Read Online Heart of Steam & Rust (Empires of Steam and Rust) by Stephen D. Sullivan - Free Book Online

room, she would need to keep all her senses on high alert.
    Pyotr would be watching, too, of course, but he was only human ... while she was something more. So why did she feel like something less ?
    The hotelier tried to hustle them into his dining room when the pair crossed the lobby. “For your first night!” he said. “It will be special.”
    Both Pyotr and Lina had to insist they had other plans. “Tomorrow,” Lina said, giving him a small psychic push.
    The man immediately fell into line. “Of course,” he said, clicking his heels together and bowing. “Perhaps breakfast, as well?”
    “Sure,” Pyotr agreed, escorting Lina toward the door.
    Heavy clouds clotted the night sky over Vilnius, smothering the riverfront with utter darkness. This section of town boasted no streetlights; its waterfront byways were illuminated only by the light streaming from inside the establishments that catered to nighttime clientele. As Lina and Pyotr exited the hotel, the Black Dog beckoned from across the block; loud music, laughter, and the smells of food and tobacco poured out of its open windows and doorway.
    Lina and Pyotr walked quickly past it on their way to the bistro. Something about the Dog—an aura of menace, perhaps—made Lina’s skin prickle.
    Was it because she had been killed there previously?
    Of course, they didn’t know for sure that’s where she’d been killed; it was merely the last place investigators had been able to prove she’d been. Her body had been found in a nearby dockside alley, which she and Pyotr had walked past during their earlier tour of the neighborhood.
    She’d felt no sense of foreboding in the alley. What was it about the bar, then?
    For the first time, Lina wished that she really did possess her counterpart’s supernatural powers. Perhaps the other Lina would have been able to read the place, find some trace of what had happened. In her Russia, Lina had met a few people skilled in psychometry—she’d even tested one in her lab. That man, Boris Aronin, could sense who had passed through an area for up to a week, and he could provide uncanny details about the owner of any object he touched.
    His gift was not entirely reliable, but Lina would have been given anything to work with him at this moment. If she had a counterpart in this world, could Aronin as well? Perhaps here, he might even have similar supernatural gifts to her doppelganger. Such a man could be useful to her investigations … and the Fifth Section.
    She made a mental note to check into Aronin’s status later, and then chided herself for doing so. Why was she making such plans? She would not be in this world long enough to care. As soon as the assassin was caught, she would focus all her energies on returning home.
    While Lina gathered wool, Pyotr had led them to the bistro and taken a table by the front window. Sadly, the evening was too chilly to eat at the tables outside.
    Again, Lina chided herself. Why was she thinking such an unprofessional thought? They would be able to observe passers-by just as easily from inside—and the inside of the restaurant was much more defensible, should they be discovered or attacked.
    Were the romantic thoughts smoldering beneath Pyotr’s businesslike exterior influencing her thinking?
    Lina rubbed her forehead, trying to regain concentration. What was this world doing to her?
    “Is everything alright?” Pyotr asked.
    “Just a headache.”
    “Would you prefer to skip the wine, then?”
    “And drink what? The local beer? Wine seems less risky—less likely to unfocus our attention.” The rebuke felt like a slap to him, though she hadn’t meant it harshly. “I’m sorry,” she explained, reaching across the table and laying her hand on his. “I didn’t mean to snap. It’s the headache.”
    He nodded, understanding. “You’re right about our attention, though,” he said quietly, as if he were talking to a lover—which, she supposed, he was. “We know there are