Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2: It's the Cool Zone Media book Club. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 2: to Cool Zone Media book Club. That's the jingle that
Speaker 2: we've always used. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy, and this
Speaker 2: is the book club where you don't have to do
Speaker 2: the reading because I do it for you. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Margaret Kiljoy. I might have already said that, I'm not certain,
Speaker 2: but what I haven't told you yet is what we're
Speaker 2: reading this week. Although you probably know because it's the
Speaker 2: same thing we read last week, only an additional chapter
Speaker 2: further in. And also it's probably in the title. It
Speaker 2: might even be why you clicked on it. I don't know.
Speaker 2: We're reading The Barrow Will Send what it May Chapter six,
Speaker 2: which is the second book in the Danielle Kaine series,
Speaker 2: which I started reading on book club because book Club
Speaker 2: started with me reading the first book in the series,
Speaker 2: called The Lamble Slaughter of the Lion a year and
Speaker 2: a half ago or whenever it was. And now the
Speaker 2: third book, which is called The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice,
Speaker 2: is about to come out. The pre orders are available now,
Speaker 2: and so I thought that you all should get to
Speaker 2: hear the second book for free. So I started reading
Speaker 2: it to you. I'm still reading it to you. And
Speaker 2: then after that, I'm really excited about what comes after that.
Speaker 2: But you don't get to know yet, but I get
Speaker 2: to know, and so I get to have a nice
Speaker 2: thing and you don't until later. I'm going to do
Speaker 2: the thing where I read you the last couple paragraphs
Speaker 2: of what we read last week, just so that you
Speaker 2: know what happened in case or whatever. Here they are.
Speaker 2: Half an hour later, the library door opened and shut,
Speaker 2: and several pairs of feet trumped up the stairs. Hey,
Speaker 2: Thursday shouted, we're back. More shuffling of feet as someone
Speaker 2: presumably Thursday, walked through the whole of the apartment. At last,
Speaker 2: he opened the door to the room we were in.
Speaker 2: Where's Vacilla's dun dund dum. That's the cliffhanger. But you
Speaker 2: don't have to wait anymore, because you already waited. Chapter six.
Speaker 2: Son of a Shit, Thursday roared, running down the stairs
Speaker 2: to search the library below. Gertrude stood in the living
Speaker 2: room staring at Heather. A weak smile sat on the
Speaker 2: older woman's lips, and fear and sadness were fighting for
Speaker 2: control of her eyes. He killed her, She asked, running
Speaker 2: a finger along Heather's cheek. We really had to do
Speaker 2: something with the body. I never would have guessed I'd
Speaker 2: ever be too busy to deal with a dead body
Speaker 2: of a new friend. But there we were, scrambling to
Speaker 2: keep everyone else still alive while a corpse grew cold
Speaker 2: on the table. How long till it started to rot?
Speaker 2: Sort of? I answered, he definitely killed me, though, Asola
Speaker 2: walked into the room, and he killed two of my
Speaker 2: friends to bring you back. I'm sorry, she said, I
Speaker 2: didn't know. I couldn't get a good read on whether
Speaker 2: or not she was lying. What's your story? I asked,
Speaker 2: for real, what happened to you? I died of cancer.
Speaker 2: I remember dying. It was peaceful, a sharp end of pain,
Speaker 2: like falling asleep, but simpler, better. I was in the
Speaker 2: hospital in Billings and there were flowers everywhere, and he
Speaker 2: was next to me, holding my hand. He was crying.
Speaker 2: We never had children, him and me. I never wanted them.
Speaker 2: Just for a second, I wished I'd had kids, someone
Speaker 2: else for him to love. He's never been good at
Speaker 2: not having someone to love, and I worried about him.
Speaker 2: I wanted to tell him it was fine. I wanted
Speaker 2: to tell him I was going to a better place,
Speaker 2: that he could still love me or love someone else too,
Speaker 2: and that i'd see him again. But I didn't say anything.
