Authors: Jeff Somers
The Stringer (9 page)
I'd always had a way with the Words.
Another wave of tiredness settled into my bones, and I staggered a bit, holding onto the doorknob. When I'd steadied again, I took my hand away. The door looked exactly as it had when we arrived. No one who walked by would ever notice anything out of the ordinary . . . unless they had a trained eye and specifically knew to look for something.
I took a deep breath. My heart was ragged in my chest, and I felt shaky and light. I reached into my jacket and extracted an old, soiled handkerchief and started wrapping it around my hand.
“C'mon, Mags,” I said, turning for the stairs.
He hustled to walk beside me. “What's the matter, Lem?”
I didn't pause. I could hear thick leathery wings in my head, too close. “Deep magic, Mags,” I said, pushing open the door to the stairs. “Deep fucking magic.”
Read the entire Ustari Cycle!
The main story!
We Are Not Good People
Down and out in New Jersey.
Fixer
In Mags' own words. . .
Last Best Day
Time keeps on slipping. . .
The Boom Bands
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J
EFF SOMERS
began writing by court order as an attempt to steer his creative impulses away from engineering genetic grotesqueries. His feeble memory makes every day a joyous adventure of discovery even as it destroys personal relationships, and his weakness for adorable furry creatures leaves him with many cats. He has published nine novels, including the Avery Cates series of noir science fiction novels from Orbit Books; the darkly hilarious crime novel
Chum
from Tyrus Books; and, most recently, tales of blood magic and short cons in the Ustari Cycle, including the novel
We Are Not Good People
, the novella
The Stringer
, and the upcoming novellas
Last Best Day
and
The Boom Bands
from Pocket Star Books. He has published more than thirty short stories, including “Ringing the Changes,” which was selected for inclusion in
The Best American Mystery Stories,
2006
; “Sift, Almost Invisible, Through,” which appeared in the anthology
Crimes by Moonlight
, edited by Charlaine Harris; and “Three Cups of Tea,” which appeared in the anthology
Hanzai Japan
. He also writes about books for Barnes and Noble and
About.com
, and about the craft of writing for
Writer's Digest
. He lives in Hoboken with his wife, The Duchess, and their cats. He considers pants to always be optional.
FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR:
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Jeff-Somers
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
THE USTARI CYCLE
We Are Not Good People
“Fixer”
The Stringer
“Last Best Day”
“The Boom Bands”
THE AVERY CATES SERIES
The Electric Church
The Digital Plague
The Eternal Prison
The Terminal State
The Final Evolution
STAND-ALONE NOVELS
Lifers
Chum
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Pocket Star Books
An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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New York, NY 10020
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Jeff Somers
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Pocket Star Books ebook edition August 2016
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Cover design by David G. Stevenson
Cover photos © Odor Zsolt/Shutterstock (tunnel), © Georgii Shipin/Shutterstock (street scene), © Tatiana Tigris/Shutterstock (sparkles), © Roman Globa/Shutterstock (standing man), and © Ostill/Shutterstock (squatting man)
ISBN 978-1-5011-4140-9