Heart of Steam & Rust (Empires of Steam and Rust) Read Online Free PDF

threatening to overwhelm her own emotions and plunge her into the darkness of his soul.
    “Why have you told me all this?” she asked, her mouth dry.
    “Because I wanted you to know , Ivanova ... The Empress and I wanted you to know how much we value you—and how much trouble we’ve gone through to get you back.”
    She nodded, locking the doors of her mind, forcing him out. “I understand.”
    “What we have done for you is unprecedented, my dear. Only a fool would expect such efforts to be made on her behalf twice.” He grinned a wicked grin. “If I were you, I would find the traitor, before you get killed again.”
    She gritted her teeth and managed to say, “I will.”
     
     
    FOUR
     
    Lina had no idea where to start. Her guts remained knotted all the way out of the Fifth Section offices and stayed unsettled even as she hopped into the back of her Orlovich sedan. Only the sight of Pyotr brought any relief from her tension: faithful, unflinching Pyotr. His happiness at seeing her suffused Lina like a warm embrace. He was her rock in this sea of mysticism and madness.
    Even so, she could not let him suspect the truth.
    He slid into the driver’s seat and then swiveled around to look at her. “Did they have any leads for you?” he asked, his blue eyes beaming, hopeful.
    “I … don’t know. That’s not what they wanted to see me about.”
    “What, then?”
    “Security issues.” She twisted a bit at the lie. “Matters beyond your clearance. I can’t discuss it with you. I’m sorry.”
    Pyotr felt as though he’d been slapped. He turned back to the front of the car and straightened his hat, pulling it snug on his forehead, refocusing on his job—not her. Anything but her.
    Lina felt strangely disappointed at his change in focus, but then chided herself. Those were his emotions she was feeling. Heightened empathy was a hazard of her powers, a problem she’d learned to control long ago. Why was she having difficulty with it now?
    “Where to, Captain?” Pyotr asked.
    “I don’t know.” The trouble had to be this world, her crossing over, being drawn by whatever ritual Rasputin had performed. And had this doctor, Freund, really had so little to do with her “resurrection?” Rasputin had dismissed the idea, tried to bury it under his own bravado. But even as he downplayed the notion, she sensed the unease within his dark mind. “Just drive.”
    Obediently, Pyotr pulled away from the curb and headed into Moscow.
    “They’ve prepared new rooms for you at Section Headquarters,” he suggested, “in a very secure location.”
    “The complex I first woke up in?”
    “Yes.”
    “No, thanks. I’ve seen the insides of quite enough institutions for now.”
    “I understand,” he said, warming again. “Your recovery took a long time.”
    “I almost feel like I woke up in a different world.” A naughty bit of irony, but she couldn’t resist. She’d been around Pyotr enough now to believe that he wouldn’t notice.
    “Yes,” her aide replied. “It was like a different world with you gone, too. So, if not to the Section’s secure complex … then where?”
    “I need to find the man who killed me—”
    “Who tried to kill you, you mean.”
    A foolish slip. She shouldn’t have made the joke earlier; any lapse in concentration…! “Yes, of course. He came very close, you know.”
    “I know.”
    She felt a twinge of his guilt; clearly he held himself responsible for what had happened. Was there a reason he should have , though?
    She tried to probe deeper, but the concern on the surface of Pyotr’s mind overwhelmed everything else, keeping her at bay.
    She gazed out the window, watching Moscow—alien, primitive Moscow—as it passed. “The person who tried before may try again. Almost certainly, he—or she—was responsible for the rocket attack on my apartments.”
    “It’s only logical,” he agreed. He sighed. “Too bad about Anna.”
    “Yes. Too bad. She was a loyal