Brownstone grunted. “Yeah. It does.”
“I’ve got a job coming up. I’ll be out of town for a day or two. Just so you know.”
The experience of worrying about Brownstone knowing her business was odd. Peyton had been the only person in a long time that she bothered to inform of anything. She couldn’t escape the truth that she had a new friend. A friend that she wanted to be something more.
How the fuck did I end up with some magic-using bounty hunter as a friend?
His gaze lifted from his ribs. “Did you need backup for the job?”
Shay was tempted. Sorely tempted, but right now, Alison needed stability.
“I’m good.” Peyton would not have picked a job that required her to bring help. “But thanks for the offer.”
Brownstone picked up his beer and took a sip. “I’m sure I can always find a bounty in the area if you need me along. I know you didn’t have to help me with the Harriken.”
“No, I didn’t. But don’t think you don’t owe me. I’ll make you come along when I need you.” Shay grinned and winked. “For now, just live in fear.”
The man laughed quietly, no tension on his face.
“Try and not start any gang wars when I’m gone, Brownstone.”
He shrugged. “No promises.”
Two suitcases lay packed on tables near the southern walls of Warehouse Three when Shay arrived. Peyton stood over an open suitcase, counting 9mm magazines wearing jeans and a jean jacket.
“Okay, I’m here.” Shay stifled a yawn. “What’s with the jean tuxedo and what’s the big hurry?”
“A million-dollar job. But you don’t even have to recover anything. And this is retro bougie.”
Shay moved over to unzip a suitcase. She wanted to double-check the loadout. “What do you mean?”
“This isn’t a recovery job. It’s a… stop the recovery job.”
Shay sorted through some of the devices packed. Good assortment of jammers and some drones. “I’m not taking hit contracts, Peyton.” She frowned. “I’m surprised you’d even suggest it.”
He waved his hands in front of him. “It’s not like that. It’s simple. No killing. The client wants you to travel to Ohio. There’s a recently discovered cavern right next to the Great Serpent Mound, an over 1300-foot effigy mound built by the Native American Fort Ancient culture.”
“I know about it. That thing has been studied for a long time, over a century. How the fuck did they miss a cave all this time?”
“That’s just it. They are pretty sure it wasn’t there until recently. Some sort of magical spell wearing off is the theory.”
Shay nodded. “Got it. What’s in the cave?”
“Archaeologists recovered an artifact inside recently, as in yesterday. They’ve not publicized it yet, and they don’t want to move it until they understand it better, because they’ve done some tests and know it’s magic. They’ve not even mentioned discovering the cave to the general public. The whole area has been sealed off.”
Shay zipped up the suitcase. “Our boy wants me to grab this artifact then? I don’t get it. How is that different than any other job?”
“Nope. He wants you to destroy it.”
“Huh? Why?”
“He won’t say.”
Shay frowned. “He won’t say?”
Peyton shook his head. “No, but he will pay a million for confirmed destruction of the artifact. All you need to do is smash it up and grab a handful of the pieces as proof of the artifact. He’ll pay out based on that.”
“I’ve never heard of a person who wants to pay to destroy an artifact. Fuck, just think of how much you can make to sell it. Something smells off.”
“I thought so too, and I checked into it.” Peyton pulled his phone out of his pocket. A few taps and swipes later he held it up. A picture of a tall humanoid skeleton with double rows of teeth, elongated jaw, and long claws was on the screen. “This skeleton is eight feet tall.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard about this sort of thing. People claim that they’ve found all sorts of weird skeletons all over the country. I figure most of them are just some unlucky Oriceran bastards who got stuck on old Earth.”
“This was found in the same chamber as the artifact.” Peyton swiped again and revealed a picture of a worn clay bowl covered with glyphs. “This is the artifact.”
Shay peered at the image. “What about these glyphs?”
Peyton grinned. “That’s where things get interesting. They resemble ancient Akkadian cuneiform.”
“As in ancient Mesopotamia? That’s a long way and time from the Native culture that built the mound.”
“Yep. Really old version too, we’re talking pre-third millennium BC.”
Shay rubbed her chin. “Talk about your out-of-place artifact. Do you have any sort of translation? I don’t give a shit how rough.”
“A lot of the writing isn’t legible off the pictures, and I’ve not been able to track down any X-ray or other frequency scans, but the little I’ve found isn’t good. Um, well, there’s a lot of holes in it, and I’m not an expert in ancient Akkadian. I used a progr—”
“Spit it out,” Shay snapped.
Peyton swiped a few times on his phone. “Darkness swallows. Tiamat. New souls. New flesh.” He shrugged. “That’s all I got, and there are lots of words missing between each of those phrases.”
Tiamat. Shay didn’t need to be an expert on ancient Akkadian to worry about what the combination of a chaos goddess and an artifact might bring.
“They’ve found a lot of weird skeletons through the decades like that one,” Shay said. “They’ve always tried to explain it away or cover it up, but last time I checked there was a good 1000 cases that seemed legit, especially if you take Oriceran into account. I wonder if this has something to do with the client.”
Peyton nodded slowly. “Yeah, the client’s trying to hide his identity, but he’s bad news, Shay. Major ties to dark magic underworld. I’ve been able to sniff out that much.”
“In other words, even the assholes don’t
