Free Unbound by Jim C. Hines Page A

Before, I had always had a salary from the Porters to fall back on. A grant through one of their dummy companies had funded my position here, guaranteeing my job security. Now that grant was gone, along with the bulk of my income. If I lost this job, I was well and truly screwed.
    She hesitated only a few seconds, but they stretched out like hours. “I’m willing to keep you on, but I’m cutting you back to part time. Twenty hours a week.” She held up a hand before I could speak. “Show me you want this job, and we’ll revisit things in three months.”
    Part time meant reduced income and no benefits. Health insurance hadn’t been a concern when I could pull Lucy’s healing cordial out of
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
to fix anything from a cold to a severed limb, but without magic or insurance, a simple broken bone could bankrupt me.
    “Or I can let you go altogether,” Jennifer added.
    “No.” I hated myself for how quickly I answered. For the desperation, and for
needing
this job. I should be out in the world reading and discovering the true power of books, not reshelving and recycling them. Music echoed in my thoughts, the siren’s song weighing me down with yearning and despair. I had to grip the doorframe to keep from falling.
    “Go home,” Jennifer said wearily. “Take care of your house. I’ll talk to you about scheduling tomorrow.”
    “Thanks.” I grabbed Smudge’s cage on the way out. He scooted into a corner, crouched in the gravel that lined the bottom, and watched Mahefa closely.
    Alex called after me to ask where I was going, but I couldn’t bring myself to explain. Let Jennifer fill him in.
    Once we were outside, Mahefa reached into his inside jacket and produced a circuit board encased in clear plastic, about the size of a business card. A tangle of ribbon cables emerged from one end. “I got this from a libriomancer in Mozambique,” he said. “It should be able to hack just about any electronic lock.”
    I didn’t like where this was going. “It sounds like you have a particular lock in mind.”
    “I do.” He squinted up at the clouds. “And it should be passing over the Midwest later today.”
    Bookstore Owner Hospitalized After Attack
    ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN—Clarissa Andress, owner of Drumming Goddess New Age Bookstore, was hospitalized yesterday following the alleged firebombing of her store.
    Flames broke out near the front of the bookstore at approximately 6:15 PM . Andress was quick to usher customers out of the building, but went back inside to attempt to find the store cat. Andress apparently collapsed from smoke inhalation. Firefighters pulled her from the building and administered oxygen. She regained consciousness at the hospital, and is expected to make a full recovery.
    “Never go back into a burning building,” said Edward Hubbard of the Ann Arbor Fire Department. “Get outside and leave the window or door open behind you so your pets have an escape route. They’ll find their own way out. Call to them, and let the firefighters know your pets are still inside, but don’t go in after them. People don’t realize how quickly smoke can overcome you, or the flames can spread and trap you.”
    Witnesses claim to have seen two youths fleeing the scene immediately after the fire began. The police have no suspects in custody, but say they are following up on several leads, including a number of threatening letters delivered to the store in recent days.
    “There have always been people who see ‘New Age’ and immediately think of witches and incense and weed, but it’s gettingworse,” said Annette Botke, a University of Michigan sophomore and employee at Drumming Goddess. “Our sidewalk sign was vandalized twice last week. One commenter on our Web site said people like us should be burned at the stake.”
    The fire department was unable to save the twenty-year-old store. The area is cordoned off for safety, and the site will be bulldozed later this week. The