Read Online The Wind After Time: Book One of the Shadow Warrior Trilogy by Chris Bunch - Free Book Online Page A

in the robbery, there had to be something important for you to post the reward you did.”
    “You came to the correct end, sir, but you took a wrong turn. I would have wanted the thief hunted down regardless. Have you ever been robbed? It’s like … like being raped. They came into my house and defiled it. So of course I wanted revenge. Consider this, Joshua. If my wife and I had been here on that night, wouldn’t we have most likely been hurt or worse? The police told me this Khodyan had no hesitation about using violence.”
    “Let’s get back to the stone, Your Honor.”
    “Since you were among the Al’ar, you know what it was used for.”
    Joshua hesitated, then told the truth. “No. I don’t. Not completely. The Lumina gave them focus, like I’ve heard crystal does a meditator. But it also was an amplifier and allowed greater use of their powers.
    “Was that why you had it?”
    Penruddock turned around and looked out a window at a huge Japanese rock garden, its effect ruined by size.
    “No, or not exactly. I’d heard stories about the Lumina. But I’m not into such metaphysical — ” Penruddock hesitated before going on, “ — stuff. I wanted it as a trophy. Most of my gems have a history, and I know their value, not just in money. Some have been the ruin of a family or a dynasty, some have been part of a reluctant bride’s price, and so forth. This Lumina was the price of empire for us.”
    Joshua knew Penruddock was lying.
    “What do you think happened to it?” the judge went on.
    “I don’t know. Innokenty Khodyan hadn’t linked up with his fence when I took him, and supposedly nobody else on Platte had gotten any jewels from him.”
    “Then he must have sold it before he reached whatever godforsaken world you killed him on. Certainly there’s no market for it on Mandodari III.”
    “Possibly,” Joshua said. “Or else he had already made the delivery to his customer.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Innokenty Khodyan was a professional. Some of the dozen thefts he pulled before I took him were general — he’d found out about someone’s stash and gone after it.
    “But this would appear to be something different. I’d suspect the theft was commissioned.”
    “For the Lumina?” Penruddock looked shaken.
    “There are other collectors of Al’ar gear,” Joshua pressed. “Do you know any of them? Better, have any of them come here and seen the Lumina?”
    “No to both of your questions,” Penruddock said flatly. “I’ve heard about those wretches, with their bits of uniforms and parts of shot-down ships … thank you, I am hardly of their ilk.”
    “Where did you get the Lumina?”
    “I can’t tell you.”
    “Was it here on Mandodari?” Joshua caught and held Penruddock’s gaze.
    “I said I can’t — ”
    “You just did. Who sold it to you?”
    “A man contacted me directly,” Penruddock said grudgingly.
    “How did he know you were interested?”
    “I’d mentioned what I wanted to some friends.”
    “Other gem collectors?”
    “Yes. One had told me he’d heard of a Lumina — actually that there were two, for sale, but they were far beyond his price.”
    “Where is he now?”
    “He’s dead. He died … natural causes … about two months after I bought the stone.”
    “The man you bought it from here. Was he a native of Mandodari?”
    “No. I met him at the spaceport. He said he was between ships.”
    “Do you know where he came from? Where he was going?”
    “No. I only cared about what he wanted to sell.”
    “How’d you pay?”
    “Cash.”
    “How much?”
    Penruddock looked stubborn.
    “How much?”
    “Two million five hundred,” he said.
    “That’s a great deal of money for something you’re just going to leave in a vault and just look at once a week or so. What else did you plan to do with it?”
    “I already said — nothing. It was merely to
have
it! You’re not a collector, so you wouldn’t understand.”
    “Maybe I wouldn’t,”