Synthetic: Dark Beginning by Shonna Wright Read Free Book Online

and finally found Ruby packed into a shadowy recess where the sunlight couldn’t reach her.
    “I knew you’d like it,” she said accusingly. “Humphrey got carried away with the windows as usual.”
    “I wish my lab at Mirafield had this much natural light.” Kora picked up a machine from the floor, the guts hanging out in a pitiful tangle of wires. “Is there somewhere I can put trash?”
    “You get rid of things?”
    “Don’t you?”
    “I just have Humphrey add another floor to the castle. Stack anything you don’t want out in the hall and Ivan will take care of it.”
    Kora grabbed hold of a steel box and dragged it to the door. Ruby frowned as she ran a black nail over her chin.
    “You have the most disappointing equipment. Machines of creation should be made of iron and bellow fire.”
    “I think we moved beyond iron and fire a long time ago.”
    “Beyond fire? My creatures were born out of fire. To understand fire is to understand the chemistry of creation.”
    Kora felt confident that her scientific knowledge far outstripped her mother’s, but when she looked into that hardened face, she knew arguing would be a complete waste of time. “What is it you want, exactly?”
    Ruby climbed out of her dark nook and stretched. “I’ll show you, but first let me fetch your assistant. The wretched boy should already be here.”
    Kora waited until Ruby disappeared down the hall before darting over to Ishmael. He dropped his shell and stood with his rubbery arms wriggling in the air as if trying to get all the kinks out. Kora took a running leap and Ishmael caught her with one arm while his remaining seven wrapped around the steel box she’d managed to drag to the door. He pulled it back to the center of the lab behind Kora's back.
    “Leave that alone. I’m getting rid of it,” said Kora, twisting around while she dangled in midair.
    Ishmael didn't set her down until he'd scooped everything into a pile and writhed on top of it.
    “I thought I finally had my chance to clean house,” said Kora.
    He reached out and fondly rubbed the top of her head, but when she glanced down at the pile, his arm snapped back into a defensive position.
    “Have you even looked up at the sky?”
    Ishmael tipped back his tall head and gazed up at the glass ceiling.
    “Amazing isn’t it? The ocean is just beyond that wall at the base of the cliffs. Beautiful, but I'm sure it's filthy and unfit for either humans or squids.”
    Ishmael hustled back to the base of his tower, spooled his arms around his narrow body, and yanked a lever that raised his shell which closed with a loud snap. Kora thought maybe she’d said something to scare him off, but the next moment Ruby blew into the lab with a hunched figure hobbling behind her dressed in a monk's robe. Kora knew this was the same deformed creature she’d seen silhouetted against the torches the previous morning, but he wasn’t at all what she expected. Beneath the swell of the massive hump was a handsome face with brown eyes and a wide smile.
    “You’re sort of normal,” said Kora, unaware that she’d spoken her thoughts aloud.  This was a great relief to her.  She couldn't handle meeting another one of Ruby's mutants.
    “Thanks for noticing. I’m Gus,” he said. “You were expecting the old hunchback, the mutant one?”
    Kora glanced at Ruby who was massaging her temples as if she had a headache. “I didn't know there was a previous hunchback,” said Kora.
    “Oh yes. Before I came along, Ruby had a hideous beast with one eye bigger than the other who drank three cases of Budweiser every night while watching reruns of pro wrestling. Unfortunately, when she first diced him together she gave him a liver the size of a ping-pong ball. The poor guy had just discovered the wonders of cocktails and independent films when he keeled over.”
    Ruby opened her mouth to refute this charge, but Gus breezed by her and spun in the center of the room. “How beautiful. I had no