The Flux Engine Read Free Page A

easy smile. “So why don’t you just show me where it is and we can avoid any unpleasantness.”
    “I … I don’t know what you mean.” John wasn’t lying, he really had no idea what the smiling woman wanted. If she had known about his mother’s crystal she might want that, but how could she? No one knew about that except Doctor Shultz and a few of the sisters from Saint Archimedes.
    The woman’s smile widened, shifting from easy and friendly to vicious and predatory with alarming ease.
    “Don’t lie to me, sugar,” she said, stepping closer to him. She touched his face with the back of her fingers and drew them down the line of his jaw. “You’re cute and I’d hate to have to mess up your pretty face.”
    John didn’t know what to do. The girl’s presence so close to him was making him nervous. She smelled of lavender and jasmine and that somehow made it difficult to think.
    “Just give me the resonator you used to control the Tommys and I’ll be on my way,” she said.
    John almost dropped the crystals again. How had she known? She might have guessed that he caused the accident with the Tommys, but she couldn’t have known that he’d replaced the resonator in the handler box with his mother’s crystal.
    “Don’t act so surprised, sugar,” the girl said, walking around him while tracing the line of his shoulders with her hand. “I’ve been looking for you for quite a while. The Shokhlar told me I’d find you someday.” Her voice came very close, and John could feel her breath against his ear. “And here you are.”
    John suddenly felt the cold blade of a knife pressed against his throat.
    “Now give me the crystal.”
    John’s eyes darted to the vat of cleaning solvent. His mother’s crystal lay at the bottom, gleaming and free of the smoky coating it had before. He had to do something. Had to distract the girl long enough to get his crystal and escape.
    John opened his hands, letting the crystals he held fall and fracture on the hard stone floor.
    “It’s over there,” he said, pointing to the salt shelf. Clearly the girl had seen him get the key, it was likely she would believe that other things could be hidden there.
    The knife was withdrawn and she patted him on the shoulder with her free hand.
    “See,” she said. “Things are so much more pleasant when you do what I tell you. Now, go get it.”
    She pushed him hard and John staggered for a moment; she was stronger than she looked.
    “It’s up there,” he said, pointing to a jar on the top.
    “Well, go on,” she said.
    John put his foot on the side of the shelf and hoisted himself up. He took a deep breath and grabbed one of the heavy jars, tipping it suddenly onto the girl below. It only took an instant but that was almost too long. With an unnatural swiftness, the girl tried to step out of the way of the falling jar but it caught her in the back as she turned. They fell together, obscured by a shower of salt.
    John didn’t stop to watch. Leaping from the shelf, he ran, dunking his hand in the solvent tank as he went by. Ignoring the stinging liquid, he grabbed the crystal and turned for the door.
    It was then that something hit him square in the chest.
    John didn’t hear the shot, but its echoes resounded off the stone walls like thunder. The girl, hair disheveled and covered in salt, stood between him and the door. Her hand clutched the smoking flux pistol.
    Something was terribly wrong. He didn’t seem to be able to keep his balance. He looked down to see a rapidly spreading red stain in the center of his close-fitting work shirt. His mother’s crystal slipped from his nerveless hand and bounced across the floor, ringing as it went. A moment later John followed, his vision going sideways as he landed heavily on the salt-strewn floor.
    “Thank you,” the girl said as she reached down, scooping up the fallen crystal. “I appreciate all your help.”
    John tried to yell, to summon help, to stop the girl from leaving