Read Online The Bloodlight Chronicles: Reconciliation by Steve Stanton - Free Book Online Page A

a comfy launch couch with Prime One access, to be sure, and gave him food and lodging fit for a prince, but it felt like a gilded cage. Niko had spurned his every intimate advance. She ignored him completely most of the time and never volunteered even casual small talk, let alone secret strategies. On the rare occasions when she deigned to address him, her manner was abrupt and businesslike.
    â€œI’ve got to find my parents,” he told her over their usual evening meal of steamed vegetables and orange juice. “I can’t just hang out here playing in V-space all day.”
    â€œYou won’t see your parents for a long time, Rix.”
    Rix slammed his palm on the table. “How do you know that? You leave every morning on your motorcycle. You never tell me anything. What do you do for a living? How do you pay for this fancy condo?”
    Niko shrugged. “I’m a smuggler. Bio-chips, upgrades.” She smiled with insouciance. “Nothing legal, I assure you. Not that it’s any of your business.”
    â€œYou work for a black lab?”
    â€œIt’s a family venture.”
    â€œYou said I was family. Is that why I’m here?”
    Niko laid her fork down. She folded her arms under her breasts. She was wearing a pink tank top and showing a hint of cleavage. “Yes. It was my idea. I didn’t want to see you on the street.”
    â€œWhere are my parents?”
    â€œYour mother is in hiding. She’s staying off the grid, just like you. Your father is in play.”
    Rix gaped at her.
Your father is in play
. What the hell did that mean? “Tell me.”
    â€œI don’t know the details.”
    â€œLiar.”
    Niko eyes shaded like a cloud passing. She turned her face away and looked out a window at gloomy sky beyond. “I like you, Rix,” she said softly. “I would never lie to you.”
    â€œMy father had a sister named Niko. You can’t possibly be her.”
    â€œNo. Your aunt is dead.” She pressed her mouth into a thin line and turned back to face him. “I’m her clone. Just a poor photocopy lacking in hybrid vigour, I’m afraid.”
    â€œCloning is illegal.”
    â€œLots of things are illegal,” she said. Her eyes dared him with stony defiance, but her trembling lips betrayed an inner wound. Rix recognized his faux pas like a blow.
    â€œNo. I didn’t—”
    â€œOh, never mind.” She waved him away. “I can’t expect understanding from you.”
    â€œWhat’s that supposed to mean?”
    â€œYou’ve lived your entire life on the run like a rat.”
    â€œSo what?”
    â€œSo nothing. I’m just saying.” She pushed her chair back and stood up. “I’ve lost my appetite.”
    Rix followed her into the living room. She reached for a magazine and fumbled through it as though trying to signal some distance between them.
    â€œHow did she die?”
    Niko held her chin up and sighed through her nose, but kept her back to him, rigid. She tossed the magazine on the coffee table like a flapping bird. “She died during experimental surgery, back in the early days of brain implants.”
    â€œThat’s harsh.”
    Niko turned, arms akimbo, her face tilted up proud and defiant. “It was before my time. I don’t know all the details. She wasn’t my mother and she’s gone now, okay? At least they kept a backup.”
    â€œJesus, Niko.”
    Her face slanted into a delicate sneer. “Do you believe in Jesus, Rix? Is there room in heaven for illegal clones? Was I born without a soul, do you think?”
    She seemed so vulnerable to him, so frail of spirit, that he could only open his arms for her and bite his lower lip. She stepped into his embrace.
    â€œI’m sorry,” he whispered.
    â€œNever mind.”
    â€œI wasn’t trying to be mean.”
    â€œIt’s okay, Rix. I’m a big girl.”
    They