Free The Bloodless by Andrew Gibson Page B

recognize her at first because she had completely changed her appearance from when he first met her. Back then she had long red hair, today her hair was short and blonde. But up close she still had that hardened look about her, like the kind of person who had to take care of herself from a very early age.
    “Abby it is then,” he said with a grin. “Hopefully you can tell me a bit more about this gun than your pusher can.”
    She laughed, “Sorry about that. We don’t get too many science types at these things, mostly people who just want to know how efficiently our weapons can blow shit up.” She then went into a somewhat long and very detailed explanation of all the specs the gun touted. It turned out that she was actually the one who designed it from top to bottom. She even built the base model the new prototypes were constructed after. “It’s good to see you,” Crist said after she was done.
    “Oh yeah?” Justice said taken aback. That was not something he would expect to hear from her.
    “Of course, that was a horrific accident. I haven’t seen you since then but I had heard you lived, which I was happy to hear,” Crist said with a smile.
    “You and me both,” he joked and to his relief she laughed. It wasn’t often he found someone who got his sense of humor. There was a bit of an awkward silence before Justice spoke again, “I hear you’re giving a lecture later.”
    “Yes,” Crist responded, still smiling, “actually in about an hour from now.”
    “Oh ok. What about?”
    “Weapons,” she said, her tone inferring the word “duh.” She then added, “Weapons and their role in the preservation of global peace,” in a very proper and formal voice.
    “Wow,” he said, his face flushed, “hot topic.”
    “Yeah, well, it was written for Vladimir but he wasn’t able to make it here.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah, one of the biggest weapons conventions of the year and he has other plans. And,” she continued, trying hard to keep her tone light and playful, though her eyes gave her away, “the unveiling of our most anticipated weapon in the last decade and a half.”
    “Dang.”
    Crist laughed, “Oh who am I kidding. He was actually summoned by Stanislavski. Whaddya think they’re gonna talk about?”
    “Weapons,” Justice said sarcastically.
    “Weapons,” she echoed, not sarcastically. “Guess what, though? We’re not the only ones in possession of laser based weapons.” Crist looked down at her watch, “Shit. Sorry, I gotta cut this short. It was nice seeing you,” she said, and she shook his hand again, this time holding it a little longer than necessary. “Take care of yourself, Mr. Justice,” she smiled and before he could say anything, she walked away.
    Justice couldn’t quite explain the feeling he felt as she walked away. He was definitely taken with her and he had a sinking suspicion that she might be interested in him, on some level. It was a crazy thought, though, he knew that. Plus he didn’t really feel like it would be in his best interest to pursue the wife of the largest arms dealer on the planet. There was just something about her that he just found attractive; maybe it was her intelligence or maybe it was her dedication to her craft, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
    He lingered for a little bit admiring the laser gun and thought about the last snippet of information that Crist had divulged to him. Whether she did it on purpose or not, he wasn’t sure, but it was interesting to know they weren’t the only ones in the laser weapon market. It just struck him as so odd that there were people out there who were contracted to make a device that’s sole purpose was to destroy. He only could assume that his purpose was to balance out all the death and destruction.
    There had to be some semblance of balance in the universe, right? He had to pose the question to himself because if it was just destruction for the sake of chaos, Justice wasn’t sure he’d be