"Gilman,.Laura.Anne.-.Overrush.(A.Wren.and.Sergei.Story)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gilman Laura Anne)

Gilman, Laura Anne - Overrush (A Wren and Sergei Story)
Laura Anne Gilman
Laura Anne Gilman was born in New Jersey, left briefly to go to
college in the wilds of New York State, then returned to her old
stomping grounds of Essex County. Ignoring all advice from her
family and friends, she began her writing career in 1997 with a sale
to Amazing Stories. Since then, she has published more than a
dozen short stories, three media tie-in novels (two Buffy the
Vampire Slayer, one Poltergeist: The Legacy), been reprinted in
high school and middle school textbooks, written two nonfiction
books for teenagers, and edited two anthologies (OtherWere and
Treachery and Treason). In there somewhere she also has a full-
time job as an editor for a major publishing house. She is married
(Peter), with one cat (Pandora).


You didn't say anything about a body!"
Well, that got his attention, anyway, Wren thought, seeмing the
startled look in her partner's eyes. "Excuse me?"
"Body. As in dead. 1 thought we agreed, no more dead people?"
She collapsed bonelessly in the large leather sofa opposite
Sergei's desk. But she couldn't meld with the butter-soft material
the way she normally did. Not with that much adrenaline coursing
through her system. "Walk me through it."
That was the thing about Sergei. You could flap him for maybe, oh,
ten seconds. Then he was back in the groove. Which was good.
She needed grooveness right now.
"Body. Dead. Propped up in front of the painting like a rag doll,
only ickier. Blood, pooled and dried." She could feel herself
calming down as she recited, the act of talking it out giving her
some distance. Head wound, looked like. He was wearing
slicks"Чthe outfit of choice for the well-kitted burglarЧ"but his
hood was back, like he's stopped; like he thought he was in the
clear."
She had been cruising up until then. It was a flyby, an easy job.
They'd been hired by an insurance company who suspected that
their well-to-do client hadn't actually been relieved of certain heavily
insured paintings in a recent robbery as he claimed. So they'd
come to Sergei, who had a certain . . . reputation ... of being able to
retrieve missing objects, and offered him a hefty check to
ascertain the truth of the matter. Quietly, of course. Bad business
to look as though you doubted the word of a wealthy client.
So Sergei took their check, shook their hands, told them they'd
have an answer by the next Monday. And then he'd called her. He
was the money guy the deal guy. The face people saw.
She did the dirty work. The physical stuff. Ego aside, when it came
to Talent, there were maybe fifty mages who could manipulate
current the way she did, with the results she got. Skills, maybe
another twenty thieves working today who could finesse the way
she did. There were maybe ten other people in the world who