Read Dead Beat for Free Online Page B

"He… he took what I was. And he twisted it. I destroyed most of my memories of my time with him, and I locked away everything I couldn't. Because I didn't want to be like that."
    "You won't," I told him quietly. "Now hear this, Bob. I command you never to recover those memories again. Never to let them out again. Never to obey any command to unleash them again. From here on out they sleep with the fishes. Understand me?"
    "If I do," Bob said carefully, "I won't be able to do much to help you, Harry. You'll be on your own."
    "Let me worry about that," I said. "It's a command, Bob."
    The skull let out a slow sigh of relief. "Thank you, Harry."
    "Don't mention it," I said. "Literally."
    "Right," he said.
    "Okay. Let's see," I said. "Can you still remember general information about Kemmler?"
    "Nothing you couldn't find in other places. But general knowledge I learned when Justin was with the Wardens, yes."
    "All right, then. You—that is, that other you—said that Kemmler had written down his teachings, when I asked him what The Word of Kemmler was. So I figure it's a book."
    "Maybe," Bob said. "Council records stated that Kemmler had written three books; The Blood of Kemmler, The Mind of Kemmler , and The Heart of Kemmler ."
    "He published them?"
    "Self-published," Bob said. "He started spreading them around Europe."
    "Resulting in what?"
    "Way too many penny-ante sorcerers getting their hands on some real necromancy."
    I nodded. "What happened?"
    "The Wardens put on their own epic production of Fahrenheit 451 ," Bob said. "They spent about twenty years finding and destroying copies. They think they accounted for all of them."
    I whistled. "So if The Word of Kemmler is a fourth manuscript?"
    "That could be bad," Bob said.
    "Why?"
    "Because some of Kemmler's disciples escaped the White Council's dragnet," Bob said. "They're still running around. If they get a new round of necro-at-home lessons to expand their talents, they could use it to do fairly horrible things."
    "They're wizards?"
    "Black wizards, yes," Bob said.
    "How many?"
    "Four or five at the most, but the Wardens' information was very sketchy."
    "Doesn't sound like anything the Wardens can't handle," I said.
    "Unless what's in the fourth book contains the rest of what Kemmler had to teach them," Bob said. "In which case, we might end up with four or five Kemmlers running around."
    "Holy crap," I said. I plunked my tired ass down on my stool and rubbed at my head. "And it's no coincidence that it's almost Halloween."
    "The season when the barriers between the mortal realm and the spirit world will be weakest," Bob said.
    "Like when that asshole the Nightmare was hunting down my friends," I said. I peered at Bob. "But for him to do that, he had to weaken the barriers even more. He and Bianca had tormented all those ghosts to start making the barriers more unstable. Would it have to be ghosts to stir up the kind of turbulence you'd need for big magic?"
    "No," Bob said. "But that's one way. Otherwise you'd have to use some rituals or sacrifices of one kind or another."
    "You mean deaths," I said.
    "Exactly."
    I frowned, nodding. "They'd have to invest some energy early to get things moving for a big necromantic working. Like bouncing on a diving board a couple of times before you jump."
    "An accurate, if crude aphorism," Bob said. "You'd have to do a little prework if you wanted to start working Kemmler-level necromancy, even on Halloween." He sighed. "Though that doesn't really help you much."
    I got up and headed for the stepladder. "It helps more than you know, man. I'm getting you new romances."
    The skull's eye lights brightened. "You are? I mean, of course you are. But why?"
    "Because if someone's setting up for big bad juju, they'll have left bodies. If they've done that, then I have a place to start tracking them and finding out what's going on."
    "Harry?" Bob called up as I left the lab. "Where are you going?"
    I stuck my head back down the trapdoor and said,