We sat down on the floor of the lobby and had a sort of impromptu picnic. We could have moved to a room with some furniture in it, but Bryn seemed content to remain in the relatively open space of the lobby, and the unspoken consensus was that she deserved a break after everything she’d been through. Keane wisely remained silent while we ate. He must have suspected I was in no mood to listen to him pontificate after Selah’s revelations about Maelstrom and Gwen. To be honest, I was tempted to walk out and never come back, but there was still something I needed to see through with Keane.
“What about Bryn?” I asked. “What are we going to do with her?”
“I’ve got an idea about that,” said Keane.
THIRTY-THREE
After lunch, Keane called an ex-client who owned a ranch near Bakersfield and convinced him to take Roy on as an on-site manager and handyman. The client owned dozens of properties all over Southern California; Keane said the ranch was just a tax write-off for him. The house on the property was small and rundown, but Roy insisted he was up to the challenge of renovating it. Bryn promised to do her part as well, although I wasn’t sure what she could actually contribute other than mowing the lawn and producing wool. Still, it was something. I don’t think Keane mentioned to the client that Roy’s girlfriend was a sheep. There were some things best left unsaid. The two of them were downright giddy about the idea of getting out of Los Angeles and having a real life for once. They made for a very strange couple, but I gave them better odds than most. The way I figure it, if you can get past the fact that your partner is of a completely different species than you, you’re already ahead of the game.
We never had a chance to warn the final Priya Mistry clone, who had been brought in to replace the one who had been killed in the explosion on the DiZzy Girl set. She was found dead of an apparent suicide in her hotel room at the Four Seasons later that night. Selah had evidently decided that the risk of prolonging the charade a little longer outweighed the benefits. DiZzy Girl was canceled, but Flagship Media’s coverage of Priya’s “troubled life” and suicide went on for months, garnering record ratings. Figures. We also never found out what happened to the unfinished clones in Selah’s lab. Mostly, I tried not to think about it too much, but I supposed they probably met the same fate as Esper’s sheep. Slaughtered like cattle.
The mysterious Maelstrom file had burned up completely when Mag-Lev’s thugs blew up Keane’s car, so whatever other secrets it contained were going to remain secret for a while longer—assuming Banerjee was cowed by Keane’s threat. Our financial situation was worse than ever at the close of the Case of the Missing Sheep and the Case of the Concerned Teddy Bear, owing to the fact that we weren’t likely to get paid for either of them. We’d failed to deliver on the former, and our client on the latter was not, legally speaking, a person, and therefore unable to cut a check. On top of that, it wasn’t at all certain that the insurance company was going to pay for Keane’s exploded aircar. This was a tricky, dangerous, and often unrewarding business. But it was all worthwhile to give Roy and Bryn a chance at happiness. That’s what I told myself, anyway. Who the fuck knows?
After our impromptu picnic in the lobby, Pavel left to take the happy couple to their new home, and April left shortly thereafter. Keane went up to his office, and I spent most of the rest of the day in bed. My arm was throbbing, and I was just plain worn-out from everything that had happened over the past few days. Thoughts of walking out on Keane gave way to thoughts of sleep. I was in no shape to make a life-changing decision anyway. I figured I’d revisit the matter in the morning.
It was dark when I woke up, and I knew immediately there was someone in the room with me. I had locked the door to my apartment, but it was an old lock, easy enough for a pro to pick. We hadn’t had a chance to fix the doors of the building yet.
“April?” I asked. She was the only person besides Keane who had a key to my apartment, and somehow I knew it wasn’t Keane.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” said a woman’s voice. It was familiar, but it wasn’t April’s. I knew I should know who it was, but for some reason I just couldn’t place it. That had been happening a lot lately. But this time it wasn’t Priya Mistry. It was a voice out of another time, one that just didn’t fit somehow. In my sleep-addled state, I couldn’t quite figure out why, but I knew that voice was impossible. It couldn’t be here.
The light went on, and I saw the face that went with the voice. Her hair was shorter, and had been dyed brown, but there was no mistaking that face. The wide lips, high cheekbones, the pale, flawless skin. She stood next to the door, wearing a long coat that concealed most of her tall, angular form. In her hands was a large envelope, which she handed to me. Somehow I knew what the label was going to say before I even looked at it.
MAELSTROM.
“What the hell happened to you, Gwen?” I asked.
Gwen sighed. “You got any coffee, Blake?” she said. “This could take a while.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ROBERT KROESE honed his sense of irony growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After barely graduating from Calvin College, he stumbled into software development. In 2009, he called upon his extensive knowledge of useless information and love of explosions to write his first novel, Mercury Falls. He has written three more books in the Mercury series and a humorous epic fantasy, Disenchanted. The Big Sheep is probably something like Kroese’s eleventh book, but there’s no way to know for certain. You can sign up for email updates here.
Thank you for buying this
St. Martin’s Press ebook.
To receive special offers, bonus content,
and info on new releases and other great reads,
sign up for our newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on the author, click here.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
THE BIG SHEEP. Copyright © 2016 by Robert Kroese. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by David Curtis
Cover photographs: city © Christophe Dessaigne / Trevillion Images; light flare © 21 / Shutterstock; building © photo.ua / Shutterstock; flying car © Valentyna Chukhlyebova / Shutterstock
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Kroese, Robert, author.
Title: The
big sheep / Robert Kroese.
Description: First edition.|New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015051260|ISBN 978-1-250-08844-4 (hardcover)|ISBN 978-1-250-08845-1 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Private investigators—California—Los Angeles—Fiction.|Conspiracy—Fiction.|Cloning—Fiction.|BISAC: FICTION / Science Fiction / General.|GSAFD: Science fiction.|Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3611.R625 B54 2016|DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015051260
e-ISBN 9781250088451
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
First Edition: June 2016