“Once our de-processing is complete, our plans involve getting the hell out, is what,” said Fresco. “The studios are all shut down after the fire, of course. There won’t be much in production anytime soon.” He looked at Eva. “I’m thinking we take a vacation. Somewhere the Daily News won’t find us.”
Eva looked at Fresco and Fresco looked at Eva. He was smiling and so was she, but there was something behind her smile.
“And the CIA?”
“Can go to hell,” said Fresco. Then he pursed his lips and winced like he was watching a boxer take a dive under hot lights. “Actually, maybe we should file a report before we go.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” I said.
“But if you have to include us, feel free to be a little liberal with the facts, if you don’t mind,” said Ada. “We are running a private business, here.”
Fresco smiled and nodded and he made his fingers into a little gun shape and he pointed it at one of the computer decks and he clicked his tongue.
I think I liked him. I think I liked them both. They discussed holiday destinations with their backs turned to me while I went to the closet and got out a fresh set of clothes. I cleared my throat when I was done and Eva laughed.
And then she came up to me and gave me a hug, or as best she could, considering her arms didn’t go all the way around.
Then Fresco was in on it, too, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t see a tear in the lug’s eye.
After that I led them into the outer office and I showed them the door. Then I opened it and ushered them out and then we said good-bye with them in the hallway and me in the office and when we were done I closed the door.
On my desk was an athletic bag. I opened it. It was full of small gold bars that shone wetly.
“I’m guessing we can keep this,” I said.
“You better believe it, Ray,” said Ada.
“I don’t know about you, Ada, but I need a drink.”
“Says the robot,” she said. And then she made a sound like she was smoking a cigarette. I laughed and it sounded like someone threading the bit on an industrial drill.
“Actually,” I said, “I feel like a root beer float. I know just the place. I won’t be long.”
As I left the office and locked the door behind me I heard Ada laugh and tell me to knock myself out.
Then I went down to the parking garage and stood there looking at the empty spot where my car was supposed to be.
I smiled on the inside and walked up the exit ramp and onto Hollywood Boulevard.
It looked like a mighty nice day for a walk.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Oh boy, where to start? Hold on to your hats, ladies and gents, because this is a big one.
Made to Kill started with “Brisk Money” and “Brisk Money” started with a little interview I did for Tor.com way back when. It was a form interview, the standard shtick for new authors not worth a dime who were lucky enough to get a seat at the big table. There were questions and lots of them and they said I could take my pick. So I did. And the last one on the list was pretty fun. It was: “If you could find one previously undiscovered book by a nonliving author, who would it be? Why?”
Little did I know that my answer to this was going to start me down a road that was long and winding and a heck of a lot of fun. Because I answered the question with the first thing that came into my head: What I really wanted to read and what I really wished did exist was Raymond Chandler’s long-lost science fiction epic.
I’m a Chandler fan, big time, and it’s always amused me the way Chandler hated science fiction. Hated it. In 1953, he wrote to his agent about it and in the space of 152 words wrote his own little sci-fi vignette that’s full of pink pretzels and the rising of the fourth moon and—if you can believe it—what seems to be a computer called Google. He was proving a point, and the story is meaningless nonsense … but it’s meaningless nonsense written by Raymond Chandler.
And Raymond Chandler was a genius.
Of course, what Chandler was really doing—well, I’m pretty sure, anyway—was fishing, running this kooky sci-fi thing up the flagpole to see who saluted. Alas, if his agent ever replied, the answer remains unpublished. That’s a letter I’d love to see.
But Chandler writing science fiction? Wow. There was a neat idea. And it seems my editor at Tor, Paul Stevens, thought so too, because he said I should write that lost Chandler sci-fi epic. Maybe he was joking and he never told me, but I took him up on his suggestion and the result was a novelette called “Brisk Money,” which was published on Tor.com in July 2014.
A funny thing happened while I was writing “Brisk Money.” I got some more ideas. I’d just met Ray Electromatic, and his boss, Ada, and when I was done with that story I wanted to tell more—a whole novel’s worth. No, two novels—screw it, make it three.
You’re holding the first one, right now.
Paul Stevens was there at the start and really all this is his doing, so he has my thanks from now until eternity. My heartfelt gratitude to everyone else at Tor who took a liking to my little story about a robot who killed people for a living in the Californian sunshine, in particular Irene Gallo for the most amazing art direction in the history of art direction (I mean, come on, just take another look at the cover of this thing. It’s okay. I’ll wait. You back? The cover is great, right?), Patty Garcia for diabolical master plans and devotion to the Electromatic Detective Agency above and beyond the call of duty, and to my new editor, Miriam Weinberg, who not only loves Ray and Ada as much as I do but also really gets them as much as I do. As an author, I can’t ask for any more than that.
Thanks to Will Staehle, who is now firmly established as my artistic wingman (He did the cover, like he does all my covers, but he really went the extra mile on this one. Go take another look. Go!), and to my agent, Stacia J. N. Decker of the Donald Maass Literary Agency, who yet again helped me get this thing up to the next level of literary magic. She also gave this book its perfect, perfect title. Make sure you buy her a drink next time she’s in town.
Made to Kill needed research, and lots of it. Not only did that include another close study of the Raymond Chandler canon itself but also of two superb reference works: The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Nonfiction, 1909–1959, edited by Tom Hiney and Frank MacShane, and A Mysterious Something in the Light: The Life of Raymond Chandler, by Tom Williams.
This book would have been a great deal harder to write if it wasn’t for The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles: A Guide to the Usual & Unusual from Herb Lester Associates, compiled and described by Kim Cooper with excellent design and illustration from Paul Rogers.
My thanks to the usual (and unusual) suspects: Kim Curran, Joelle Charbonneau, Daryl Gregory, Miranda Jewess, Emma Newman, Alex Segura, Victoria Schwab, Chuck Wendig, and Jen Williams. Thanks to everyone who has supported me both in private and in public. There are too many of you to list and I’m up against a deadline here, so you’ll just have to trust me when I say I know who you are and I know what you did and, for some of you anyway, I know where you live. Which means Ray and Ada know where you live, too. Remember that …
To my wife, Sandra, whose support and belief and patience are without end. This book is for you.
And finally, to the grand master of detective fiction himself, Raymond Chandler. Thank you. I hope I did okay and I hope Made to Kill is, indeed, a scream. This book is for you, too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ADAM CHRISTOPHER is a novelist, comic writer, and award-winning editor. The author of Seven Wonders, The Age Atomic, and Hang Wire, and cowriter of The Shield for Dark Circle Comics, Adam has also written novels based on the hit CBS television show Elementary. His debut novel, Empire State, was SciFiNow’s Book of the Year and a Financial Times Book of the Year for 2012. Born in New Zealand, Adam has lived in Great Britain since 2006. Find him online at www.adamchristopher.co.uk and on Twitter as @ghostfinder. Or sign up for email updates here.
BY ADAM C
HRISTOPHER
THE EMPIRE STATE
Empire State
The Age Atomic
THE SPIDER WARS
The Burning Dark
The Machine Awakes
THE LA TRILOGY
Made to Kill
Seven Wonders
Hang Wire
Elementary: The Ghost Line
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Acknowledgments
About the Author
By Adam Christopher
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.
MADE TO KILL
Copyright © 2015 by Seven Wonders Limited
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Will Staehle
Edited by Miriam Weinberg
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-7918-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-6715-4 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466867154
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
First Edition: November 2015
Made to Kill Page 20