Muse of Fire by Scalzi John

Author:Scalzi, John
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Scalzi, Hestia, mythology, science fiction, demons, hell
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: 2013-09-08T16:00:00+00:00

The police investigation into Ben turned up nothing because there was nothing to turn up. Ben had been at home, and he was neither foolish nor crazy enough to hint that he hadn’t been alone, because of the nature of whom he had been with. A small but unquiet part of Ben wanted to ask Hestia what she knew of Evanson’s fire, but the rest of him overruled that part. The rest of Ben thought it was best to leave certain things unanswered.

A week after Ben was cleared, Charlie, unwillingly thrust into Evanson’s vacant role, asked him to come back to work. He did, and then wished he hadn’t after the reception his coworkers gave him. Cleared by the police or not, the coincidence of Evanson burning in a fire after confronting Ben was enough to give almost everyone the creeps. Even Charlie avoided him unless there was something directly related to work.

Only Rebecca continued to be openly friendly with Ben; if anything, Ben noted, she seemed friendlier than usual. He assumed it was her compensating for everyone else being a bit of a dick. Even so, Ben spent most of the time shut up in his office, absorbed on paperwork for the tests.

Which is why when Rebecca knocked on his door that afternoon, Ben flinched.

“Sorry,” she said. “Didn’t mean to startle you.” She leaned against the door with a tablet cradled in her arms.

Ben smiled up apologetically. “It’s all right,” he said. “Just focused. You know.” He rubbed his eyes and stood. His back cracked as he straightened. “What’s up?”

“Came to give you word that all five of the polymer casings are finished and ready for testing,” she said.

“That’s great,” Ben said. She could have emailed that to him, actually. She must have just gotten the memo as she was on her way to somewhere else.

Rebecca grinned and stepped farther into the room. “I thought a little celebrating was in order,” she said.

“Celebrating?” Ben said “Oh. Yeah—that sounds…” His brain finally registered that her hair was down. He’d only ever seen it in a bun at the base of her neck. “Uh. So the team is going out?”

A flicker of disappointment went across her face that even Ben could read. She’d been flirting. With him.

Ben could have smacked himself on the forehead. This was his problem; between work and the fact that almost all his attention was given to Hestia, his ability to read women’s interest in him was remedial at best.

“Sure. We can get something together with the team,” Rebecca said. Her voice was flattened.

Ben opened his mouth to respond and then noticed that his thumb was on the lid of the lighter, which in his hand. He stared at it for a moment, confused. He had no memory of taking it out.

Do you like fires, Dr. Patton?

Ben set the lighter on the desk.

He stepped away from it.

He stepped toward Rebecca.

“It doesn’t have to be the whole team,” he said. “It could be just the two of us. If that’s all right.

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