Speaker 2: It was all too complicated. I didn't know how to
Speaker 2: say it. I just let myself die. I nodded. Then
Speaker 2: I woke up in our bed here in town. I
Speaker 2: died with snow out the window. I woke up to
Speaker 2: the sound of summer birds. Six months had gone by.
Speaker 2: He he told me what he'd done, A bit of it,
Speaker 2: only part of it, I'm guessing. He told me he'd
Speaker 2: brought me back to be with him. He told me
Speaker 2: he couldn't live without me. And you left him, I asked.
Speaker 2: I didn't say anything at all. For a whole day,
Speaker 2: I laid in bed thinking about everything. He was respectful.
Speaker 2: He noticed I wasn't feeling right, and he slept on
Speaker 2: a cot next to our bed. He only left my
Speaker 2: side to bring me food and water. He just sat
Speaker 2: there reading books while I laid there thinking it over.
Speaker 2: There are so many sides to every person. After I
Speaker 2: stayed up through the night. When the sun rose up again,
Speaker 2: I looked at him, and the first words I said
Speaker 2: were till death dew. We part. Then I told him
Speaker 2: it's not right what he did. I told him the
Speaker 2: dead or supposed to stay dead, and what he'd done
Speaker 2: wasn't right by God. I'd always known and loved God
Speaker 2: more than my husband did, and my husband had always
Speaker 2: loved me more than he'd loved God. So I moved out,
Speaker 2: simple as that. That was the last thing I'd ever
Speaker 2: wanted to think about any of it. Then your friends
Speaker 2: show up tonight, tell me he's liable to kill me.
Speaker 2: Part of me thinks he'd be right to do it.
Speaker 2: Most of me, though, is just damn scared. Vulture put
Speaker 2: his arm around Gertrude, and she hugged him. I decided
Speaker 2: I believed her, not completely, But you don't need to
Speaker 2: believe someone completely to choose to believe them enough that
Speaker 2: you can act on their way, much like I believe
Speaker 2: in the goods and services that support this very podcast,
Speaker 2: my favorite, and we're back. One of the books is
Speaker 2: missing Doomsday, said Crouch, next to the stack of books
Speaker 2: on the floor, small one, gold spine, black cover. It's
Speaker 2: where I learned about witches fire. She looked up toward
Speaker 2: the window where she'd been sitting earlier. Fucking gun is gone. Too,
Speaker 2: getting fucking sick of people stealing my gun. Vascillis went
Speaker 2: to the gift shop. I bet, I said, he's trying
Speaker 2: to get into the basement, trying to get the book
Speaker 2: without waiting for us. I thought that through for another moment.
Speaker 2: He wants the book because he's going to try and
Speaker 2: resurrect Heather. I bet he'll kill mister Miller to do it.
Speaker 2: He seemed to Doomsday said, but I didn't realize he
Speaker 2: was both desperate and stupid. Men will do anything if
Speaker 2: they think it's in the best interest of some woman
Speaker 2: they love. Gertrude said, whether or not the woman agrees.
Speaker 2: Thursday rushed back up the stairs, slamming open the apartment door.
Speaker 2: He's not in the library. I checked everywhere. He probably
Speaker 2: went after Sebastian, I said, okay, Thursday said Vulture, Brinn Danielle,
Speaker 2: we'll go after him. Doom, you stay here guard these two.
Speaker 2: The town was just starting to rise as we tore
Speaker 2: down the main road on bikes, and people came out
Speaker 2: of stores on the main strip to stand on the
Speaker 2: boardwalk and stare. Crows and Magpie sat on the power
Speaker 2: lines watching us too. We hit the one traffic light
Speaker 2: on a red and waited. Though there were no cars
Speaker 2: coming in any direction. Thursday pulled up beside me. I
Speaker 2: feel like it's high noon or something, he laughed. I
Speaker 2: heard shouting up ahead and ran the light. Vasillis and
Speaker 2: Sebastian stood in the shadow of the Tyrannosaur, not ten
Speaker 2: feet distant from each other, weapons leveled. Vasillis held Doomsday's
Speaker 2: pistol in a one handed amateur grip. Sebastian held a
Speaker 2: bolt action hunting rifle shouldered sis men Brenn said, shaking
Speaker 2: her head. She dropped her bike on the street and
Speaker 2: flicked open her baton, walking toward the pear, Hey, I shouted.
