Edge of Dreams Read Online Free PDF

watched her go, brows raised, her mouth hanging open. She looked at me. “I don’t get to order?”
    I laughed. “She doesn’t usually do that to first timers, but once you’ve been in a few times, you start to realize that it doesn’t matter what you order, she brings you what she thinks you ought to have. Sometimes it’s even what you want. I warn you, though, if you refuse to eat it, you’ll regret it when you come back. If she lets you come back.”
    I have to admit, I have always loved the bacon bleu burger, and with the sautéed onions, it was possibly the most perfect food on the planet. I started to eat, prodding Lauren to tell me about the other missing kids.
    “There are three other boys and a girl,” she said. “I can’t tell you much about them. Once I realized that Trevor had come into extra money, I figured he was up to no good. He didn’t have a real job.
    “We had a come-to-Jesus meeting. He wouldn’t tell me what he was up to, but for a few weeks, it seemed to work. The next thing I know, he’s back being gone all the time and I found bundles of cash under his mattress. I’ve been working long hours. I thought maybe I could catch the people he was working for, so I started following him and his friends whenever I could. Most of the time I lost them. Sometimes they’d take a bus or the subway or their bikes. Few times I did manage to follow, they’d pick up a package in one part of town and drop it off somewhere else. Wasn’t hard to figure out they were messengers. Just a couple days ago I realized they were hooked in with some of the people I’d been investigating for manufacturing and selling Sparkle Dust. I didn’t even get a chance to warn Trevor before he disappeared.”
    She leveled a tortured look at me. “I’m a cop. I ought to be able to protect my own. I shouldn’t have to come to a civilian for help.”
    “You can’t keep people from doing what they want to do,” I said. “Teenagers especially. Don’t worry. We’ll find him.” The question of what shape he’d be in when we did, I left hanging. For now, he was alive.
    Patti brought out a deep dish of something covered in melted cheese for Lauren, along with a glass of milk. She set it down and walked away.
    “What do you suppose it is?” Lauren asked, looking wide-eyed at her meal.
    “Tasty,” I said. My hamburger was gone, but I was still chewing away at the fries.
    She picked up her fork and dug in. White sauce bubbled up. With a look of trepidation, she took a bite, and then her eyes widened again and she swallowed. “Oh my! That is good.”
    After that, she ate rapidly. I fell silent. With any luck, the five kids had gotten terribly lost inside the mountain and were nowhere near a Tyet drug enterprise. Nobody knew exactly what sorts of minerals made the stuff, only that they were unique to the Diamond City caldera. That meant a monopoly on that particular drug trade, and it also made it incredibly expensive for buyers. That’s why I couldn’t figure out what the surgeon was doing looking for it in the Bottoms. He’d have been better off looking somewhere in Uptown among the über-wealthy.
    Diamond City is built on the inside of an ancient volcanic caldera in the Rocky Mountains near Gunnison, Colorado. The caldera spans over a hundred miles in diameter, with the biggest diamond mines on the west side. The bulk of the city clings to several ledges along the eastern side. The highest and most expensive is Uptown, then a step down is Midtown, then Downtown, where most of the businesses are, with the dregs trying to survive in the Bottoms. There was no reason on the planet that anybody would be selling Sparkle Dust in the Bottoms. It simply made no sense.
    “You said you’ve been looking into the Sparkle Dust trade?” I asked, twisting my coffee cup on the table. Maybe she had an idea of how the Bottoms might figure in. Sirens wailed faintly outside. Tough day to have to call an ambulance. I hoped whoever