Sunfail by Steven Savile Read Free Book Online

children are playing their part, adding to the confusion, as you predicted.”
    “Money well spent.”
    “Indeed. Paying the cattle to cause a stampede—genius. The iconography, particularly, I thought was a nice touch.”
    “It gives the illusion of some greater force at work, older superstitions coming to play, which is exactly what we want.”
    “Feed their anxieties.”
    “They can never have enough to worry about. Even with the polar shift causing havoc with the earth’s magnetic fields, we have a very limited window of opportunity. The stars are aligned, so to speak, and now we must act. Has there been word from our man in Paris?”
    “The assassin, Cabrakan, has matters in hand, Mr. Alom. Sophie Keane—” She no longer used the operative’s call sign. She was burned. Dead to them. Now she was merely an obstacle. “Rest assured, our friend will not be allowed to interfere with our plans.”
    “See that she doesn’t. Perhaps it would be wise to dispatch Ah Puch,” he invoked the name of the god of death, “to make sure the job is done?”
    “Xbalanque is in Berlin. She is closer.”
    “And she’s good?”
    “Very.”
    “Then make the call. Miss Keane’s hours among us are spent. I will not tolerate her betrayal. An example needs to be made of her.”
    “And it will be.”
    “Has Hunhau made contact?” The prince of the devils was in Manhattan, downtown, overseeing the crew infiltrating the finance district. It was a delicate dance, this rite of theirs. So many intricate strands of cause-and-effect that needed to be teased out and pulled very gently if they were going to succeed. But the rewards went beyond wealth. They went to the very root of society. Everything that had been lost was there to be won again. And now was the time. It was foretold.
    “His team is in place.”
    “And he knows what he has to do?”
    “He knows.”
    “Ixtab, Kauil, Cum Hau, and Huracan?”
    “All teams are in place, Mr. Alom.”
    “We have been hidden for a long time, Miss Kinch Ahau,” he said, invoking the old goddess’ name again.
    “Yes, yes we have.”
    “Now it is time to reveal ourselves.”
    “We shall be hidden no more,” she agreed. “We shall rise.”
    “Into the light,” Mr. Alom said, as though making a toast.

CHAPTER SIX
    SOPHIE DIDN’T SEE ANYONE.
    She didn’t have much time.
    She’d caught sight of the assassin. She recognized him: Cabrakan. The assassin was one of the new generation of killers she’d trained. That put him at an advantage, in that he knew her, how she moved and thought. She’d instilled her patterns in him. But she had no idea how he’d changed them to match his own personality. Every killer was unique. She could safely assume that if he didn’t have them already, he’d soon know her address, bank details, card numbers, passport, and every other bit of her life that was out in the public domain, and all her secrets a matter of hours after that. She needed to get out of the city. She should already be gone, dust in the Parisian wind, but she’d made a mistake. She hadn’t planned her exit strategy carefully enough. So she was stuck in the 10th arrondissement, back against the wall, watching the door to her apartment building through the glass of a patisserie window across the street, thinking about doing something really dumb.
    Everything looked quiet, but if anyone knew looks could be deceptive, it was Sophie.
    She returned her Vélib’ bike to the same corner rack she always used—she was a creature of habit, not necessarily wise for an assassin, she knew—then ducked around the corner. She stayed close to the little patisserie, her face turned toward its plate-glass windows. Anyone watching from across the street would have a hard time identifying her.
    She made it to her building’s front door without being hit, slipped her key into the lock, and eased it open.
    Looking back over her shoulder, Sophie stepped gratefully into the cool shadows inside. The