Cloak Games: Thief Trap Read Online Free PDF Page A

correctly,” said Morvilind.
    I let out a long breath and stared at the image of the tablet. 
    “Is McCade a Rebel?” I said. 
    “Not to my knowledge,” said Morvilind. 
    That was not a reassuring answer. The High Queen might have ruled over Earth for three centuries, but not everyone was satisfied with her rule. The news didn’t report on it, but there were underground Rebel groups. Sometimes they were little more than disgruntled thugs. Sometimes they were well-armed terrorists. And sometimes they tapped into forbidden magic in an effort to overthrow the High Queen. I didn’t care about the Rebels or their stupid plans, but I had gotten caught in the crossfire between the Inquisition and the Rebels during a previous job, and I didn’t want to repeat the experience.
    “You have to tell me if he’s a Rebel,” I said. Morvilind gave me a cold look. “My lord. If he’s a Rebel, and the Inquisition comes for him and I get caught…”
    “There is no danger to me,” said Morvilind, raising the crystal vial. “I can kill you from a distance long before you reveal anything harmful to me.”
    Well. That was reassuring.
    “But if I’m captured or killed,” I said, “you’ll never get the tablet.” He made no reaction to that. “And you’d have to waste ten or fifteen years training my replacement.”
    Morvilind remained silent, but he tapped the crystal vial with a finger. I flinched, expecting him to send a wave of pain at me through the link of the heart’s blood, but nothing happened. He was playing with me, and likely enjoyed the reaction. I was furious at myself for the show of weakness, and I forced myself to remain motionless, to wait for his answer.
    “I do not believe that he is a Rebel,” said Morvilind at last. “He is too rich to be the poorer sort of Rebel, and not philosophical enough to be the richer kind of Rebel. Nevertheless, you have deduced at least part of the truth. McCade has an unhealthy interest in magic, especially for a man who was never part of the Wizards’ Legion. So he collects magical artifacts in secret. Most of his trinkets are useless, but the tablet…I want the tablet. So you are going to get it for me, and you shall obtain it for me within a month.”
    “A month?” I said. “It will be hard to pull a job like that off in a month.”
    “A month,” repeated Morvilind. “Do not disappoint me, Nadia Moran. It would be tragic if your brother succumbed at last to frostfever after so many years of treatment.”  
    “I can’t do it in a month,” I said. Morvilind gave the crystal vial a tap, but I kept talking. “McCade is a billionaire, and he’ll have the kind of security money like that can buy. I can get through it, but I need time to prepare. A couple of months, minimum.” 
    “As it happens, you shall soon have an excellent opportunity,” said Morvilind. “McCade will host a Conquest Day gala in honor of the Duke of Milwaukee, and Lord Tamirlas and his chief vassals shall graciously make an appearance.”
    “They’ll have their own security,” I said, dubious. “Maybe even a few Inquisitors.” Yet I saw the potential in the idea. Hundreds of guests would descend upon McCade’s mansion for the gala. Even if they brought their own bodyguards, that many guests would strain McCade’s security resources. It might be possible to walk off with the tablet during the gala.
    Maybe. Maybe not.
    “I see the wheels turning,” said Morvilind. “You shall come up with a plan, I have no doubt. The gala is in three weeks.”
    “Three weeks?” I said.
    “Conquest Day, at least in the United States, is on July 4th.”
    “I can’t do it that quickly.” 
    Morvilind stared at me, his pale, blue-tinged lips twitching into a smile. He was enjoying this, the bastard. “I believe one of your race’s own philosophers said that a hanging is a marvelous way of focusing the mind. Consider your brother, consider the death that awaits him from untreated frostfever,