FoL
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About this ebook
Jonathan Alexander Nicholas Ashworth the Fourth—called Nico—fears nothing. He lives a life of power, prestige, money. He makes his own way, but when that fails, he uses fixers, the best money can buy. Until FoL begins targeting him. Against FoL, fixers can’t help him. Can he help himself? Or will FoL win?
A powerful story about truth and consequences.
“Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s crime stories are exceptional, both in plot and in style.”
—Ed Gorman, Mystery Scene Magazine
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake. She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.
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FoL - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
FoL
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
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FoL
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Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
About the Author
FoL
RED LIGHTS CHURNING against the black sky: fire engines, ambulances, cop cars—all red lights; flames flaring, then collapsing, sending red sparks into the darkness; faces red from the heat, black from the smoke. Nico stood on the other side of the driveway, facing the burning frat house. His back was cold, but his face, arms, and legs felt hot. If he took a step closer, he’d be enveloped by the heat radiating off the frat.
The sirens echoed. The noise level rose, low conversation, screams, shouts, the spray of the hoses, music from the nearby sorority, a car horn honking in the distance.
Nico’s mouth tasted of smoke—the air tasted of smoke. Someone had wrapped him in a blanket, and he didn’t remember who or how.
He stared at the frat. He hadn’t even been there. He’d been in the history library, doing the damn primary research for Professor Chadwick’s all-or-nothing, 30-page paper. Nico hated the dumb library card catalog stored in those bulky alphabetized drawers, the even dumber microfiche machines, the dorky gloves he had to wear before anyone would let him touch old newspapers.
Do not leave this for the last minute, Old Chad had said. You won’t be able to get it done.
Well, Nico’d had no choice. The stupid idiot he’d hired to write the paper—an overpaid intellectual snob who’d come highly recommended—bailed two days ago, actually handing the money back and stammering something about seeing the light. The other dweebs who wrote term papers for money wouldn’t take the assignment—No time to do a new one, man. Old Chad’s seen all my papers on this one. Sorry.
Nico couldn’t fail, not Old Chad’s class. Not if he wanted to get into a good law school. He’d been thinking of calling one of his dad’s fixers when someone he didn’t really know—one of the real dorks, floppy hair, cheap clothes, clearly on scholarship—ran into the second floor room and yelled that Nico’s frat was burning.
Nico ran here,