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CHAPTER 1
HALF PAST A WINDLESS MIDNIGHT, rain cantered out of the Gulf, across the shore and the levees: parades of phanto hoof rhythles, slate, counting cadence along the avenues
Usually a late-night tohere restaurants and jazz clubs cooked almost until the breakfast hour, New Orleans was on this occasion unlike itself Little traffic moved on the streets Many restaurants closed early For lack of customers, some of the clubs went dark and quiet
A hurricane was transiting the Gulf, well south of the Louisiana coast The National Weather Service currently predicted landfall near Brownsville, Texas, but the storh hard experience, New Orleans had learned to respect the power of nature
Deucalion stepped out of the Luxe Theater without using a door, and stepped into a different district of the city, out of light and into the deep shadows under the boughs of low of streetlalimmered like tarnished silver But under the oaks, the precipitation seemed ink-black, as if it were not rain but were instead a product of the darkness, the very sweat of the night
Although an intricate tattoo distracted curious people froe to the ruined half of his face, Deucalion preferred to venture into public places between dusk and dawn The sunless hours provided an additional layer of disguise
His for endured more than two hundred years, his body was unbent bone and undiminished muscle Time seemed to have no power to weather hih places where the glow of streetlaht chased fro ht on a continent far froe before electricity
Across the street, occupying half a block, the Hands of Mercy stood on an oak-shaded property Once a Catholic hospital, it closed long ago
A tall wrought-iron fence encircled the hospital grounds The spear-point staves suggested that where mercy had once been offered, none could now be found
A sign on the iron driveway gate warned PRIVATE WAREHOUSE / NO ADMITTANCE The bricked-up s e the ht once focused on her had been reht have been Death, or anyone
Only hours earlier, Deucalion had learned that this building harbored the laboratory of his end: Frankenstein Here rammed
The security system would monitor every door The locks would be difficult to defeat
Thanks to gifts carried on the lightning bolt that brought him to life in an earlier and more primitive lab, Deucalion did not need doors Locks were no irasped the quantu the truth that on the deepest structural level, every place in the world was the sa into his maker’s current lair, Deucalion had no fear If any ee But over these er that had once driven him so easily to violence
He stepped out of the rain and into the main laboratory in the Hands of Mercy, hen he took the step, dry when he completed it
Victor’s immense lab was a techno-Deco wonder, mostly stainless-steel and white ceramic, filled with sleek andthe walls but to be e froed up froanic forms
Every soft noise was rhythmic, the purr and hum and click of machinery The place seemed to be deserted
Sapphire, prilass spheres Through elaborate coils of transparent tubing flowed lavender, calae fluids
Victor’s U-shaped workstation stood in the center of the rooranite top on a stainless-steel base
As Deucalion considered searching the drawers, someone behind hiray denim jumpsuit In a utility belt around his waist were secured spray bottles of cleaning solutions, white rags, and ses He held a mop
"Name’s Lester," he said "I’m an Epsilon You seem smarter than me Are you smarter than me?"
"Is your maker here?" Deucalion asked
"No, sir Father left earlier"
"How many staff are here?"
"I don’t count hty staff So Father isn’t here, now so, and I’m just an Epsilon You seem like maybe an Alpha or a Beta Are you an Alpha or a Beta?"
"What’s gone wrong?" Deucalion asked
"She says Werner is trapped in Isolation Roo"
"Who is Werner?"
"He’s the security chief She wanted instructions, but I don’t give instructions, I’m just Lester"
"Who wants instructions?"
"The woman in the box"
As Lester spoke, the cohtened, and on the screen appeared a woital construction
"Mr Helios, Helios Welcome to Helios I am Annunciata I a to be asirl"
"She’s in a box," Lester said
"A computer," Deucalion said
"No A box in the networking room She’s a Beta brain in a box She don’t have no body Sometimes her container leaks, so I clean up the spill"
Annunciata said, "I a’s data-processing systeood girl I want to serve efficiently I airl I am afraid"
"She isn’t usually like this," said Lester
"Perhaps there is an im-im-im-imbalance in my nutrient supply I am unable to analyze Could someone analyze my nutrient supply?"
"Self-aware, forever in a box," Deucalion said
"I am very afraid," Annunciata said
Deucalion found his hands curling into fists "There is nothing your maker won’t do No form of slavery offends hi froo to the bathrooenius He’s even srateful to hi roorateful"
"The networking room Where is this … woman?"
"In the basement"
On the coanize the appointment schedule for Mr Helios Helios But I do not remember what an appointment is Can you help, help, help me?"