Read Online Hard Light by Elizabeth Hand - Free Book Online Page B

New York.” He looked at me. “I assume the F stands for fucked. Because you are.”
    His fingers dug into my windpipe, his frozen gaze never wavering from mine.
    â€œHow’d you get in?” His hand dropped from my throat. “Who sent you here? Gligor?”
    â€œAdrian invited me,” I gasped. “I only got here yesterday—check the passport. I was looking for speed.”
    I hate resorting to the truth, but sometimes it’s the only way.
    Mallo scowled. He checked the Swedish passport again, held it beside my driver’s license, comparing the photos, and set the passport on the sink counter. He dropped the wallet back into the satchel and rifled through my few items of clothing until he found my camera. He examined it carefully, popping the lens cap and scrutinizing the shutter release, exposure settings, viewfinder.
    â€œThis a digital camera?”
    â€œNo. DSLR. I shoot on film. Black and white.”
    He opened the back of the camera, exposing the film, and I groaned.
    â€œMy Tri-X.” I tried to keep my voice steady. “That’s nearly all that’s left.”
    â€œYeah?” He yanked out the ribbon of film and tossed it on the floor. “Now there’s none. Where’s your mobile?”
    I fought the urge to grab the camera and smash it in his face. “I don’t have one.”
    Mallo looked at me in disbelief. “You don’t have a smartphone? iPhone, anything like that?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œYou’re telling me you’re a photographer and you don’t own a phone or digital camera?”
    I nodded. His brow furrowed. After a few moments, he replaced the lens cap, closed the back of the camera, and tossed it into my bag on the floor. Then he pulled out a mobile, picked up the Swedish passport, and handed it to me.
    â€œHold that next to your face—open it, so I can see her photo. Dagney whoever the fuck she is.”
    I did as he ordered. Novae burst as the flash went off and bounced across the mirrors behind me. Mallo cursed and took another picture, this time without the flash. He eyeballed the photo on the mobile’s screen, looked at me, and shook his head.
    â€œYou must be fucking out of your mind,” he said. “Only a fucking idiot would come here and break into my things.”
    â€œI didn’t break in. The cupboard was open. I told you, I was—”
    â€œLooking for speed, right.” He gave his mobile a cursory swipe. “Fucking drug addict. I should just call the cops. But it’s Morven’s birthday, and I don’t really like cops. Care to tell me why you’re here on a stolen passport?”
    I stayed mum, and he shrugged. “No skin off my tits. May I have that?”
    He held out his hand. I gave him Dagney’s passport and stared at the floor, praying he wouldn’t search me and find the U.S. passport in my boot.
    â€œWhere are you staying?” he demanded.
    â€œWith Krishna Morgenthal.”
    Mallo stabbed a finger at me. “Not now you aren’t. Let’s go.”
    He kicked my bag across the room, waited for me to retrieve it, and followed me out the door. “I won’t mention this to Morven until later,” he said as we walked back to the living room. “You’d be better off dead if she knew you’d been in her bedroom.”
    The flat was less crowded now, the air sweet with candle smoke and melted wax. People were holding plates with slivers of chocolate cake on them. In a corner Morven laughed as she drank champagne from a crystal flute, a bunch of red tulips cradled against her breast. Mallo smiled at her, and she blew him a kiss.
    I looked away, afraid my face would betray me, and spotted Adrian Carlisle on a nearby couch, bookended by two women. One was Krishna, her eyes shut and Adrian’s hat at a tipsy angle on her head. On his other side, a stocky redhead dug through a crocodile Birkin bag. I started