Casino Infernale Read Online Free Page A

for the Department?” said Molly.
    “Yes,” I said. “My family lied to me one time too often. Not least about the Regent of Shadows. They should have told me my grandfather was still alive. Hell, they should have told me my parents were still alive! I’m not sure how much trust I put in the Regent, or the Department, they’re both too close to the Government for my liking . . . but I need to put some space between my family and me. And how could I turn down a chance to work with my parents, and my grandfather?”
    “Very good,” said Molly. “Now try saying all that like you mean it.”
    I had to laugh. “Let us look on this . . . as an extended vacation. Getting away from it all in favour of cases that actually mean something to us. Are you happy to be working alongside me, Molly?”
    “I go where you go,” said Molly. “Forever and a day, sweetie.”
    I smiled, but didn’t say anything. I knew Molly came with me because the Regent promised her the truth at last about what really happened to her parents all those years ago. She’d always believed her parents were killed by a Drood field agent in a shoot-out with the White Horse Faction. A dangerous supernatural terrorist organisation. The Regent promised her the name of her parents’ killer. But I of all people knew better than to believe the official version of any event. No matter whose official version it is. Facts could be slippery things in the secret agent business. Especially where my family’s concerned. But how could I stand between anything that mattered so much to my Molly? I needed to be there with her when she finally learned the truth, whatever that turned out to be. And do my best to put the pieces back together again afterwards.
    Molly had spent years at war with the Droods and everything they stood for. Fighting them on every level, opposing them with a fierce and unrelenting rage. Until she and I ended up on the same side, working to reform the Droods from within. And we became an item—much to our mutual surprise. I’d done everything I could to convince Molly that my family was a force for good in the world, mostly; but it was hard going. My family has more hidden sides and secret motives than a barrel full of Hollywood lawyers.
    The two of us had only just accepted the Regent’s invitation to come work with him at the Department of the Uncanny, when he hit us with our first official mission. He wanted us to infiltrate the newly reformed White Horse Faction. As Shaman Bond and Molly Metcalf. The Faction would gladly accept Molly, because of her parents’ importance to the old Faction. And they’d accept Shaman, because the whole point of him was that he could turn up anywhere. Molly and I went along because the Regent promised us there were answers to be found, within this new White Horse Faction, as to who actually killed Molly’s mother and father.
    The false face on the laptop disappeared abruptly, replaced by an image of the Regent of Shadows himself. An elderly man in a scruffy suit with leather patches on the elbows, sitting comfortably behind his desk in his office. He had iron grey hair, a neatly clipped military moustache, a charming smile, and piercing blue eyes. He seemed affable enough, but you had to meet his steady gaze for only a moment to see the iron backbone in the man. He nodded easily to Molly and me. If he was at all concerned about sending Molly to investigate a group that her parents had once believed in and died for . . . he didn’t show it.
    “We’re on Trammell Island,” I said. “Inside Monkton Manse. Spooky bloody place. No sign of anyone else yet. Are you sure this new White Horse Faction is a real threat? I know the old group were supernatural terrorists, back in the day; hard-core protectors of Mother Earth and all that . . . but all the information I could dig up on this new version suggest they’re really just a bunch of non-violent New Age hippie tree-hugger types.”
    “Well,