Speaker 2: If the two exchanged fire, it wouldn't work out well
Speaker 2: for either of them. Vasillis didn't know what he was doing,
Speaker 2: but he had a semi automatic pistol and likely a
Speaker 2: full magazine. Sebastian and probably brought down an animal or
Speaker 2: two in his day, but a bolt action rifle ain't
Speaker 2: the tool for the job of close combat. They both
Speaker 2: turned to look at me. Who in God's name are
Speaker 2: you people, Sebastian asked, I'm Danielle. I said, I knew
Speaker 2: what he meant, but I didn't feel like answering his
Speaker 2: implicit question. I caught this man trying to break into
Speaker 2: my place of business. I have every legal right to
Speaker 2: shoot him if he doesn't leave the property. You don't
Speaker 2: care about law, I said, I don't care about law.
Speaker 2: I care about what I can get away with, and
Speaker 2: that includes shooting your face tattooed freak of a librarian. Friend.
Speaker 2: You don't want that. I don't even know what I
Speaker 2: want anymore. All the fuss had attracted some onlookers. We
Speaker 2: are at the very end of town, but a few
Speaker 2: people had already filtered over. None of them looked particularly
Speaker 2: friendly toward us in their shoes. I wouldn't be either.
Speaker 2: He's stalling, Brenna whispered into my ear, waiting for a crowd.
Speaker 2: We should bring him down now. No, come on, I
Speaker 2: said back. I don't want Vicilis to die. I'm sick
Speaker 2: of seeing people die. We'll talk our way through this.
Speaker 2: Sebastian had a small backpack thrown over one shoulder. Vascillas
Speaker 2: kept eyeing it, and Sebastian kept moving his body unconsciously
Speaker 2: to keep it as far from his assailant as possible.
Speaker 2: The book was in there. It was a hunch, nothing
Speaker 2: to gamble, alife on. I approached, raising my hands over
Speaker 2: my head. Stay back, Sebastian said, his voice was cracked
Speaker 2: with worry and exhaustion. For all the world, he could
Speaker 2: have just been someone's dad if things had played out
Speaker 2: the slightest bit differently, he'd have just lived his life
Speaker 2: reading thrillers and watching TV and hunting, and none of
Speaker 2: this would have happened. Just want to talk this through,
Speaker 2: I said, We're at an impasse. Let's find a way
Speaker 2: past it. I don't see the impasse. I've got the
Speaker 2: upper hand. You attack us, we'll kill you. We attack you,
Speaker 2: you kill one of us, and likely at least some
Speaker 2: of us end up in jail. You included you'll end
Speaker 2: up in jail in either scenario, he said. Do you
Speaker 2: think people with face tattoos are the kind of people
Speaker 2: who are afraid of ending up in prison? I asked,
Speaker 2: I stepped closer. I approached from his right side, which
Speaker 2: was convenient because it's the harder direction for a right
Speaker 2: handed shooter to swing a rifle. I wasn't near enough
Speaker 2: to reach his gun even if I lunged, but I
Speaker 2: was getting close. You think you can scare women who
Speaker 2: spent their lives hitchhiking alone. You think a man who
Speaker 2: raises the dead would be afraid of a bunch of
Speaker 2: fucking punk kids, No, Brent said, standing shoulder to shoulder
Speaker 2: with me. You're right. You're not afraid of us. You're
Speaker 2: a different kind of coward. You're afraid of being alone.
