The Possession of Paavo Deshin by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Author:Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: childhood, children, short story, space opera, science fiction, detective, adoption, legal thriller, parenthood, kristine kathryn rusch, wmg publishing, retrieval artist, miles flint, the moon
Publisher: WMG Publishing

***

Gerda wouldn’t leave Luc alone. She kept pinging his emergency links, and every time he asked her to talk to him on their private link, she refused.

She wanted him to come home.

Luc didn’t want to go home—not while he was searching for the Grazians and had the new lawyer trying to push through the adoption, maybe that night.

But for the very first time in their relationship, Gerda wouldn’t listen to him. She wanted to talk to him, and she wasn’t going to do it through any encrypted channel. Nor was she going to drag Paavo to the office.

Not that Luc blamed her. The day’s trauma would have disturbed even the most emotionally stable child. While Paavo was brilliant and charming and enjoyable, he was anything but emotionally stable.

Luc steadied himself as he walked through the front door of his own home. He had made sure no one followed him here. He had security planted throughout the neighborhood, not just bots, cameras, and warning signs, but some real human beings as well.

Right now, he had no idea what the Grazians were trying to do, but they weren’t going to succeed in stealing his son.

The house always smelled faintly of mint, which Gerda had heard was calming, and usually, the scent worked. Usually, Luc smelled it, and smiled softly to himself, realizing he had come home.

But not this afternoon. This afternoon, his heart was racing, and he was breathing shallowly. As he stepped into the living room, he realized he was closer to panic than he had been in years.

He didn’t want to lose any of this. He didn’t want to lose his house or his family.

He didn’t want to lose his son.

Before he called for Gerda, he looked for Paavo. He pushed open the door to the boy’s room, expecting to see his son asleep on the bed. The covers were mussed, but Paavo wasn’t there.

Luc’s heart sped up. “Gerda?” he called.

She came out of the kitchen, a towel in her hands. Her lips were thin, and frown lines had formed around her mouth and eyes.

Luc had forgotten, until that moment, what a formidable woman his wife could be.

“It’s about time,” she said. “We have a very serious problem and we need to solve it now.”

He didn’t like her tone. She made it sound like he hadn’t done anything all day.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do,” he snapped. “If you hadn’t demanded I come home—”

“If I hadn’t demanded that you come home, then we would be in even more trouble,” she said.

Something about her expression caught him. He had never seen that look on her face. “What’s wrong? Did they get Paavo?”

“He’s in the kitchen,” she said. “He’s fine.”

But Luc had to see for himself. He hurried into the kitchen. Paavo was sitting in his favorite chair, his small, too-thin body hunched over the table.

He looked up and Luc winced at the sadness in his son’s face.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.