09/23/2025 Snippet, BANSHEE BEACH.

Jumped ahead. Gotta justify the title!

Banshee was sitting at our usual spot, looking like she needed a cigarette and only now remembering that she never took up the habit. Hell, she was almost acting worried. Which was impossible, obviously, because Dominion Archmages never do that. There’s easier ways to let your enemies know you’re ready to die.

“Evening, Betty,” I offered as I took a seat without asking. “I gotta say, you did all that pretty slick. Just how long were you planning to snap up Maravilloso, anyway?”

The woman really had been trained in a hard school; she didn’t need to be prompted at all. “Why, Mister Vargas! The very idea! We don’t spend every day in Hershey on matters of Commerce. This was a vacation for me, just like you. I just happened to be in the right place, and at the right time.”

“And with a briefcase full of bearer bonds, drawn on Hershey’s First Hoard Bank itself. You could have bought half the Castle with those.”

“But I don’t want half the Castle,” Banshee pointed out, before simpering at me. She actually simpered. She sipped her drink. It looked expensive, ornate, and the glass was already sweating water in this heat. “I wanted Maravilloso Beach.”

“Why?”

“That’s proprietary,” Banshee shrugged. “If it’s so important to you, I could ask if you would be willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement. But we both know Shamuses can’t.”

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