Read Age of Heroes for Free Online

level.”
    That was Cynthia. Forever hustling.
    “Lucky I’m used to you, Cynth,” Theo said. “Otherwise I might take offence, you working me to get another client.”
    “Girl’s gotta make her targets.”
    His phone beeped. Now a text. From Chase Chance.
    “Shit. Look, I’ll turn it off.”
    “Is that him again?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, see what he has to say. He obviously needs to talk with you.”
    “Okay.”
    Theo pulled up the text.
     
    Call me. Urgent.
     
    He frowned.
    “What’s he after?” Cynthia said.
    “Don’t know. Mind if I deal with it?”
    She waved assent. “Just don’t forget to ask him about his agent. You know he can’t do better than me.”
    Theo exited the restaurant, and the humid Manhattan heat hit him like a wall, stifling after Seoul Food’s air-conditioned interior. The street outside was busy as only Greenwich Village at midday in the summer could be – nose-to-tail taxis, swerving bike messengers, sidewalks crammed with hipsters, wage slaves and tourists. He punched up Chase’s name from his contacts list and pressed Call.
    “Yeah, Theo, you get my voicemails?”
    “Didn’t listen to them. Thought you could give it to me straight, whatever it is. Where are you?”
    “San Juan.”
    “That’s... Mexico?”
    “Puerto Rico.”
    “I knew that. Filming?”
    “You betcha. Look, cuz, this connection’s shitty, so I’ll just get down to it. You heard about Anthony Peregrine?”
    “Who’s that?”
    “What do you mean, who’s that?”
    “I’m guessing he’s...” Theo lowered his voice. Nobody was eavesdropping. Passers-by passed by, nobody cared. He was just another Manhattanite, on his phone. Still, discretion was your life. You were a member of a highly exclusive club and you took pains not to advertise the fact. “One of us.”
    “Hell, yes, he’s one of us.”
    “But I can’t put a name to... the name. I don’t keep tabs on us all.”
    “Well, Anthony Peregrine is Aeneas’s latest alias. Or rather, was .”
    “Was?”
    Theo felt something in the pit of his stomach, not quite fear; unease, fear’s handmaiden.
    “They’re saying he’s dead,” said Chase.
    “ They’re saying? Who’s saying?”
    “Couple of news feeds. Reports from Argentina. I got a ping from Google Alerts earlier today.”
    “You Google Alert us?”
    “Hey, you may not keep tabs. I do. It’s fun to know what the relatives are up to.”
    “The very distant relatives.”
    “It’s not like we have family reunions. Anyhow, that’s not the point.”
    “No. The point is he can’t be dead. Aeneas can’t be. That’s not possible. Unless he’s switching to a new identity.”
    “Yeah, but that’s not how we do it, is it?” said Chase. “We don’t fake our deaths. Not any more. Because it’s too hard nowadays. You can’t just get hold of some stranger’s corpse, mess up its face and pass it off as your own. Forensic pathology has put paid to all that. So we just duck out discreetly and go be someone else. That’s the way.”
    “Maybe Aeneas has decided to go old-school.”
    “He’s a damn idiot if he has. And Aeneas is many things, but a damn idiot isn’t one of them.”
    “How is he supposed to have died? Do you know?”
    “Something to do with an avalanche, seems to be the gist of it. Killed in, by, under, an avalanche in the Martial Mountains, down in Tierra del Fuego.”
    “So then it must be a mistake. Must be someone else called Anthony Peregrine. That or it’s misidentification of the body. Either way, they’ve got the wrong guy.”
    “Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. But I’d like to know for sure, one way or the other.”
    “Me too,” said Theo. “You have a number for him?”
    “Nope. You’re the only family member I keep in touch with – which is a tragedy for at least one of us.”
    “If not both.”
    “So I’m volunteering to go down there and do some nosing around. I’m not expecting you to tag along. The great Theo Stannard doesn’t