suddenly more interested. “The Society sent this?” He frowned, turning the medallion over.

“As I said, we’re stronger together against a common enemy. The Society believes this. I hope that the Vigilance Committee will come to believe it as well. Withholding from one another only weakens us all. Distribute them to your men with my compliments and thanks,” Jack told Cooke. “They’ll offer some protection against the Thief’s feral magic and against any maggots who might think to help her. We can’t let the Thief get away from us,” he warned. “For the good of the country.”

“For the good of the country,” Cooke agreed.

They finally pushed through the crowds at the docks, and Cooke led them to an open-air carriage. The hills of San Francisco were barely visible through the murk of the cloudy day.

He would need to spend time with Cooke and the rest of the Vigilance Committee later, once this was all over, Jack thought. With Cooke under his influence, the Committee would likely be valuable allies in the future, but for now Jack was only interested in one thing—obtaining the artifact that was waiting for him, and making the damn magician sorry for ever crossing him.

“Now,” Jack said. “About the other issue you wanted to discuss with me…” He took another cube of morphine and let it fortify him for what was to come.

A PREMONITION

1904—San Francisco

The journey to California took Esta three interminable days. As the train cut through the country, she didn’t know how much of a head start Jack might have had from Denver. She had no way of knowing if she’d be in time to reach Harte before anyone else could, but a new scar had appeared on her wrist. Considering that the scar had appeared somewhere in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, Esta figured Nibsy also knew that she’d managed to escape his reach in Denver. If he knew that, it was also likely that Cordelia had already notified Nibsy and the rest of the network about where Harte had been heading.

The scar formed a single word—clavis—but beneath that word there was a line of strange markings. Esta understood what the word meant— “key.” It was Nibsy’s way of ordering her to return with the cuff, but the markings were a puzzle. They seemed oddly familiar, but she couldn’t remember where she might have seen them before, and she didn’t know what they signified.

Even if Esta had any intention of bowing to Nibsy Lorcan’s demands—and she definitely didn’t—she didn’t have Ishtar’s Key. Until she found Harte, she wouldn’t have Ishtar’s Key, and she had a feeling that her arrival in California wouldn’t go as easily as she hoped. After all, they’d left the sharpshooter behind, basically tied up like a gift for the Brotherhoods. If the Brotherhoods had Cordelia, it was possible that they already knew everything that Nibsy knew. They might have already found Harte. They might already be waiting for Esta as well. Even if she managed to slip past all of that danger and find Harte, Cordelia knew their final destination, which meant that the Brotherhoods probably would as well. If they could manage to make it out of San Francisco, returning to Manhattan to retrieve