Read Online Reunification by Timothy L. Cerepaka - Free Book Online

you'll get
killed if you try,” said Lanresia, as if I was being intentionally
dimwitted and stubborn. “Assassin doesn't just protect the Mayor.
It also protects Kiriah and anyone else who the Mayor wants to keep
safe. Whether or not your sister still wants to see you, I don't
know, but I do know you are better off here, where Assassin can't
get you, than up there, where it can.”
    “ Give me a sword,” I
said, holding out mine left hand. “Any will do. I will then use it
to slay this machine like a dragon.”
    “ Not a good idea,” said
Lanresia. “Assassin is the strongest robot working for the Mayor.
It's never been defeated by anyone before. You'd be a fool to fight
it now, especially since you're still recovering from your last
fight with it.”
    I rested my hand on my abdomen, which was
still covered with that bandage. I rubbed my fingers against the
cloth as I said, “You are right, but I am still a Knight of
Se-Dela. We are supposed to fight no matter how badly we are
injured, especially when our family is in danger like this.”
    “ Your sister isn't in
any danger, from what we can tell,” said Lanresia, shaking her
head. “Every time we've seen her, she's always been protected by
Assassin. She doesn't seem to be held against her own will, at
least.”
    “ Nonsense,” I said. I
lowered the photographs onto my lap. “My sister would never
willingly work with a criminal like this Xacron-Ah fellow. I knew
Kiriah. She was a righteous woman, even more so than I, for she
never worked for any sort of criminal gang even once.”
    Lanresia held up her hands again. “I don't
know everything that's going on. I'm just saying that it seems like
your sister is not being held captive. Can you think of any reason
why she might willingly work with Xacron-Ah? As you are her
brother, you should know her better than anyone.”
    “ No reason for this
behavior of hers comes to mind,” I responded. “Assuming, of course,
my fair sister is even doing that. Ye have lodged nothing but
baseless accusations at her, offering not even the flimsiest of
evidence with which to convict her.”
    “ Well, could you tell us
any reason she might have for disappearing in the first place?”
said Lanresia. She swiped at her holograph, turning it back around
to face her, and then swiped across its surface before placing one
finger on it, as if to catch a bug that had landed there suddenly.
“According to our records, your sister disappeared from her home in
Northern Se-Dela on the third day of the fifth month six years ago.
At the time, there were only three other people in her home; you,
your older brother Sura, and a family friend called
Hajan.”
    I tensed. My memory returned to that
fateful night. Even now, I could still remember the sounds of the
rain pattering against the roof, the rolling of thunder across the
sky, and our own frantic attempts as my brother, our friend, and I
searched for Kiriah, who we had thought might be hiding somewhere
in the house.
    But I pushed away those memories. They
were too painful for me to focus on right now; indeed, I had spent
many a year ignoring these memories, for on that night something
else terrible happened, something I had done my best to avoid
remembering. I had done much a good job of avoiding its memory so
far, but Lanresia's words were starting to jog that memory and I
did not want that.
    So I said, “All of that is correct, but
irrelevant. My sister had no reason to disappear or run away. She
never even mentioned Xacron-Ah around us before. I stand by my
belief that she was kidnapped, but by who, I cannot say.”
    I hoped that Lanresia did not notice how I
refused to elaborate on the facts she had just read to me from her
hologram. Granted, what I remembered was unlikely to be very useful
to her, but knowledge was power and I was not going to give her any
more power over me, not when I still knew so little about her.
    “ I guess we'll see which
one of us is right soon enough,”