To Beat the Devil (The Technomancer Novels Book 1) by M. K. Gibson

Author:M. K. Gibson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Amber Cove Publishing
Published: 2016-03-23T06:00:00+00:00

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Exactly twenty minutes later, Grimm and I were in a cargo pod with our gear, rocketing back toward Razor Bay. The Magna-Rail provided a smooth and event-free undercover ride. I leaned against the wall of the pod and closed my eyes, zoning out.

I opened one eye and caught Grimm looking at me.

“Yeah?” I asked, acknowledging the look.

“Tell me about Winston,” he said.

I half shrugged. “Not much to tell. It was my life before this one.”

“Indulge me. Please.”

I lit a smoke and pulled a flask of a knockoff blue-label scotch Taylor had given me. I took a sip and let the burn ignite old memories. Funny how alcohol does that.

“When I was Winston, my life really wasn’t much different. I was still a lightrunner. I just had a different set of friends, except Ricky. Ricky was there since almost the beginning. But, like each of my lives, I eventually had to re-invent myself when it became obvious I wasn’t aging and they were. You had to have done the same thing,” I said.

“Yes, I have. Many times. But I asked you about Winston. Something occurred in your eyes, seeing RM. Tell me about that.”

“What’s your deal? Why do you always ask about my feelings about pointless bullshit?” I asked.

“Pointless?” Grimm asked. “I ask because those emotions are the essence of humanity. That ‘bullshit,’ as you say, reminds me of being a simple man again, while simultaneously reinforcing the lessons I have been trying to drive home in you.”

“Lessons?”

“You need to recall what it means to care. You need to care about humanity again, and you have been doing well. The people of Midheim were an excellent start.”

I was about to say something angry and hurtful. But his words hit something in me. I recalled my outburst on his torture rack. I remembered fighting alongside the people of Midheim. And of course, seeing RM, I’d felt a stirring deep inside. I was feeling again. And it angered and excited me. I had shut that part of me down for so long, I thought it gone.

I reflected for a moment, thinking back on my recent life. I had been content to just live day in and day out, bland and pointless. Like a bad marriage, where neither person will leave the other. Then this crazy son of a bitch came into my life.

“RM,” I began, “was a kid when we first met, but he doesn’t recall that. And I’m not ready to go into that story. Not yet. Let’s just start when we met again later when he was a man. He was a guy I would bribe at first. After a while, we struck up a friendship. He thought he was older than I was, and I allowed him to keep on thinking that. In time, he became, I dunno, something more. He was always looking out for me, and it meant something.”

“His sister?” Grimm asked.

“Cara. God, she was beautiful. She was always flirting with me, and I vowed to never allow it to happen.

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