Prometheus Road by Bruce Balfour Read Free Book Online

clearly and sensed his position beside the box. She was relieved to hear his voice. “To disobey me this way and endanger your family seems so unlike you. I thought I could trust you.”
    “You can, Father,” Tempest whispered.
    “You must not see Tom Eliot again. Avoid him at the market, avoid him on the road, turn away if you happen upon him at the lake. Do not come in contact with him in any way. Do you understand?”
    Tempest squeezed her eyes shut. “But, Father, I don’t mean to—”
    His voice suddenly got louder. “Yes or no!”
    “Please, I just—”
    Her eyes snapped open as she heard the whistle of the strap slicing through the air. She tensed, bracing herself for the impact so that she wouldn’t bounce against the metal and get a shock at the same time. When the strap hit her butt, she realized she was still wearing her heavy leather pants, and she barely felt the blow. Then she knew his heart wasn’t in it.
    “Do you understand?” he growled.
    “Yes. I understand.”
    “And you will no longer accept any gifts from the young hooligan. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, Father.” Her face sagged closer to the bottom of the box as her back and neck muscles, burning with the strain, weakened even more. Drops of her sweat sizzled and popped on the hot surface below. Pulling against the restraints, her shoulders felt as if they were being yanked from their sockets. Then her head sagged, and her forehead touched the metal, and the blinding shock kicked her head up and back. A gasping scream gurgled at the back of her throat, unable to find escape through her clenched jaws and startled tongue.
    Two rough hands massaged the exposed muscles of her lower back, and she heard the click of the lock on the outside of the box.
    “You’ve had enough,” Memphis said softly.
    A seam of light brightened around the perimeter of the metal clamshell, then brilliant whiteness flooded the interior, making Tempest squint. Cooler air swirled over her skin. As relief flooded through her, her upper body sagged once more, allowing her chest and face to strike the metal, but the expected shock never came because Memphis had already switched off the current.
    “I’m getting soft in my old age,” Memphis said, releasing her wrists.
    “Thank you, Father.” She tried to catch his eye, but he turned and walked off toward the barn, his head down, trapped inside the cage within his own skull.
     
    MAGNUS had led Tom through the open hatches of an airlock in the BART tunnel, past a sign that said HARD HATS REQUIRED, and on down another concrete passage that emptied out into a space larger than Tom’s house. The rectangular chamber had one thick glass wall that looked out into the murky depths of the bay, where the water was cut by shafts of twinkling sunlight. Jumping reflections and shadows danced inside the chamber, giving everything a sense of movement and mystery. The air smelled musty at first, but Magnus walked over to the dented side of a large metal cabinet with thick pipes running up to the ceiling and gave it two hard kicks. A moment later, fans hummed to life and fresh, damp air blew into the room through the ventilators, stirring up the dust on top of the big wooden crates stacked everywhere. Magnus grunted in satisfaction.
    “Ventilation system still works. You know why?” Magnus winked at Tom. “Solar energy. Most of the transbay Marin tunnel still has emergency power because someone had the foresight to install a distributed system of solar panels. Most of them were destroyed when the siliboys popped the cities, of course, but that was damned good engineering, if you ask me. These tunnels were built to withstand earthquakes.”
    “That’s great,” Tom said, not really interested in where the power came from. He was busy noticing the rumpled mattress on top of a crate, the shiny kitchen utensils neatly arrayed over a grimy industrial sink on one wall, a table made of wood from a crate lid with metal struts for