Read Online Catch the Lightning by Catherine Asaro - Free Book Online Page B

I pulled out a drawer and set it on the table, he sat in a chair next to me. Then he tilted his head toward where Martinelli was working behind the counter. “Why does this man distrust me?”
    “He thinks you’re one of Nug’s friends.” I sat at the table. “They come in here and bother him.”
    “Nug?”
    “Matt Kugelmann.” After a moment, I said, “He killed my cousin Manuel.”
    Althor stared at me. “I’m sorry.”
    Back then, every time I thought I was over Manuel’s death it turned out I was wrong. Enough years have passed now that I only remember the good he taught me. He had been as strict as a father: no swearing, no late nights, no alcohol, no cigarettes, no drugs, no running with anyone he didn’t like. Nor had he been much on talks about life. But I heard words in the way he treated me, words like respect and loyalty. That was before the crack silenced him. It was his way of dealing with my mother’s death, but it took him away from me too.
    “Tina?” Althor said.
    I swallowed. “It’s okay.”
    “You say this a lot. It’s okay you live in a building unfit for animals, it’s okay they murder your cousin. It’s not okay. You deserve better.”
    “I’m just trying to get by.”
    “Where are your parents?”
    “I do fine on my own.”
    “Tina—”
    “You’re lucky to have a father.” I said it too fast, needing to change the subject.
    Althor watched me for a moment, but he didn’t push. Instead he said, “My father and I spent half the time arguing. Ragnar understood me better.”
    “He’s the admiral who encouraged you to join the military when your father didn’t want you to?”
    “It was my choice.” He shrugged. “My father isn’t always rational about Ragnar.”
    “What does he do?”
    “Lose his temper.” Althor frowned. “Once, when I was a boy, Ragnar came to see me. He is my doctor, after all. My father, when he saw Ragnar talking to my mother, exploded. My father is most times a calm man. But with an old friend he becomes irrational.”
    I understand it now: apparently coveting thy neighbor’s wife isn’t unique to Earthbound humans. At the time, though, I said nothing. For all I knew, it could have been completely different from the way it sounded.
    Instead I said, “There’s something I have to ask you.”
    “Yes?”
    “Don’t soldiers kill people?”
    “Yes.”
    “Have you?”
    “Yes.”
    I shifted in my chair. “How many?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Is that because you were in your ship so you couldn’t see, or because you killed so many you lost count?”
    “Both.” When I stiffened, he spoke quiedy. “Tina, people die in wars.” He exhaled. “Our enemies executed one of my uncles, the man my parents named me for. Althor Valdoria was a military hero. My father’s brother. A part of me wanted to avenge him.”
    I thought of my cousin. “Revenge is no good. They kill, you kill, they kill, you kill. It never ends.”
    “If that had been my only reason for joining the military, I would have retired by now. I stay because it’s necessary to protect my people. I feel—” He stopped, as if searching for the right word. “Obligated.”
    In a way, he reminded me of Manuel. “I understand.”
    “But last night I felt so relaxed with you.” He took my hand. “At peace.”
    “With me? Why?”
    “I don’t know.” He smiled. “After all, you want to make me into a frog.”
    I laughed. “You’d make a handsome frog.” I glanced at the cards I had been flipping around while we talked. “These air force books are mostly in the same place. Why don’t you go look while I keep going through the cards?” I took a pencil and paper off the table and wrote down a few call numbers. “Just find those.”
    “Cards,” Althor grumbled. “Paper books. Walk to shelf.”
    I smiled. “You have a better idea?”
    “Go home. Relax. Have the web look up what you want and deliver a microspool. Plug spool into book. Choose font, graphics, and