Robot Blues Read Free

strained.
    Xris wiggled the
fingers of his left hand. “It’s the temperature of the skin that’s the problem.
Hard to maintain. You don’t want the plastiskin too cold—you touch someone and
they think they’re being grabbed by a hand from the grave. You don’t want it
too hot, either, although turning up the heat sometimes comes in handy. I can
soft-boil an egg—”
    “Cut the crap,
Xris,” Amadi said, the smile gone. “I was at the hospital when they brought you
in. You’re damn lucky you’re alive.”
    Xris shrugged. The
matter was open to debate. “I’m going to be late for my meeting at the museum.
Let’s make this short. How’s the wife and kids, Amadi? Oh, and don’t bother
asking me about mine.”
    Amadi’s dark eyes
flickered. “I guess I can’t blame you for being bitter—”
    “No! Really?” Xris
was shocked. “How long had the bureau known Armstrong was a traitor? Before or
after Ito and I walked into that goddamn munitions plant and got ourselves
blown to hell and back?”
    “It wasn’t until
after, Xris, I swear—”
    “Then why didn’t
you tell me the truth? Why didn’t you tell me it was Armstrong who set us up,
not Dalin Rowan? You let me go for years thinking that my best friend had
betrayed me. You let me go for years carrying that hatred inside me. God knows
what I would have done if—” Xris stopped, clamped down hard on the twist, so
hard his jaw started to ache. He hadn’t meant to say that much. Looking at
Amadi brought back a lot, a helluva lot.
    The arm beeped
again. Xris ignored it. He could have hard-boiled an egg about now.
    Amadi was watching
him carefully. “So—you found Dalin Rowan.”
    Xris chewed. The
tobacco juice slid down his throat, erasing, for the moment, the faint metallic
taste that never seemed to leave his mouth, always reminded him that he was
more metal than man. He had to be careful here, very careful.
    Xris grimaced,
stared at the windshield. “How’d you find out?”
    Amadi shrugged. “Someone
hacked his way into our computer system a couple of months ago. Neat, sweet,
clean. The job had Dalin Rowan’s footprints all over it. He was searching for
files on the Knights of the Black Earth. Imagine my surprise when, a few days
later, you and your team manage to stop the knights from turning His Majesty
the King into the universe’s largest carbonated soft drink.”
    Xris looked blank.
“Gosh, I’m sorry, Amadi. You got the wrong information. I heard about that
incident on the GNN news. Their anchorman was the would-be assassin, wasn’t he?
Warden, that was his name. I’d love to take credit for saving the king’s life,
but we were light-years away at the time.”
    “You were a lot
closer than that.” Amadi tapped a finger on the steering wheel. “You were the
one who shot up that hotel, destroyed one of the regicide devices. That
poisoner of yours—what’s his name, the Adonian Loti—he and the character in the
raincoat took out Warden, who was the knights’ backup assassin.
    “Oh, I can’t prove
any of this—Olefsky’s Wolf Brigade whisked you and your team away before anyone
could spot you. The Lord Admiral concealed the Loti— or should I say the
Honorable Ambassador from Andonia? All handled very neatly. His Majesty is
safe, the Knights of the Black Earth are destroyed. We’ve been told from the
highest level that the case is closed. Fine.” Amadi shrugged. “Case closed. But
there’s another case that’s wide open.”
    “Which is?” Xris swallowed
the remainder of the twist.
    “The break-in of a
top-secret naval installation.”
    “The Navy called
in the bureau on that one, did they?”
    “You know damn
well the Navy didn’t call us in. They’ve shut the lid so tight you couldn’t pry
it loose with a concussion grenade. They won’t even admit the damn base exists,
much less that someone actually managed to crash their security and waltz right
in.”
    “Well, that’s the
military for you,” Xris said.