Speaker 2: You didn't resurrect your wife for her. You did it
Speaker 2: for you. Take one step closer and I'll shoot at
Speaker 2: least two of you. See, I said, what was I
Speaker 2: telling you? Impasse? I looked over my shoulder. Thursday and
Speaker 2: Vulture were there with the bikes. Thursday had his hand
Speaker 2: in his hoodie pocket, Culture at his phone. A serious
Speaker 2: crowd was gathering, maybe ten people already, with another dozen
Speaker 2: on their way. They stayed clear of the line of
Speaker 2: fire between the two armed men, but were getting awfully
Speaker 2: close to the rest of us. A few of them
Speaker 2: were open carrying pistols at their waists. Interpersonal crime is
Speaker 2: so much more annoying to commit in open carry states.
Speaker 2: At the back of the crowd, leaning against the glass
Speaker 2: front of a lawyer's office, a man with black sunglasses
Speaker 2: and a black suit sipped coffee, his blonde hair in
Speaker 2: a tight bun. Next to him a freckled woman with
Speaker 2: her hair in a sixties bob dressed identically to the
Speaker 2: man ate a doughnut. They weren't part of the crowd.
Speaker 2: They were just watching fucking magic Feds. Hipster magic Feds.
Speaker 2: You need any help, mister Miller, A young voice shouted, why, Yes,
Speaker 2: I need these products and services. He shouted back, because
Speaker 2: he too, all sides of a conflict really could do
Speaker 2: a lot with products and services, just like you can.
Speaker 2: And we're back. These punks broke into my shop, he answered.
Speaker 2: I scared them off because they're chicken shit, but they
Speaker 2: got me out numbered out here. Fuck this, I took
Speaker 2: another step forward. Sebastian started to swing the gun around
Speaker 2: to face me. Long barrel, terrible for close range. I
Speaker 2: pushed in closer, knocking the barrel aside. Used my bad
Speaker 2: arm to do it, which I shouldn't have, the stitched
Speaker 2: up wound in my shoulder, complained. Got my knife out
Speaker 2: of my pocket and open in one motion, brought it up.
Speaker 2: He flinched hard, closing his eyes, dropping the rifle to
Speaker 2: points slack at the ground while he covered his throat.
Speaker 2: I cut the strap of his backpack down at the
Speaker 2: bottom where the strap is thinnest and the farthest away
Speaker 2: from meat, and snatched it. I stomped the barrel of
Speaker 2: his rifle and disarmed him. Too many armed strangers around
Speaker 2: to kill him then and there, bucking run. Brynn shouted,
Speaker 2: We ran. Vacillis came with us. Thursday at the front,
Speaker 2: put his knot in substantial mass to bear, and plowed
Speaker 2: through our audience before they had time to react. We
Speaker 2: got off the main street first thing, and Vacillis took
Speaker 2: us through an alley. Brynn overturned a dumpster in our
Speaker 2: path to slow down our pursuers ahead of us. Thursday shouted.
Speaker 2: Four men at the mouth of the alley barred our path.
Speaker 2: We grabbed a second dumpster and pushed it ahead of
Speaker 2: us on its castor wheels. I pushed with my one arm,
Speaker 2: the other hurt like hell. I might have ripped the stitches.
Speaker 2: A shot rang out the ping against the steel side
Speaker 2: of the dumpster, almost as loud as the report itself.
Speaker 2: Couldn't have been a long gun, or it would have
Speaker 2: gone through and probably into someone I cared about. All
Speaker 2: five of us were packed tight behind our moving shield,
Speaker 2: and I found that strange clarity I've only ever known
Speaker 2: in riots. The world had always, it seemed, been against
Speaker 2: me and my friends. These, though, were moments of me
Speaker 2: and my friends against the world. I know that's bullshit
Speaker 2: on a bunch of different levels. Hell, the people shooting
Speaker 2: at us right now weren't even our enemies. I wouldn't
Speaker 2: shoot back even if I could, but our collective power
Speaker 2: felt like its own magic. Just then, in the early morning,
Speaker 2: in some small town in Montana, we'd picked up speed
Speaker 2: and shouted our wordless power. We hit the street as
Speaker 2: I'd guessed. The men trying to stop us moved out
Speaker 2: of the way of the couple hundred pounds of steel
Speaker 2: barreling toward them. They were still armed, though, and we
Speaker 2: were in the open in the street, the library twenty
Speaker 2: feet way. Another shot rang out, but it wasn't from
Speaker 2: our assailants. Thursday had his gun out. He'd fired at
Speaker 2: the ground by their feet. They bolted, taking cover behind cars.
