The Milkweed Triptych 01 - Bitter Seeds Read Online Free PDF

“Excellent work,” said the doctor, reaching up to clasp Reinhardt’s shoulder. “Today, I feel pride.”
    Reinhardt smiled, his eyes glistening. Klaus and Rudolf saluted as Von Westarp brushed past. “Herr Doktor!”
    The doctor glanced at them through his fish-eye glasses. It felt like being stuck under a microscope. He spared nothing but a sniff of disdainfor them as he entered the laboratory. Klaus glimpsed one of the Twins strapped to a table as the doctor slammed the door behind him.
    Klaus and Rudolf shared a look. Klaus shrugged.
    Rudolf turned toward Reinhardt. “Where the hell have you been the past few days?”
    “Serving the Reich. Carrying out my orders.”
    Rudolf stared.
    “I don’t believe you,” said Klaus.
    “Ask your sister.”
    The whine of a drill erupted from the makeshift laboratory. Simultaneously, a long, low moan emanated from a different room across the corridor. The moans became screams as the stink of hot bone wafted from the lab.
    The trio moved farther down the corridor in order to better hear each other.
    Rudolf shook his head. “Your mouth is full of shit. What orders?”
    Reinhardt shrugged nonchalantly, but his eyes still glistened with pride. “I was sent to plug a leak. The defector is no longer a problem.”
    “You? They sent
you
?” Rudolf tossed his hands in the air. “This is insanity. You have as much finesse as an incendiary bomb.”
    Reinhardt’s mission meant he was the first of von Westarp’s projects to be deemed complete, fully mature. Klaus had expected to garner that honor for himself. While he considered the consequences of Reinhardt’s
de facto
promotion, Heike sidled up the corridor, eyes on the floor and silent like a visible ghost.
    Reinhardt spread his arms. “Darling!”
    Klaus heard the intake of breath when Heike looked up. She blinked eyes of Prussian blue, then dropped her head again, hiding her face behind long corn silk tresses.
    “No welcome-back kiss?”
    She tried to pass. Reinhardt blocked her. “I think you missed me. Worried about me.” His fingers brushed the curve of her ear as he tucked back a lock of her hair. Heike shuddered.
    “Do you get cold at night?” he whispered in her ear. “I can fix that.”
    She looked up. Reinhardt leaned closer. She spat. His head snapped back.
    Klaus snorted with laughter. Heike slipped around Reinhardt and hurried toward the debriefing room.
    “You’d do well to show me a little kindness now and then, Liebling!” he shouted, flicking away the spittle under his eye.
    Rudolf shook his head again. “I cannot believe they chose
you.
”
    Since Heike had claimed the debriefing room, and since von Westarp and the technicians were preoccupied in the laboratory, Klaus would have to wait to turn in his battery. He went upstairs to find his sister.
    Gretel hadn’t moved since that morning, when she’d dragged a table under the picture window along the colonnaded verandah. The window afforded a view of olive groves, the Ter and Onyar rivers off in the distance, and plumes of smoke rising from the valley below. Although if she had chosen the window for the scenery, it didn’t show. Her attention to the book propped on her lap was absolute. Just as it had been when Klaus departed that morning.
    She sat with bare feet propped on the edge of another chair, wiggling her toes, the hem of a patchwork peasant dress draped across her bony ankles. A long braid of raven-black hair hung past each shoulder. Wires snaked down from her skull, twirled around her braids, and disappeared in the folds of her dress where the fabric occluded the bulge of a harness. The window silhouetted the profile of her face, the high cheekbones and hatchet nose. Within arm’s reach on the table stood a stack of books, teapot, cup, and saucer.
    “I’m back,” he said. “Did you have a good day?”
    Gretel turned a page. She didn’t say anything.
    “How are you feeling?”
    Her teacup clinked on its saucer as a massive artillery