Read Online Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One) by B.V. Larson - Free Book Online Page B

not done with you yet.”
    McKesson was breathing harder and sweating now. “Ask me something then, asshole.”
    “Ah, ah—I prefer Mr. Draith.”
    “Yeah, OK,” he said, glaring. “Mr. Draith.”
    My cheekbone was throbbing and I thought about making him call me sir. But I decided not to waste any more time.
    “Hard, fast questions; hard, fast answers. Any bullshit and I push you a step back.”
    “Ask then, dammit.”
    “What the hell is that thing that’s about to crawl up your calf?” I asked. “How can a rock move?”
    “Do I look like a frigging scientist? It’s just a living piece of flaming rock. Some call it a lava slug.”
    “Are they always this slow?”
    “Only when firemen accidentally spray them with hoses.”
    “How do you know so much?” I asked. “Do you keep them for pets?”
    “Not me.”
    “You just burn down houses by planting them?”
    “Not me either,” he said, his teeth clenched.
    “Who, then?”
    Detective McKesson shrugged. “People. The Community.”
    I recalled Dr. Meng using that term.
The Community.
“Give me a name, a place.”
    “You know a couple of names already.”
    I pulled him suddenly toward me again, forcing him to take two stumbling steps toward the sidewalk. He came with me, alarmed.
    “Oops,” I said.
    “What?” he asked quickly.
    “It almost got you,” I lied. The creature was still a good distance away. It was definitely going slower now that it traveled over cool grass and earth rather than the ashes of my house. “How about you and me getting into your car and getting out of here?”
    “You’re letting me take you in? Good choice, Draith. You might get a plea out of this.”
    “No, Jay,” I said, “I’m going to let you keep answering questions in a different environment. I’m keeping both the guns.”
    McKesson tried again to look through the back of his head. I had to give him credit: if it had been physically possible, he would have managed it right then.
    “Kidnapping?” he asked. “Maybe you
were
innocent, but you are stacking up real felonies right now.”
    “You burned my house down by putting some kind of alien rock in it and then waited until I got home, at which point you smashed me in the face,” I said. “Can you understand why I’m not in a trusting mood?”
    McKesson stared at me and read my eyes. I stared back flatly.
    “OK,” he said. “I’ll drive. I can’t stand another second with that thing behind me.”
    We climbed into his car and drove off together. He didn’t snap on the lights until we’d reached the corner.

“Where are you driving?” I asked. I still had the pistol out, but it was resting in my lap now. I kept my hand on the grip and my finger on the trigger. Occasionally, I caught his eyes flashing down to look at it, then away again.
    “There’s a place I know where we can talk,” McKesson said.
    “Your station or a coffee shop?”
    “A twenty-four-hour place with good pie.”
    “All right.”
    The detective relaxed a fraction. Maybe he thought we had some kind of bond going.
    “You going to put that thing away?” he asked me.
    “No,” I said. “Not yet. I’ve got plenty of questions. Such as what murder you suspect me of having committed.”
    “Good idea,” he said brightly. His mood and demeanor shifted. “Let’s assume for the moment you are innocent. We can help each other out.”
    I glanced at him. “How?”
    “Let’s pool what we know. How did Tony’s murder go down?”
    I shook my head. “I really only know what I heard from an eyewitness. I was in the passenger seat, we crashed, and he apparently choked to death in a freak accident.”
    “Ha!” McKesson exclaimed. “Come on. You were there. You know what happened to him.”
    I eyed him. “I can’t remember the accident. I was hauled off to the hospital too, remember?”
    “Useless.” McKesson sighed, shaking his head and rubbing his chin. “Totally useless. I got more out of the whore who found you on the