Chapter Club: The Shadowrunner Chapter 40
Happy Friday! I’m excited to bring you another excerpt from The Shadowrunner.
Want to start from the beginning? You can find Chapter 1 and every past chapter here!
The Shadowrunner
·Looking for a specific chapter of The Shadowrunner? Look no further because they’re all right here!
Last Time
Luke is the chief police officer in a small Arizona town called Abeja
His daughter, Lucy, has magical abilities that she is keeping secret from her parents.
A Texan named Silvia Montes was murdered not far from Luke’s house. Lucy both met Silvia prior to her murder and saw the murderer on the night of the crime. She has come to call the murderer a dragon
Lucy’s friend Owen, was attacked by the dragon and has since turned into a husk, a monster possessed by the avatar of hunger
The situation is being monitored by Abigail Morrison, an agent of a shadowy government organization
Lucy discovered an old notebook buried behind her school with information about the dragon. Luke and Jenni read the book and discovered that the dragon is a man wielding the power of the avatar of hunger
That night, the dragon attacked the Alden’s home, killing Jenni before Lucy could drive it away
After the funeral, Luke encourages Lucy to further develop her powers
Luke steals shards of memory from Agent Morrison, letting Owen’s husk out to consume her
Lucy combines the shards and creates a ghost of Silvia Montes, who helps her and Luke make a plan to defeat the dragon once and for all
Lucy traps the dragon and Owen’s husk within Pejito
Luke told the public that the murderer had been found, attempted to evade capture, and died in the process. He gave Sally the shadowrunner’s name, and let her share it with the news. He kept any other details sparse, not wanting to give any way for a reporter to poke holes in his story.
Nothing had been said about the matter with Morrison. He had visited the hotel and been told by the concierge that some government officials had arrived and removed a dead body from one of the rooms. While Luke knew that such a noisy death would hurt the hotel, he was content not to meddle anymore with Morrison’s former employer. In time, people would realize that the flow of coma patients had stopped, and they would come to believe that the whole thing was over.
Still, Luke wasn’t surprised to find a man waiting for him when he returned to his office. He was almost too large for the chair he had chosen to sit in. He sported a gray Van Dyke beard and was dressed in the same kind of khaki coat that Agent Morrison had worn.
“Sorry for showing up unannounced,” the man said. “But I wanted to congratulate you on the closure of this case.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Luke replied.
The man drew a wallet from his pocket and opened it to reveal a badge and identification card. “Agent Hudson, Unidentified Threat Neutralization Service.”
It wasn’t a branch of the government that Luke had heard of before. Not that he was an expert, but he at least knew the acronyms of some of the executive departments.
“Any connection to Agent Morrison from the FBI?” Luke asked, walking around to his chair. “She caused quite a commotion.”
“I knew Agent Morrison. Field operative for the Service.”
Luke sat across from Hudson and examined the man. He wondered if this was the one who had authorized the termination order on his daughter. If he was, Luke was prepared to fight tooth and nail to convince him to rescind the order. As it was, Lucy and he had been staying at Silvia’s apartment rather than risking being in the place where they expected him.
“So she was masquerading as an FBI agent too?” Luke said. “If she was still around, I’d add that to the list of charges, along with attempted kidnapping.”
Hudson’s eyes glinted. “Morrison was reckless, and I do apologize for that. We prefer our agents to have a delicate touch. That’s partly why we weren’t surprised to find her husk. Unfortunate, but not unexpected in our line of work. Dealing with things that go bump in the night is a dangerous thing.”
Luke leaned forward, putting his hands on his desk. He had known this moment was coming. If Morrison had known about the Shadow and the Luminescence, it stood to reason that others did too. But he was startled to realize that Hudson had some sense that Luke knew as well.
He chose his next words carefully.
“Is the danger past?” Luke asked. On the one hand, he was asking if there were any other vessels of the Shadow lurking in Abeja. On the other, he was asking if his daughter was still a target.