Speaker 2: They'd be returning fire any second. We sprinted for the library,
Speaker 2: Thursday covering us, firing shots to keep our attackers behind cover.
Speaker 2: Doomsday met us with the door open, and I dove through.
Speaker 2: Bangs everywhere, loud ones and tinny ones and ones that
Speaker 2: just went poof more than bang, and just way too
Speaker 2: much gunfire everywhere. Thursday was pinned down behind the dumpster.
Speaker 2: Bacillias drew his pistol aloft, but Doomsday snatched it out
Speaker 2: of his hand and stepped aside, firing calmly. I don't
Speaker 2: think she was aiming to keep those guys pinned down.
Speaker 2: I think she was aiming for the guys themselves. They ducked.
Speaker 2: Thursday ran zigzag. A shot shattered the glass of a
Speaker 2: window not a meter in front of him, but he
Speaker 2: got in through the door, and Doomsday slammed it shut.
Speaker 2: The firing stopped. I fucking hate gunfights. Dun, dun, dune.
Speaker 2: I guess that's not really a cliff Well, it's a cliffhanger.
Speaker 2: You don't know what's gonna happen in chapter seven or
Speaker 2: chapter eight, which is the number of chapters. There's eight chapters,
Speaker 2: and you're six of them through. But they've made it through.
Speaker 2: They've got the backpack that might have the book, and
Speaker 2: they're back in the library and they're safe for now,
Speaker 2: and everyone's dead and dying and everything's complicated, and I
Speaker 2: guess without Robert here. I should probably just talk about
Speaker 2: the book a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: One of the main things I think about rereading this
Speaker 2: several years after it came out, and you know, many
Speaker 2: years after I wrote it, I know a lot more
Speaker 2: about guns than I did before. I don't think I
Speaker 2: got anything of this particularly wrong, like long guns are
Speaker 2: not particularly good for close combat, and dumpster steel is
Speaker 2: probably not going to stop rifle rounds and all this thing,
Speaker 2: But I keep calling everything a pistol, like I don't
Speaker 2: even say what kind of gun it is. I'll be
Speaker 2: lucky if I don't call it a clip instead of
Speaker 2: a magazine at some point. And these things probably don't
Speaker 2: really matter to the average reader at all, but it's
Speaker 2: just funny to think about. I don't know, I like
Speaker 2: this story. I'm glad to read it to you. I
Speaker 2: feel like I should have more clever things to say
Speaker 2: about it, because it's a book club and I'm supposed
Speaker 2: to talk about the books, but I wrote this one,
Speaker 2: so it's complicated. This chapter is kind of where the
Speaker 2: theme of the book that I was really going for
Speaker 2: sort of starts to come into its own, which is
Speaker 2: around the first book is really about, like the concept
Speaker 2: of power right, And this idea of like summoning a
Speaker 2: demon to stop people from taking power over other people,
Speaker 2: and how that actually becomes exerting a sort of power
Speaker 2: in and of itself and things like this, And this
Speaker 2: one is probably fairly transparent, but it is much more
Speaker 2: intentionally around feminism and around the kind of things that
Speaker 2: people do for love, and in particular like heterosexual couple
Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah blah, patriarchy, etc. You know, this
Speaker 2: idea like, oh, you didn't bring her back for her,
Speaker 2: you brought her back for you, you know. And I
Speaker 2: don't think it's like an entirely cynical take. It's a
Speaker 2: slightly cynical take, obviously, you know. But I think that
Speaker 2: that was the primary theme I was just trying to
Speaker 2: get across with this book. And it's not really up
Speaker 2: to me to say whether or not I succeeded. But
Speaker 2: there's going to be more about all of that next week,
Speaker 2: when you can hear the next chapter. Okay, bye everyone.
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Speaker 1: for listening.