Read Online The Eterna Files by Leanna Renee Hieber - Free Book Online Page B

was capable of anything beyond that arch distance. Perhaps that note, whatever it was, proved differently.
    â€œStop pouting, Franklin,” Clara said with a laugh. Her bite never lasted long, a quality that he appreciated deeply. “I know you want to play the rescuing hero to all the world. In due time, surely.” She squinted at something that suddenly caught her eye. “Franklin, are we not the only ones with keys to this floor?”
    â€œWe are,” Franklin replied, following her gaze.
    â€œThen what, pray tell, is that ?”
    Across the room, jutting from a metal tray that was commonly used for incoming correspondence, was a yellow envelope that she was sure had not been there before.
    Clara crossed the room, picked up the envelope, and carried it to Franklin’s desk. Seizing the engraved letter opener from the fine desk set his mother had proudly given him upon his appointment to “government work,” Clara swiftly slit open the envelope, which was bulky at the base.
    Glancing inside, in the next instant Clara gasped sharply and dropped both letter opener and envelope. She took a step back as the items clattered onto the wooden surface of the desk. Franklin could now see that the envelope held a key. A dark smear marred the metal surface.
    Blood.
    Franklin reached for the key.
    â€œFranklin,” Clara cautioned. “Don’t touch it.”
    â€œI’d like to feel useful for a moment,” he declared, just before the soiled, black iron key disappeared into his fist.
    He closed his eyes, feeling the metal heat up in his palm and the familiar pain flare at the back of his skull. He saw a plain, redbrick town house with brownstone details. A number: fourteen. He heard screaming. He saw plumes of odd-colored smoke from beneath the garden-level door. A man in a black suit came tearing out, holding a kerchief over his mouth, and ran away. Smoke lifted, curling as a dark substance pooled out from under the door and dribbled down onto the landing.
    Franklin opened his eyes. He could see that Clara had already guessed where the key had come from. Franklin nodded. “I know where they died.”

CHAPTER
    THREE
    When Spire hopped into the hired hansom that arrived at the designated hour, he was startled to find Miss Everhart already seated inside.
    â€œDon’t be surprised again, Mr. Spire, please, it will grow quite tedious,” she stated. “I’ve a good eye for numbers, research, codes, and ciphers. I’ll be useful to your team—”
    â€œI am aware of your talents, Miss Everhart,” Spire replied cautiously. “Your Parliamentary employers took great pains to ensure you could do your work without bother. I don’t think they’d take kindly to your abandoning it.”
    â€œWho said anything about abandoning it?” she replied sharply. “We’re all doing the work of the British state, Mr. Spire.”
    â€œBut not all work is meant to be shared. Especially work as dangerous as this.”
    â€œI survived thus far.” Her tone was steel. “Why else do you think Lord Black put me on as Gazelle but to prove myself to you?”
    â€œHave you been appointed to the Eterna team, then?” Spire asked directly. She nodded. “You’d truly want to work for the man who spied on you?”
    She pursed her lips. “At least I know you’d keep track of me.”
    Spire loosed a humorless chuckle.
    He couldn’t let the memory of Alice cloud everything, everyone—a whole gender. He’d need someone like Everhart; detail oriented, dogged, persistent, loyal, selfless. Fond of work. He hated to think they’d actually have a great deal in common; he’d set himself up to despise her for the trouble her presence at Westminster had caused.
    â€œToday we meet Mr. and Mrs. Blakely at the British Museum,” Miss Everhart said. “They’ve been consulting on the Eterna project for a while