The Curiosity Killers Read Online Free PDF Page A

then reverted back to the swirling windows. Vere took it from his hands.
    “That’s quite a bit of history summarized very quickly,” Wilbur said. “I can’t say I’m terribly shocked, given what I know of the first war, but it’s still an unfortunate turn of events.”
    “It wouldn’t have been so bad,” Alison said, “if it weren’t for what the Rénartians began doing later.”
    “Alison claims we could have lived in peace as two separate nations,” Vere said. “I couldn’t quite be bothered to care, except after they began sabotaging our universities and sending our technology backward to nearly Victorian-era antiquity.” He paused a moment. “I suppose that’s not quite antiquity where you’re from.”
    “I’ve done enough research and development to know how limited my resources of time, money, and scientific advancement were,” Wilbur said. “To stymie progress and intellect…oh, dear.” Wilbur leaned forward to prop his chin on one shaky palm. “Is there no preventing it? What if the seeds of this dangerous proclivity of theirs could be subverted long before they’re sown?”
    “You want to go back to your own time and prevent an ideological shift that won’t even really begin to get groundswell until about fifty years after your death?” Alison asked.
    “You say that, and yet I have to know…is that ever quite how things happen?” Wilbur asked. “The war waged about slavery…that system existed for a century before people realized it was clearly intolerable and mounted a war. When you talk about when the groundswell for these new movements began…hadn’t those ideas been swirling about long before that?”
    Alison considered the question. “You may have something there,” she allowed.
    “This is all very dangerous,” Vere said. “I find it difficult to imagine you could really make much difference.” He gave Wilbur a sad smile. “I was a soldier for a time before I went to college. The war, when it stopped being a cold one and actually went into the trenches, was terrible. I…” His voice trailed off. “Never you mind, son. You do what you’d like, ask what you like. We’ve already told you too much. What’s a little more?”
    Wilbur paced for a moment. “What about my family?” he asked. “Even if I’m on my last legs here, does my family survive me by much?”
    “Yes,” Alison replied, “but honestly, Mister Wright, do you think they’d believe you, let alone be willing to become activists all of a sudden? Activists for things you can’t even imagine at your point in history?”
    “You say they began sabotaging educational systems,” Wilbur said. “I think I could get them invested that way, at the very least.”

    Friday, June 6, 2070, Avon, Vermont, NBE
    The grounds were dark. Claudio and Ambrose both wore black, head to toe, but Ambrose refused the ski cap Claudio suggested. This wasn’t as much of a problem under the moonless sky, but once they entered the building it left Ambrose’s light hair uncovered and reflecting back the red emergency exit lights.
    “Idiot boy,” Claudio said while they prepared. He pulled on his own skip cap. “If you get us caught, I’ll do worse than fire you.”
    “It makes me all itchy-like,” Ambrose whined, scratching his greasy head. “I don’t like it. We’ll be right as rain, sir. In out, spit spot.” He’d unrolled the building’s blueprints on Claudio’s desk. “We put it in the doctor’s lab, we barely even need to be in there. Load-bearing walls here, here, and here,” he’d said, tapping various points on the drawing. “My maths are perfect.”
    “If you say so,” Claudio muttered.
    But it was almost too late—they were moving along at a good clip, and Ambrose was stopping in front of Edward Vere’s lab space before Claudio even expected. “This is it?” Claudio asked. He handed Ambrose the lock pick kit and crouched beside him.
    “Yeah, just gimme half a mo’…there.” The door