Hammer of Time (The Reforged Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page B

someone else's petty crimes. "Yeah, sure. Just let me get my stuff–"
    "No," Logan interrupted. "You haven't done anything wrong, Gripper. You don't have to go anywhere."
    The Lyran did not actually snarl, but his furry chops peeled back from curved white fangs. The Lyra were not prey animals and never had been. The manager's brown eyes went to Logan's cybernetic left hand and narrowed.
    "Look, you mutts," he growled low in his throat, "I want you out of my shop right now. You haven't even ordered, so just leave without a fuss."
    "Come on, Freezer," Gripper said. "Let's just go."
    Logan pulled out his wallet and threw one of his few remaining red hundred cenmark chips down on the tabletop. "Bring us something to eat. No meat for Gripper."
    "Sir, I–" But the Lyran did not finish his objection. He scooped up the money and hurried away.
    Gripper exhaled loudly as the manager left. "That was a lot of money," he said. "I… I could have just gone, you know."
    Logan shrugged. "Why? He was being a xenophobic idiot. What did you find?"
    "I'm not really sure." Gripper handed over the datadex.
    The light on the bottom had gone from green to blue, indicating that the memory was full. "There's been loads of news over the past few weeks and I couldn't even narrow it down by planet."
    Logan nodded and began thumbing through news stories. Unrest and rebellions on Arrideen when the CWA withdrew some funding, a mine collapsed on high-gravity Orin and another police raid on the Sipho underground that left seven dead. People died every day throughout the Alliance. Three weeks ago, there had been an outbreak of rughalla on Andris Gia. Twenty-nine dead. A high-speed NI train derailed on Varnum. Eighty-three dead.
    The shop's Lyran manager returned with a pair of large sandwiches and two tall glasses of lemonade. Gripper finished his food in three huge mouthfuls and gulped down the lemonade in a single swallow. Logan pushed his glass across the table and Gripper drank it gratefully. The Lyran store manager hastily brought more.
    Mir's thick heat was heavy in Logan's lungs and sweat dripped in crooked, itching tracks down the back of his neck. He kept reading. An industrial accident on Vii. Fifty-nine dead, more than three hundred injured. Seventeen crates of experimental fuel rods stolen from the nearby planet of Vii-Xa, where Starwind Enterprises kept and shipped most of their products.
    Logan scanned the Vii-Xa story again and frowned. "Why did you include this one?" he asked, turning the datadex to face Gripper. "No one died or was even injured."
    "Oh." Gripper looked embarrassed and Logan had to wait a moment for him to go on. "Well, I thought the Devourers might… you know… need stuff. They don't just eat people, right?"
    That was true. Logan wolfed down a few bites of sandwich and returned his attention to the news. Gripper's idea was a good one. Whatever Xartasia and her Devourers had planned, they probably needed equipment or supplies. It was not much of a lead and actually expanded their search instead of restricting it, but Logan was determined not to fail Maeve again.
    An unknown attack on one of Harukin's deep-space observatories. Logan scanned the headline again and brought up the story. Four weeks ago, the Sanford-Belson Observation Platform had gone silent. When authorities went to investigate, they found only a few pieces of debris. Of the rest of the satellite and the two hundred personnel, there was no sign.
    Logan read the story again. It contained very few details, but there was a list of related stories at the bottom. Seven of them. Logan had Gripper pull all of them down from the mainstream. All seven were about missing space stations or starships in deep space. There had been no visible attacks, only sudden and absolute silence from their staff. In each case, there were few – if any – remains left behind to investigate.
    "Sounds like the Devourers' style," Gripper said. "No leftovers. Do you think it's