Winterbay by J. Barton Mitchell Read Free Book Online

could give you something better?”
    “Better?” Mira asked skeptically.
    “What you want is too valuable to find in a city shop or stall, but you know that. You’re here because you need someone to point you in the right direction,” he said. “You need an X on a treasure map, isn’t that so?” It was, but Mira stayed silent. “Well, Mira, what’s the one thing better than a treasure map?”
    The answer was obvious, she knew. There was only thing more valuable than a treasure map: the treasure itself.
    Reiko gently turned the case over. On the front was a round symbol, divided into six yellow and black triangles pointing at a black circle in the center. Just like Mira’s patch.
    She felt her heart beat in her chest but, even so, refused to let herself believe so quickly. “There’s no way you have it in there.”
    “Why’s that?” Armitage asked. “It’s something tangible, isn’t it? Something anyone can pick up and take, if they can find it. And it’s … priceless, really. Like lots of things now, it’s even more valuable since the Assembly showed up. Because of where it gets you. Because of the Strange Lands. Why wouldn’t I have something like that, a man in my position?”
    “Because … it’d just be too easy.” Mira forced her lustful gaze away from the case. “And easy has not been my style lately.”
    “Ah. Well. Then I wouldn’t worry.” Armitage snapped up two metallic clips on the case and opened it. “Earning it’s gonna be anything but easy.”
    It was automatic, irresistible. Mira looked inside the case as the lid flipped down … and she forgot to breathe.
    Sitting there, wrapped in black foam, were two glass cylinders filled with some kind of clear liquid. In the center of each floated a brownish sliver of color, still and unmoving.
    Plutonium.
    It was something Mira would have spent months to find, something she would have risked her life for. It was what she needed, maybe the only thing that could let her fix the mess she’d made in Midnight City. Because it was priceless, like Armitage had said. Because of a place called the Severed Tower. A place you could only reach if you had a radioactive substance to use as a key. If you made it there, survived the impossible … anything you wanted could be yours.
    Her entire plan rested on what was in that case, and there it was, right then, sitting in front of her. Mira couldn’t take her eyes off it.
    “I’m not the vindictive sort, Mira,” Armitage said. He knew he had her, even without the wanted posters. “It’s bad for business. You tell me no, you say you wanna walk away, I’ll let you. But,” he said, fingers tapping one of the cylinders, “do this for me, beat the Machine … and you get what you need right now. No waiting, no searching, your journey’s over before it even begins. ”
    Mira stared at the plutonium, thoughts swirling in her head. Then Reiko closed the case, sealing it away. She looked up at Armitage. There was still one thing that didn’t add up. “What’s so special about this Machine? What’s it guarding that makes it worth all this?”
    “That’s my end, Mira. Not yours. But, hopefully, you and I will both find out the answer to that very soon.” Another smile grew on his face, and there was a hint of cheerfulness in his voice. “God, I love deals like this. Deals that just … make themselves.”
    He was right, of course. This deal did make itself. For once, something had gone Mira’s way. Face certain death a month from now, or face certain death right now and get it over with. It was simple math as far as she was concerned. “I’ll need a day, a full day, twenty-four hours with whatever artifacts you’ve got,” she said. “If this Machine’s that dangerous, I won’t have time to build combinations on the fly, I’ll need them ready to go.”
    “I expected as much. But I have a condition of my own. Reiko goes with you.”
    Mira didn’t even bother to look at the girl,