The Guild Conspiracy Read Online Free PDF

her access to the workshops, she now had the mech fights. It was a small thing, a small victory, but it was enough.
    Rupert joined her at the window, hands in his pockets. He leaned his back against the railing and nudged her lightly. “Nicely done.”
    She laughed, her chest tight with the thrill of the last hour. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into that.”
    â€œYou needed less persuading than I thought.”
    â€œIs that why you brought me here?” she asked.
    â€œWhy else?”
    She suppressed a smile and gazed out into the brilliant night sky. “You know me too well.”
    They stood in silence for a time.
    â€œDo you think I can do it?” she asked. “Do you think I could win?”
    He faced the window next to her, settling against the railing with his shoulder touching hers. She found comfort in that solid presence. “Of course I do,” he said companionably. “Once you face them in the ring, no one will doubt what you can do anymore. You belong here, Petra. This is your chance to prove it.”
    â€œSupposing I can actually build a mech in time,” she said, reality starting to sink in. “In case it escaped your notice, I don’t have one, and with only a month to build one, I’d need—­”
    â€œBut you do have one.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou do have a mech.”
    Petra frowned. “I do?”
    Rupert nodded, a mischievous smile on his lips. “Come on,” he said, pushing away from the railing. “I’ll show you.”
    H e led her to the lower levels of the University and keyed into the storage rooms near the Guild workshops. Each room was filled wall to wall with crates of tools and machine parts, the surplus stored in the wide hallway. Rupert dragged her to the end of the overcrowded corridor and slid open a panel in the back wall, revealing a cavernous dumbwaiter chute, at least six feet deep and equally wide.
    â€œWhat’s this?” she asked, peering down the dark shaft.
    â€œOur ride.”
    Rupert grabbed a lever inside the open panel and pressed it forward. A whir of gear trains and pulley cords hummed behind the walls, and the dumbwaiter platform descended rapidly, the gear boxes clicking and grating as it came to a screeching halt.
    â€œFound it my first semester,” he explained. “Goes up to the sixth floor and down to the third level of the subcity. There’s a network of them in the walls; it’s how the engineers move equipment from floor to floor.”
    Petra leaned into the chute and peered up the long passageway, the walls lined with guiderails and cables. “I had no idea.”
    Rupert climbed expertly onto the platform and held out his hand to help her onto the lift. “There’s a room at the bottom,” he went on. “An old subcity office, looks like it’s been abandoned. The door’s blocked by some old machinery, cutting it off from the rest of the subcity, so no chance of any engineers stumbling in on you while you’re working, and no one topside has reason to visit an empty office.” Once she seated herself across from him, he grabbed the lever and pushed it downward. The drive motors hummed, and he grinned. “Perfect place to build a mech.”
    The lift sank into darkness, the inner walls of the chute rising up and away. Petra hugged her knees to her chest, nothing else to hold on to as the dumbwaiter descended. The heavy thrum of the subcity grew louder, enveloping her in its familiar pulse. Finally, the platform slowed with a piercing screech and jolted to a halt, throwing Petra into the wall. She cracked her head against the metal guiderails.
    She winced, rubbing the sharp sting at her crown. “Ouch.”
    â€œAh, sorry,” said Rupert. “Should have warned you.”
    There was a crack and a snap, and the dumbwaiter panel swung outward, letting a flood of warm light into the chute. The room beyond