Free The Wind After Time: Book One of the Shadow Warrior Trilogy by Chris Bunch Page A

don’t know how. Maybe he thought it would lead him directly; maybe he thought whoever he bought the stone from could help him. He was never that specific. Now he wants to hire you for the search.”
    Joshua rolled brandy around his mouth, concentrating on the burn, letting the words find their own meaning. He took a second swallow.
    “Very well,” he said. “You were honest with me, and I’ll return the trade. I’ve never heard of this ultimate Lumina, not even when I was a boy and was among them. I don’t see how such a thing could even exist. If it did, it would have been at least hinted at in their ceremonies.”
    “You could be right,” Ariadne said indifferently. She touched the menu for another sherry. “It doesn’t really matter to me.”
    “All right,” Joshua said. “So what do
you
want me to do about your husband?”
    “You can take the commission if you wish,” Lady Penruddock said. “All I ask is you keep Malcolm from making an utter fool of himself — or getting hurt.
    “I can guess you have your own agenda with this Lumina stone and don’t know what it is or care.
    “All I’m concerned about is Malcolm. Do what I want, and I’ll be a friend. A very good friend. Otherwise … well, my family may be in disgrace, but we still have enough power to make life exceedingly miserable for you even if you are some kind of war hero, even out into the Outlaw Worlds.”
    She drank most of her drink. “As for that other thing I spoke of, whatever might happen between you and me … that can wait until another time.”
    She dipped a finger into the dregs of the sherry, touched it to Joshua’s lips, got up, and walked out of the bar, not looking back.
    Joshua sat very still for a time. He picked up his snifter, was about to drink, then put the glass down, signed the tab with a fingerprint, and went out of the hotel into the dusk.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    “Twenny-five credits for straight, thirty-five for a suckoff, fifty for roun’ th’ worl’, an’ for a hunnerd you can have me
an’
Irina,” the woman said, trying to sound as if it mattered which was chosen. Her partner smiled in Wolfe’s general vicinity, then turned as a lifter approached and saluted it with her chest. She looked disappointed when the driver didn’t slow down.
    “Suppose I’m interested in something else,” Joshua said.
    “Like what? I don’t do pain or shit … but I can send you to somebody who does.” The woman leaned back against the wall of the bar. “Shoulda known you weren’t th’ kind who wants somethin’ normal. Guys who look like you never do.”
    “Not that, either,” Wolfe said. “I think you might be needing a new fancy man.”
    “Not a chance. Keos takes real good care a me an’ Irina an’ the other girls.”
    “I didn’t say I was asking.”
    “Get on your scooter, bud. Or you’re gonna get hurt.”
    Joshua didn’t move. The woman’s hand dove in her purse and came out with a silent alarm. “You’re lookin’ for trouble, you’re ‘bout to get on kissin’ terms with it.”
    The other woman came closer, her eyes wide. She licked her lips in anticipation.
    A man came out of the bar, hand inside his vest. He was big and walked with a limp, and the surgeon who’d rebuilt the side of his face hadn’t done a very good job.
    “What is it, Maria?”
    “Him,” the first woman said. “He wants t’ be our new mack.”
    “Shit!” the man spit, and came in on Joshua, hand coming out of the vest with a sap. Joshua stepped into him, and two fingers rapped sharply on the man’s forehead as Wolfe struck the pimp’s forearm with the side of his blocking hand.
    The blackjack hit the filthy pavement before the man did.
    The two whores looked scared. Joshua kept one eye on them while he knelt and rifled through the man’s pockets. He found a knife, a wad of cash, a vial containing a brownish powder, and a flat blaster in an ankle holster. He threw the vial and knife into the street and tossed the