city of dragons 02 - fire storm Read Online Free PDF

presentation, and the captain had stuff he wanted to project on the screen.”
    “Like a Powerpoint?” I asid.
    “Yeah, I guess. Anyway, the projector wouldn’t hook up to the captain’s laptop, and this guy was completely useless. He couldn’t fix it. I had to point out that some laptops have a little button you hit that allows you to toggle between screens, and he had never heard of such a thing.”
    “So, you fixed it?” I said.
    “Well, no, that didn’t work,” said Lachlan. “But that’s not the point. The point is that I asked him if he could get past the password protection and he acted like I was asking him to slam a revolving door. So, I figured we could just work on it together, you and me. We’d have better luck than this guy.”
    “I could look at it,” said a voice.
    It was Connor coming into the lobby. He wasn’t working that night, which meant that he was barely dressed. He had on a pair of jeans, which were covered in rips and holes. No shirt. He looked Lachlan over. “Hello, there, Detective,” he said in a sultry voice.
    Lachlan raised his eyebrows. “Is your gargoyle ever going to stop hitting on me?”
    “That is just how I say hello,” said Connor, sounding offended.
    I pressed my lips together, trying not to laugh.
    “Besides,” said Connor. “I’m not Penny’s gargoyle. Gargoyles don’t belong to people. Not anymore.”
    Lachlan winced. “I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t mean it to sound—”
    “Whatever.” Connor picked up the laptop. “You want me to look at this or not?”
    Gargoyles were a magic race created by mages hundreds of years ago. Mages had kept them as slaves to protect themselves from dragons, and gargoyles had only been officially freed from that servitude for less than a hundred years. It was a fresh wound.
    “I really am sorry,” Lachlan said again.
    Connor shrugged. He opened the laptop.
    “I didn’t know you did stuff with computers,” I said to Connor.
    “I don’t,” said Connor. “I mean, not really, anyway, but whenever my own computer breaks, I just use yours to Google the problem and someone else out there knows how to fix it and has left detailed instructions. So, I’m pretty sure it won’t be hard to get the computer to open in admin mode or something. I’ll try stuff.”
    Lachlan shrugged. “Can’t hurt, I guess.”
    “Cool,” said Connor, and disappeared back out of the room with the laptop.
    Lachlan eyed the empty front desk. “Connor’s not working?”
    “No, it’s Becky tonight, and she’s late,” I said. “I’m just covering for her until she shows—”
    The front door swung open, and Becky bounced inside. “Ms. Caspian, I’m so sorry, but the traffic out there is horrendous, and I swear I hit every red light on Atlantic Avenue.”
    I nodded gravely. “I know exactly what you’re talking about.”
    She sighed. “I’ll leave earlier from now on.” She slid behind the front desk, smiling at Lachlan.
    Lachlan ignored her.
    Becky looked a little miffed but shrugged and signed into the computer at the desk.
    “Come on,” I said to Lachlan. “Let’s go upstairs.”
    “To, um, your apartment?” he said.
    “Yes,” I said. “It’s not as if you haven’t been up there before.”
    “Right,” he said. “It’s only that I came over for work, and if we’re going up there—”
    “We’ll talk about the case up there,” I said.
    He hesitated. Then he nodded. “Sure, fine.”
    Once upstairs in my living room, I offered Lachlan something to drink, but he declined. I poured myself a tall glass of wine anyway. I’d had a hell of a day.
    He sat down on my couch.
    I settled down in an easy chair opposite him. “So, you really think that the brother is a viable suspect?”
    “That’s a lot of wine,” he said.
    “Oh, God, after the day I’ve had…” I shook my head and took a drink. Ah. Bliss.
    “What happened?”
    I debated lying to him about it. After all, the last time I had burned a