The Collected Christopher Connery Read Free Page A

tarp
covering their car. The paint job was magically enhanced, of course – after
magically powered lights and structural waterproofing, rain-resistant paint was
the Academy’s most lucrative product – but it couldn’t stand up indefinitely to
to the tainted water.
    Despite his protests, Nia helped Arthur uncover the car
before tucking herself into the front seat. It was a slightly tight fit with
all the suitcases and boxes stacked in back, but the last thing Nia wanted to
be was unprepared. She had only been named a full Illuminator two years ago and
had expected to be confined to internal work for at least a year more, but the
Directors had specially selected her for this assignment. They needed a
magician with exceptional magical skill and a knowledge of old, defunct magics.
Nia possessed both.
    “If you do well,” they had told her, “you could go a long
way toward redeeming your name.”
    Redeeming her name from Arthur, that was. And from her
mother.
    If you do well. She would do better than well. She
would accept nothing less than success. As Arthur slid into the driver’s seat,
Nia pulled a book from her handbag and began reviewing some of the circles she
might need to draw during the assignment. She knew most of them by heart, but
it never hurt to refresh her memory.
    After deftly negotiating the narrow roads that twisted
through the Academy campus, Arthur turned into the city proper – and almost
immediately had to brake sharply to avoid running down a few careless
pedestrians.
    “I hate driving in this part of the city,” he grumbled as
he jerked the car back into motion. “No one pays any damn attention. I just
hope we survive long enough to get to the station.”
    Nia wasn’t worried. Arthur had a natural affinity for
cars and other mechanical things. When he wasn’t doing surgery, he helped in
the workshops, building generators, motors, and even working on the prototype
automatons.
    Her confidence was well placed. Despite a few frustrating
minutes spent trapped behind a slow-moving trolley, they made it to the
laypolice station without incident. And they were only half an hour late.
Surely that wasn’t too bad.
    She could see her new layman partner standing on the
steps, swaddled in a plastic poncho. Nia still wasn’t certain she neededa
layman’s help, but the Directors had said that this detective was the closest
thing they had to an expert on Mr. Connery. She supposed their experience might
prove useful.
    Realizing the car had been stopped for nearly a minute,
Nia pulled up the hood of her own poncho, took a deep breath, and prepared to
meet her new partner’s acquaintance.

4
Gail Lin
    The magician was late.
    Gail had arrived early, already regretting her decision.
After the rent check had been handed over, the need for money didn’t seem that
urgent and she was beginning to think she had agreed to be part of something
distinctly unethical. Connery was dead and the world was a little brighter for
it. Did she really want to reverse that?
    But she should have thought of that yesterday. If she
backed out now, she would be kicking her career in the teeth and she couldn’t
afford to do that, not coming from where she did.
    So here she stood, battered old suitcase at her feet,
rain splattering against the hood of her poncho, waiting. And waiting. And
waiting. She pulled a cigarette from her pocket and twirled it between her
fingers. She had quit over a year ago, but having one in her hand sometimes
helped put her mind at ease. And if this was how the case was starting out, her
mind was going to need a lot of easing.
    Finally, about an hour after the appointed time, a shiny
black car pulled up to the curb. It had the Academy seal painted on the side
and was bigger than most cars on the street. She’d have preferred something a
little more discrete, but discrete wasn’t what the Academy usually went for.
    A long few seconds after the car slid to a stop, the
passenger side door opened and a young