Read Online Interesting Times (Interesting Times #1) by Matthew Storm - Free Book Online

he saw Mr. Teasdale again.  “Sure,” he said. “Why not?”
    A few minutes later they were at a
run-down Chinese restaurant in North Beach. At first Oliver didn’t even think
it was open. One of the windows had been boarded up, probably after having a
rock thrown through it by vandals, and the neon “Open” sign hadn’t been turned
on. But there were diners inside, and a friendly Asian waitress greeted Tyler
by name. He had obviously been here before. The waitress showed them to an out-of-the-way
table and left to get them glasses of water.      
    There was a small television bolted to
the wall in the corner. The local news channel had broken into whatever
mindless late afternoon talk show had been on with a special alert. A small
building was on fire in the Tenderloin. Oliver squinted at the television. The
building looked awfully familiar to him.
    “Hey, isn’t that…” he trailed off,
realizing what it was.
    “Oh, I don’t believe it,” Tyler spat.
“She burned it down.” The news channel only had a helicopter camera shot of the
blaze, but it was clearly Rocky’s pawn shop, currently engulfed in a massive
fire. It was clear very little would be left of the building once the
firefighters had managed to put the fire out.
    “Did you know she was going to do that?”
Oliver asked.
    “No. But it doesn’t surprise me all that
much.”
    “Do you think Artemis told her to…”
    “No, but she didn’t tell her not to either. That much is obvious.” He shook his head. “This is the last thing we
need.”
    “What?”
    “Attention.”
    Tyler sulked until the waitress returned
with their drinks, along with a serving cart holding three dishes of food. “We
didn’t order yet…” Oliver began, but Tyler waved him off.
    “I always start with this,” he said.
“Thank you, Li-Jen.” The waitress smiled at him and left them alone.
    “You always start with three plates?”
Oliver asked.
    “Yeah. Dig in. It’s all family-style
here.”
    Oliver wondered how the man could have
so much of an appetite. Half an hour ago they’d been looking at another man’s
corpse. And now that corpse was burning up in a fire his partner had set.
    He wondered if Sally was eating right
now, and if so, with how much gusto. Probably a great deal, he thought. He
doubted death and destruction bothered her that much. They might even turn her
on.
    “What are we going to do now?” Oliver
asked.
    “Wait for a while,” Tyler said. “Eat.
You really should eat something. Have a pot sticker.”
    “I don’t want a pot sticker.”
    Tyler shrugged. “More for me.” He popped
one into his mouth. “It’s good,” he said, his mouth full.
    Oliver sighed. “I still don’t know who
you people are,” he said
    Tyler ate another pot sticker. “We’re
private detectives,” he answered.
    “Oh,” said Oliver. That was a much
simpler answer than he had expected. “Really?”
    “No,” Tyler shook his head. “But close
enough, I guess. Or I guess you could say we’re a secret society, but there
really aren’t enough of us for that, I wouldn’t think. How many people do you
need before you can say you’re a society?”
    “I don’t know,” Oliver admitted.
    “So why don’t we say we’re a group with
a certain interest in…I don’t know. I want to say esoteric things, but
I’m not exactly sure what esoteric means.”
    “It means…” Oliver started to explain,
but then he realized he wasn’t positive either. “It means unusual, I think.”
    “Okay.”
    “Psychics and cyborgs.”
    “The cyborgs are gone,” Tyler said. “And
I don’t know much about psychics, honestly. I’ve never met one, as far as I
know. Artemis could explain it, but it’s never really come up.”
    “Artemis. The little girl who isn’t a
little girl.” Tyler nodded. “What is she, then?”
    “A very old little girl,” Tyler said.
    “How old?” Oliver asked.
    “I have no idea, honestly. I asked her
once but she just looked at