Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
“If you mean gross-looking finger foods made of crackers, paste, and cheese on silver plates, then yes.”
She nods and lets out a breath. “I’m going to eat one of everything.”
We go to the door and ring the bell. It opens almost immediately, and then Janice, Stayn’s wife, is there in her fancy dress, and her perfect hair and makeup, and her lipsticked mouth moving a mile a minute as she greets us warmly and ushers us inside.
There is a whirlwind here filled with teenage girls in frilly dresses, and politicians with their arm-candy wives, and even a couple of dogs that are way too big to be house pets, but since when did rules ever stop rich people from doing impractical things?
Coats are taken, I feel very underdressed next to the power players in coats and ties, and Clara morphs into a Spark Maiden—minus the spark—right before my very eyes. Her smile is big, her voice is soothing, her eyes are bright, and she even leans in and lightly touches people on the arm when she speaks to them. Like everyone in this room is an old friend.
She is at home, to say the least. Like she has attended thousands of dinner parties in alternate dimensions and this one, at the Tau City patrol chief’s home, is no particular big deal.
We are separated, as is the way of things. It’s just… I’ve never come to dinner here with a date before, so I never noticed how weird it is that men are ushered into Stayn’s office, while the women gather in the living room.
Cigars are passed out. I sit on a tufted leather couch and then exhale smoke as I accept a glass of brandy on the rocks from Stayn. He takes the chair to my right and immediately, the conversation turns to Clara.
“So. Where the hell did you kidnap this one from?”
“Is that an insult? Are you insinuating that she is too good for me?”
Stayn laughs. “Brother, she is…” He decides to stop here so he can choose his words carefully. “Delightful.”
I raise my glass in his direction and we do a mock ‘cheers.’ “She is, isn’t she.”
“Keep this one. You’re gonna keep her, right?”
I just smile over my glass as I take a drink.
“OK, OK,” a rotund, older man says as he approaches us. “Enough about your man’s woman, Stayn. I only came to one of your stuffy parties to discuss the Looking Glass. What news, friend?”
“What’s that?” I ask Stayn.
Stayn ignores me. “Not tonight, Richard. This is not a business meeting. I told you that. It’s a dinner party. Janice will kill me if we start talking about work at the table.”
“All the better to do it now,” the portly man says.
“What’s a Looking Glass?” I ask again.
For a moment I’m sure that Stayn is gonna blow me off. But he gives me a side-eye instead. Like he’s reconsidering. “Well, if I tell you, you have to keep it secret.”
The big guy takes a chair to Stayn’s right and sits. “I thought you said the man was an augment?”
I shrug. “I am. But I have no idea what we’re talking about.”
“As an augment, you’ve seen this stuff. Hasn’t he, Stayn? He’s the reason I’m here. You told me he has information about this kind of thing.”
I look at Stayn again, this time with suspicion. “What the hell is all this about? You invited me under false pretenses?”
“No. Well…” Stayn smiles. “Not originally. It was payment, remember? For the disturbance in the tower.”
“Right. And now it’s what?” I’m getting a really bad feeling about this. Because while I do not know what a Looking Glass is, after what happened with Clara, I can take a good guess.
“Yes, let’s talk about that disturbance, young man.”
I direct my gaze to the older guy, then look around and realize every man in this room is watching us. Waiting for whatever comes next. Like I’ve got answers and they’re gonna get them out of me. I look back at Stayn. “What’s going on?”
“That disturbance,” Stayn says. “It was…”
“A vagrant. I told you that. There was a party down there and someone got left behind.”
“Right. Well, here’s the thing, Tyse.” Stayn actually sits on the edge of his seat, leaning towards me, like this is some kind of secret, when obviously it’s not. “After analyzing the vibrational fingerprint of said disturbance—”
“Just spit it out, Chief!” the old man interrupts. “It matched the signature of a Spark Maiden from Dimension 702. And we weren’t expecting another delivery for three more months. So we need you to be real specific about what you found down there in the tower, son.”
I can’t even speak. I can’t even come to terms with the fact that this fucker just used the words ‘Spark Maiden,’ let alone the fact that they have… ordered one? In the past? And have one… what? On hold? For the future?