Technomancer Read Online Free PDF

she said, “OK.”
    “What’s your name?”
    “Wildfire.”
    “No, not your stage name.”
    She flashed me a resigned look. “Holly,” she said.
    I thought about the note I’d seen on the dead flower when I’d first awakened. It had been signed Holly, and I didn’t believe in coincidences. I did, however, believe in playing my cards carefully, so I smiled at her reassuringly.
    I walked into the gloomy interior and waited. After about seven seconds, I finally heard her clacking heels. She followed me into the place and let the door groan and click behind her. I approved. It seemed she didn’t want anyone discovering us inside either.
    “Where are the light switches?” I asked.
    “I’ll just open some of the blinds,” she said quickly.
    “OK.”
    I watched as she walked deftly around the tables, each of which was circled by a huddle of pushed-in chairs. I could tell she knew the layout of the place well, which made her story about having worked here more believable. She twisted the blinds open a crack here and there. There was just enough light to see our surroundings. The sunbeams glowed with golden motes of floating dust. Clearly, she didn’t want anyone seeing us inside. I realized then that she didn’t have any more right to be in here than I did.
    I wandered around behind the bar until I found a door marked OFFICE in tiny gold letters. I tried the handle. This one was locked too. I produced the jingling set of keys again and rattled them one after another in the lock.
    Suddenly, Holly was right there, very close behind me. I could feel her body heat and her breath on my shoulder. I glanced back, mildly amused.
    “You really want that check, don’t you?”
    “Hard to pay the rent without it.”
    Our eyes met, and I could see right away she had some bad habits. She had more to pay for than rent. I turned back to the lock and worked it harder. The key seemed stuck.
    “Let me try,” she said.
    “I think I’ve got it,” I said, but another thirty seconds of jiggling proved I didn’t. I hit the door with the heel of my hand. It felt quite solid.
    “Try the sunglasses,” she said in a quiet voice, almost a whisper.
    I stared at her. “What?”
    “Put them on. Tony always did when he came back here.”
    I snorted, but thought what the hell and put them on. I jiggled the knob one more time. The door popped open at long last.
    I took off the glasses and frowned at them. There was no way they could have helped me open the door. All they did, as far as I could see, was make the gloomy bar two shades darker. I looked at her.
    “Are you trying to tell me that these sunglasses…?”
    Holly shook her head. “I’m not trying to tell you anything, Mr. Draith.”
    She pushed past me into the office before I could ask her how she knew my name. She had never asked me what it was. I noticed her attitude had changed. She seemed much more confident in my presence now. Perhaps she’d measured me and marked me down as harmless.
    I followed her into the office. The interior was acrid with stale cigar smoke. A full ashtray sat on the desktop, brimming with ashes and thick cigar stubs. The ashtray was smooth, thick glass shaped like a clamshell. The glass had a faintly green color to it, and I figured it was a refugee from the last century, when ashtrays decorated everyone’s coffee table.
    We both took a look around. I found papers, receipts, bills. No checks or cash. Nothing of any real interest.
    “The safe is down here,” Holly said, kicking away a dirty scrap of carpet with a rubber backing.
    A round metal door with a recessed combination dial was planted in the floor. The floor felt very flat even if you stepped on the dial.
    Holly sucked in her lips, and looked at me. She made a brief, hurry-up gesture in my direction.
    “What?” I asked. “I don’t know the combination.”
    She rolled her eyes and put out her hand.
    “What?” I asked again, feeling as if everyone at the party was in on some