Hudson tipped his head toward Luke. “Thanks to you. You succeeded where Morrison failed, and for that, I give you my compliments.”
One question answered, another open. Luke decided to risk a more direct question.
“Where does that leave me and my daughter?”
Somehow, his smiled widened. His teeth were blindingly white and straight, like a ventriloquist doll made out of fresh ivory.
“The second purpose for my visit,” Hudson said.
Luke’s stomach sunk. “Please don’t tell me you’re offering me a job.”
Hudson chuckled, a deep sound that still managed to rock his entire body. “I wouldn’t want to take you away from your daughter, especially so soon after your wife’s death.”
Luke kept his eyes fixed on the agent. Was he going to take Lucy away?
Hudson knocked on the desk. “Those victims that Morrison took from the hospital? I wanted to let you know they’ll receive state of the art care from the U.S. government. And we have arranged a very hefty sum for the city as an apology for Morrison’s antics.” Hudson leaned in to match Luke’s stance. “I also want you to know we’ll expect your cooperation if anything else strange starts to happen in your sleepy little city.”
Luke forced a smile. Apparently they had decided to waive Lucy’s termination order, even if it was to use her as a bargaining chip. “I’d be happy to.”
Hudson nodded back and rose. He reached into his pocket and placed something small on the table: a flip phone. “Don’t lose it,” Hudson said. “I’d hate to lose track of you.”
Luke and Lucy went to his parents’ home for Thanksgiving. He got to talk to his younger sisters, and Lucy got to see her cousins in a happier context. Silvia and Pejito were now at the house, safely hidden behind the widnow blinds. Even though Luke carried the UTNS phone with him wherever he went now, he felt like he and Lucy could forget about everything that had happened for at least a few days.
Of course, there was one thing they couldn’t forget, and that was the empty chair at their table. He found himself thinking about what the shadowrunner had said. How he could have put him into a dream where Jenni was still alive. Luke had asked Silvia if such a thing was possible.
“I doubt it,” she said. “But, who knows what victims experience after they are consumed? The shards have to go somewhere.”
He had left the conversation at that. He had also avoided talking to Lucy about creating a ghost version of Jenni. Luke knew Lucy was capable, and it wasn’t fair for a nine-year-old girl to lose her mom. But he was frightened of what would be missing. What pieces would they be unable to fill? Without those pieces, would she still be Jenni?
His mom insisted on taking Lucy Black Friday shopping, leaving him and his dad at home. His dad’s discomfort with emotional vulnerability manifested in him putting on a football game on the big screen in the living room. Emotions were acceptable in football. There was always someone to blame; a coach, a ref, a quarterback.
He wondered if he was the one to blame for what happened with the shadowrunner and Lucy. Had there been something he did or said that made Lucy believe he would rather live not knowing her, even if it was with Jenni? Unlike some of their fellow high-school graduates, Luke and Jenni had planned for Lucy. She had arrived to parents who had read a dozen or more books on parenting and were happy to welcome her into their lives. So far as he knew, that was the home she had grown up in for the past nine years.
Then she had gained her powers and decided not to tell them because she was afraid they would tell her not to use them anymore. And she had been right. Luke had done exactly that when he found out. The consequences continued to haunt him.
It was a loop of thoughts he had traversed countless times since Jenni had died. Now he wondered if all that had happened made Lucy think it would have been better if she had never existed.
When Mom’s car drove in, Luke went out to meet them. He scooped Lucy up off the garage floor and carried her inside, asking how her day had been. They talked while he warmed leftovers for the two of them, then commandeered the living room to watch a movie while they ate. It was a holiday after all.
As the credits rolled, Lucy snuggled into him and closed her eyes. He noticed that her hair was as good as Jenni had ever been able to fix it. He looked over at the mantle where there was a picture of their family at the pumpkin patch.
Luke looked down at his daughter.
“Lucy?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
I hope you enjoyed this sneak-peak of The Shadowrunner. If you’d like to preorder a paperback copy of the full book, click on the button below!