Winterbay by J. Barton Mitchell Read Free Book Online Page A

just shook her head. “I work better alone. And a babysitter will just get in the way.”
    “I should have been more clear. Reiko isn’t a babysitter, Reiko’s crucial. The Machine needs two people to disarm it, or so it’s said. Besides…” He glanced up at the intense girl beside him. “I think you’ll find her skills more than useful.”
    Mira looked at the rings on the girl’s left hand. “I have no doubt.”
    Armitage nodded to Reiko and she moved around behind Mira, one of her knives flashing out from the sheaths over the Bowie shirt. It gleamed bright silver.
    “Then we have a deal?” Armitage asked. “Partners and confidants?”
    Mira wasn’t entirely convinced Armitage was someone she could trust, but what choice did she really have? He had her posters, he knew who she was—and there was the plutonium, right there in front of her. It was worth the risk, Mira decided. It was worth anything.
    “Partners,” Mira replied.
    Reiko stared down at Mira, a glint of malice in what was left of her blackened eyes … then the knife flashed and Mira’s bonds were cut. It took skill, a cut like that; the speed, the accuracy. It was meant as a demonstration, and it made its point. Mira returned the girl’s look as solidly as she could. “Thanks,” she said.
    “Don’t mention it,” Reiko replied in a voice like ice.

Memories
    Mira followed after Reiko, winding past the flashing televisions and arcade games, through the wooden pathways bathed in neon, beyond the trade district, and as they passed all of it Mira’s eyes inevitably drifted to the glowing rings on Reiko’s fingers. It was still hard to fathom.
    “You’re White Helix,” Mira stated.
    Reiko’s voice was laced with contempt. “Not exactly hiding it, am I?”
    True enough. Which raised an interesting point. “I wouldn’t think antimatter rings would be very popular here.”
    “Well, they’re not strictly artifacts, are they? Besides…” Reiko looked back at Mira. “No one’s stupid enough to try and take ’em away.”
    Mira believed her. The White Helix was a cult, for lack of a better description. No one knew much about them; they kept to themselves, deep back in the far reaches of the Strange Lands. What everyone did know was that they were incredibly dangerous. They were well trained in fighting, and the rings they wore were made from the crystalline remnants of Antimatter Lightning strikes. Touching them together with their fingers, in various combinations, allowed them to do amazing things: leap incredibly high, flip through the air, accelerate their movements, all by somehow manipulating gravity, inertia, or momentum.
    Mira had only seen them a few times, but watching them move had always been amazing. Beautiful, even. As far as Mira knew, the group never left the Strange Lands. It made Reiko’s presence here even more mysterious. “I didn’t think ‘unjoining’ the White Helix was an option.”
    “It isn’t,” Reiko answered. “They’re a private bunch, I’m sure you know. They expect their secrets to die with their members. Sano-kai is the White Helix name for abandoning your oaths. They hunt you down for it, kill you when they find you.”
    “But you abandoned the oaths.”
    “Nah,” Reiko shook her head. “Way I see it, I never really took them. There’s a difference.”
    “Fingers crossed behind your back?”
    “Something like that.”
    “What about the White Helix?” Mira asked. “Did they buy that distinction?”
    “They came looking, if that’s what you’re asking.” Mira heard a smile in Reiko’s voice. “But the ones that did didn’t go back home. Winterbay is no more friendly to White Helix than it is to Freebooters, and Armitage is a bad man to cross.”
    Mira’s eyes narrowed curiously. “Did Armitage … make you go to the White Helix?” It wasn’t a bad idea, Mira thought to herself. Having your own personal White Helix henchman would be very valuable. Still, given that most