The Graveyard Game
"Sin exists," says Joseph, an immortal cyborg agent employed by Dr.  Zeus, Inc., and in this fourth novel of Kage Baker's Company series, it  certainly does.The Graveyard Gamefollows agents Joseph and Lewis as  they try to find their missing friend Mendoza, who's been exiled to the Back Way  Back as punishment for anti-Company activities.Dr. Zeus, a time-travel corporation, created cyborgs to selectively preserve  artifacts from the past for the edification of the 24th century, when the  Company exists. But as the centuries go by for the agents, they hear strange  rumors of a "silence" in the year 2355. Ominously, cyborgs who try to  investigate disappear forever, hidden away or shut down by Dr. Zeus.Joseph and Lewis become obsessed with finding Mendoza, and along the way, they  uncover evidence of bizarre and dangerous Company deeds. Joseph finds strange  underground holding cells, with "retired" agents in vats of preserving fluid.  Meanwhile, Lewis researches the activities of Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, the odd  mortal who was with Mendoza when she disappeared. The two get together to  discuss their disheartening quest in present-day Ghirardelli Square. Cyborgs get  stoned on chocolate, and they order round after round of hot cocoa, even  snorting the stuff, until a Company security tech finds them:On the floor between their respective briefcases was a souvenir bag  stuffed with boxes of chocolate cable cars, and the table was littered with foil  wrappers from the chocolate they had already consumed.... The security tech  scanned them and recoiled slightly at the level of Theobromos in their systems.  He surveyed the litter of foil wrappers and empty cups, regarded the cocoa  powder in Joseph's beard, and sighed. Two old professionals on a sloppy  bender.The Graveyard Game, the best and darkest Company novel yet, showcases  Kage Baker's smart, witty style. She teases readers with enough evidence of  Company nastiness to make us root for the sometimes morally shifty cyborgs,  while continuing to further the substantial plot. It's an extremely satisfying  chapter in an excellent science fiction series, one that sets the stage for the  confrontation to come.--Therese Littleton