The Other Side of Life (Book #1, Cyberpunk Elven Trilogy) by Jess C Scott Read Free Book Online

expensive
watches, ancient timepieces, a few skulls…”
    “ Skulls?” Anya
inquired.
    “ Gilbreth has a lot
of…interests. We believe he’s hiding something here, under the
guise or protection of his beloved museum.”
    “ Like what?” Anya didn’t
know much about the underground activities of the museum. She’d
been more concerned with doing a good job for the assignments she
and Leticia did undergo.
    “ We think there might be a
secret lab of saints’ bones, and artificial organs like brains and
body parts—an organ-harvesting side business that Gilbreth dabbles
in.”
    “ Are you sure?” Anya
positively squirmed in disdain.
    “ We don’t know for sure
since we haven’t been able to hack into the system,” Dresan gave a
narrow, sideward glance and slight eye-roll to
Nin— SystemOD, Anya
remembered—“but we overheard some scientists at the tree talking
about a rumor about how they were extracting blood from the tree.
Later we figured they were talking about the red roots, which they
carried in vials to…guess where.”
    Anya blinked. “The museum?”
    “ Yes indeed,” Dresan
concurred. “What are they doing there? Distilling it? Purifying
it?”
    “ We’re blocked from network
access to their security system,” Tavia explained to the girls.
“There seems to be a virtual fake one set in place, that’s a decoy,
to throw hacktivists like us off track.”
    “ Huh,” Anya said, as a
statement. So the museum did have something to hide from the
public.
    “ Isn’t there any way to…get
past the security system? Or…turn it off?” Leticia took a gulp,
remembering the red criss-cross lasers set in place.
    “ We couldn’t figure that
part out—it seems far more complicated than anything we’ve seen and
worked with. And we’ve worked on a lot of such systems.” Dresan’s
lower lip protruded in a glum pout.
    Leticia’s knees felt shaky now.
    “ We need help getting a
couple of keys.” Nin conveyed more specifics. “One to the vault,
and another to the glass cabinet that holds the parchment pieces—so
we need someone with a very precise touch. And someone who can move
quickly and skillfully in extremely small, tight spaces.” He looked
at Anya, and held his gaze. “There’s a slight depression and the
vent is a little twisted—it’s hard to maneuver about in, unless
you’re…” He paused for the right word. “Compact-sized. No room for
error. The night guards will open fire.” The tight space in the
vent was where he’d fumbled in the past.
    “ They will?” Anya wondered
about the clandestine operations so far, that she and Leticia had
undertaken.
    Nin nodded slowly. “We know. We barely
escaped with our lives, on the first attempt.”
    It was deadly quiet—quiet enough to hear a
snowflake fall upon the ground.
    Anya was studying the
picture of the 3-point system lock on the screen, which held the
two keys that the elves wanted to get. That the elves were
asking her to
get.
    “ She’s the expert,” Leticia
said in a husky, sickly sweet voice. She joined the rest of the
smiling faces, leaving Anya as the lucky recipient of the
job.
    Anya pulled her brows together. “Haven’t we
been a team effort, all along?” Anya posed the question to Leticia.
Her voice was a little throaty.
    Leticia bobbed her head, half in agreement.
“I’m there to help. You’ve more practice.”
    That was true. Anya had actually been the
one to swipe the dozen or so items they had successfully gotten.
Thus far, that is. Her small build did allow her to move fast,
which she used to her advantage.
    “ I…really…” Anya started.
She felt like she was croaking. “Don’t…”
    Elves are superior, she said to herself. At least they seemed to be,
with their plasma guns and solar-powered rooms and ability to walk
noiselessly across all types of surfaces. If they hadn’t been able
to pull this operation off, what were her chances?
    “ I can see
your…hesitation.” Nin was up close to her,