The Flux Engine by Dan Willis Read Free Book Online Page B

had to do to avoid it himself was to pick up the rug.
    “Where was your father during all this?”
    Robi’s smile slipped for the second time and her eyes looked right through the spot where John sat.
    “He’s dead,” John guessed. “Isn’t he?”
    Robi looked away but he could see the tears that suddenly filled her eyes. She seemed to tremble for a moment, striving to bring her emotions under control, then nodded.
    “I’m sorry,” John said, not really knowing what to say. He had no memories at all of his own father. Robi’s pain was much more recent.
    “Never work for someone else,” Robi said softly. “That was his first rule. He used to tell me that the minute you bring on a partner you have to sleep with a knife in your hand. Partners are nothing but trouble, he said.”
    “What happened?”
    Robi wiped her eyes and turned back to face him. Her eyes regarded him with a hard flat stare, regarding him skeptically. John shrugged.
    “Who am I going to tell?” he said. “Who’d believe me anyway?” That made her smile again for a brief second before she continued.
    “A man approached my father about acquiring something out of a secure Alliance Lab. The money was enough for two lifetimes, so my father agreed. He wanted to settle down on a little homestead somewhere and raise goats.” She chuckled to herself, a hollow, humorless sound. “Can you believe that?” she asked. “The world’s greatest thief raising goats? Mostly, I think he just wanted me have a normal life,” Robi went on.
    “What happened at the lab?”
    “Nothing.” Robi shook her head. “Everything went like clockwork. We were in and out in thirty-eight minutes.” She paused and took a deep breath, steeling herself for the rest. “We were supposed to meet the buyer in a warehouse to make the exchange, but Dad didn’t like it. When we got there, he told me to hide. Turns out his instincts were right.” Robi drew a great shuddering breath. “The buyer never intended to pay us. When he arrived, he walked right up and shot my father dead, without any warning.”
    John didn’t know what to say. He’d heard that there was no honor among thieves, but this was shocking. It was as if the senseless nature of the act rendered it even more immoral. It felt irrational that such men existed in the world.
    “What did he have you steal?” John asked before his better judgement could silence him.
    “Sand,” Robi said, shaking her head in disgust. “A bag of red sand.”
    “What’s so special about a bag of sand?”
    “I don’t care,” Robi said, the tenor of her voice turning cold. “Someday I’m going to find that bastard and when I do …”
    Robi squeezed her eyes shut, and turned away again.
    “You’ll kill him,” John finished for her.
    “No,” Robi said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “My father taught me that the dead feel no pain. When I find him, I’m going to take everything—everything he loves, everything that’s important to him. I’m going to destroy it all and leave him with nothing. Just like he did to me.”
    John had heard people swear vengeance before. Usually the words were meaningless expressions of frustration wrapped in hollow threats. Robi’s declaration sent shivers down his back. She had considered those words carefully, and she meant each and every one.
    “I’m sorry,” she said after the silence between them had stretched out to fill several minutes. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
    “It’s all right,” John said, automatically. “Doctor Shultz, my mentor, says that it can help to tell your troubles to someone.”
    “So you’re training to be a surgeon?” Robi asked.
    “What?”
    “You said your mentor was a doctor.”
    John laughed. It had been a while and it felt good.
    “He’s not that kind of doctor. Doctor Shultz has a PhD in Thurgery, you know, crystal growing. I’m his apprentice.”
    “So, what’s an apprentice Thurger doing in here?” Robi