Monster Hunter Bloodlines - eARC by Larry Correia (read a book .txt) 📕

suit of the MCB’s sleek new body armor that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Another armored Fed got out after Franks, but he was a lot slower because poor Grant Jefferson was having to serve as Franks’ gun caddy, laboring under the weight of several rifle and gear bags.

The helicopter immediately lifted off and soared away. Which was an even worse sign because it meant Franks was planning on staying for a while.

The really loud helicopter was still pretty close, so they probably didn’t hear me say, “What the hell are you dorks doing here?”

Franks’ ugly mug curled into a scowl, which meant his stolen ears had heard that just fine. Grant hadn’t heard me and shouted back, “What?”

The helicopter was farther away now so I could speak normally. “I asked what can MHI do for you upstanding gentlemen today?”

“Where’s Stricken?” Franks demanded.

It took me a moment to process that, because of the many things I expected from Franks right then, that question had not been among them. “What? I don’t know.”

“Where’s Lana?”

“Who?”

“The succubus who broke Stricken out of our interrogation room.” Grant had caught up with his much more intimidating partner. The look on the junior G-man’s face warned me that Franks wasn’t fucking around. Franks was legit angrier than usual. “This is serious, Pitt. Have you seen any indication that either of them has been here at the MHI compound since the escape?”

I was honestly baffled by this turn, but I could also tell that this was not the time to be a smartass to Franks, because he appeared even shorter tempered than usual. “No. We’ve not seen them.”

“Are you absolutely certain?” Grant asked.

“Yeah. The weird-looking creep who everyone here despises and wants to murder and a smoking hot chick with bat wings would probably stick out a bit. We’re not that unobservant.” I looked to Franks. “Just because we helped you when you were a fugitive doesn’t mean that MHI takes in every stray asshole on the run from the law. What’s going on?”

“We got intel,” Franks said in his usual terse way that explained absolutely nothing.

“What kind of intel?”

“Classified.”

“Come on, Franks.”

“It’s a reliable tip,” Grant interjected.

“MCB already shot their wad on that whole informant inside MHI thing with you last time, Grant. Even if you’ve managed to sneak another rat into our ranks to tattle to mommy whenever we break the rules, I can guarantee they’re full of shit on this one, because if Stricken had shown up here I’d have already capped him myself. Never mind what Earl Harbinger would do to him. I can guarantee that if we saw Stricken, it would be shoot, shovel, and shut-up time. There’s a track hoe in the garage and we’ve got a lot of acreage.” Though come to think of it, if we simply fed Stricken’s body to the wargs there would be even less evidence. The idea of Stricken ending up as warg poop made me smile.

“It’s not an informant, it’s . . . something else.”

“Coslow?”

The two Feds exchanged a knowing glance, which meant I was probably right.

“I can’t say. But the information is good. I can’t tell you how, but it looks like Stricken is really interested in whatever it is MHI is prepping for tonight. He’s up to something. He’ll be close, or it’ll at least be one of his trusted allies.”

“Like the succubus,” I said. Franks’ reaction after the prison break had seemed a little off to me. “Do you two know each other?”

“No.”

“Too bad. She was strangely attractive for a lady with horns. But don’t worry. If this obvious demon woman shows up in a compound full of extremely well-armed Monster Hunters and we don’t just immediately cap her to collect the PUFF for some baffling reason, we’ll be sure to call the MCB.”

“She’s not always obvious,” Franks corrected me. “Lana can alter her form.”

Great. Another shapeshifter. Just what I needed complicating my life. “You sure you don’t know her? Because I’m kind of getting the vibe that you know her.”

“No.” Franks’ denial was perfectly flat.

A little too flat maybe. And the fact I could tell that was a testament to how much quality time I’d gotten to spend with Franks over the years. “Sure . . . We’ll be on the lookout then. Thanks for the warning. You can go now.”

“If it’s all the same to you, we’re going to stick around here and observe for ourselves,” Grant said. “And by ‘all the same to you,’ I mean we’re going to do whatever we want anyway because we’re the law and can make your life miserable until you cave, so you might as well get over it and cooperate.”

Franks simply grunted in agreement.

“Wow, Grant, you’re remarkably good at throwing your weight around and being a total dick. Government work suits you.”

“My high school guidance counselor told me I’d be good at public service, but I decided to waste a few years being a dumbass MHI employee first.” Grant gestured toward the main building. “After you.”

“Fine.” I started walking toward headquarters. They followed me. Earl was going to hate this, but Grant wasn’t bluffing. If we fought the MCB over this, they’d just hit us over the head with a big legal hammer. And instead of just these two we’d be up to our eyeballs in meddlesome Feds. At least I knew Grant was good in a fight, and Franks was a virtual wrecking ball of monster-killing destruction. We could use the help. “But I’ll warn you, we’ve got something really nasty incoming. It’s the contract-enforcing monster Stricken warned me about during our meeting. So if you did your observing while shooting back, that would be handy.”

“We’re here to watch for Stricken,” Grant said. “As for this other business, our orders are to not interfere.”

“We’re gonna interfere,” Franks told his subordinate.

“Never mind then.” Grant passed his boss one of the heavy gun bags. “I guess we’re interfering.”

* * *

There were so many people at the compound that Julie moved the ops meeting from the conference room to