Read Online Our Lady of the Ice by Cassandra Rose Clarke - Free Book Online

glasses together.
    The Brazilian variety show had gone to commercial. An advertisement for hand soap. Eliana watched it as she drank her beer and mulled over the case, Essie and Maria laughing beside her. The next step was the difficult one. Sala had either stolen the documents himself or been forced to program the robot to do so. The other option was that Cabrera had already gotten his hands on one of these robots, and Sala had nothing to do with it. Eliana hoped that wasn’t the case. Otherwise, she’d have to start from scratch, and deal with Cabrera besides. Diego wouldn’t like it. Neither, in all honesty, would Eliana. She might have a license for her gun, but she didn’t want to have to shoot it.
    The soap commercial ended, and it was replaced by an image of Marianella Luna, speaking directly to the camera.
    Eliana immediately reached over and turned up the sound.
    “—feed the city,” Lady Luna said. “Your donation will go toward research and development of a series of agricultural domes, based on modern dome design, that will help Hope City, and all of Antarctica, achieve her independence.”
    She looked even more like a movie star than she had in Eliana’s office, her hair twisted up on top of her head in an elaborate bouffant, a diamond necklace shimmering at her throat. A cluster of white albatross feathers was pinned to her lapel, a show of Independencesolidarity. Then Alejo Ortiz stepped into the frame. They smiled at each other like old friends.
    “Support for the agricultural domes comes from all walks of life here in Hope City,” he said. Everything about him was styled, molded into place, including his own albatross charm. Eliana found it off-putting. “Donation centers can be found in several convenient locations across the city. Please call to locate your nearest one.”
    A phone number flashed on-screen.
    “I hate these commercials,” Essie said. “They’re so fake . Independence isn’t about helping politicians and the aristocracy.” She glowered. “Juan thinks food prices will triple if they actually build the things, because they’ll be controlled by the wealthy.”
    “Juan’s from the mainland,” Maria said. “Of course he’d say that.”
    Essie gave her a dirty look.
    “What?” Maria leaned back in her chair. “Am I wrong, little Miss AFF ?”
    “I’m not part of the AFF , and you know it.”
    Maria laughed. She was just teasing, Eliana knew. Even Essie wasn’t so radical as to get involved with the AFF . She’d say Independence wasn’t about killing people, it was about reaping the benefits of the atomic power they risked their lives manufacturing out here, selling the energy themselves and using the profits to make a home of their own in the ice. Reviving the glory of old Hope City, when it had been the most advanced city of its time. A nice idea, but Eliana would still rather live on the mainland. Her mother used to tell her that was real freedom.
    The variety show came back on, and Eliana switched off the television set. An afterimage of Lady Luna’s bright smile seared into her head.
    She wondered again what those missing documents could be.
    *  *  *  *
    Eliana pulled Essie’s car up to the curb and turned off the engine. It had taken another fifteen dollars to convince Essie to let her borrow it, but Eliana knew she might need a quick escape. And the city trains weren’t going to cut it.
    Sala’s neighborhood was exactly the sort of place you’d expect a Hope City bureaucrat to live. The houses here were tall and narrow and pressed close together, with small patchwork yards full of cheap grass and stunted Hope City trees. No one was out, despite the warmth on the air. Space-heater warm, almost. Eliana shrugged out of her coat and tossed it into the backseat of Essie’s car.
    She walked the three blocks to Sala’s house.
    It was nine thirty in the morning. Eliana had selected the time because she knew most of the people living in this neighborhood