Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One)

involvement?”
    “Tell me, is this Bernie person your golfing partner? Or perhaps a friend you get drunk with? Have you two exchanged your most private sorrows?”
    “Far from it.”
    “Then why are you so interested in how he died? It’s not your job. You’re not really a detective.”
    I snorted. “I think I’m a better investigator than McKesson. He is the opposite of a detective. Rather than seeking truth, he’s a master of deceit. But I’ll tell you why I’m interested. Because everyone I seem to get close to—dies. They all die in bizarre, usually horrible ways. Wouldn’t you want to know who was behind such murders?”
    Rostok moved, standing up and walking past me. I saw his hulking shadow and heard his footsteps upon the carpet. Then I heard ice cubes falling into a glass. “Would you like a drink?” he asked.
    “Sure.”
    “I suppose I would want to understand what was happening to me in your situation,” he said. “But the answers aren’t here for you. In fact, your arrival here a second time might endanger my life as well.”
    “More riddles? Is that all you have for me?”
    Liquids filled a glass I couldn’t see. Ice tinkled and clicked.
    “Reach out your hand,” he said.
    I did so, and a glass was pressed into my palm. I brought it to my nose to identify the beverage. It was vodka with some cream flavorings. I sipped it and found it pleasant. Unsurprisingly, Rostok drank the pricey stuff.
    “Have you ever heard of Indian Springs?” he asked.
    “No. Have you ever heard of Howard Hughes?”
    Rostok laughed at that, the first real laugh I’d heard from him. “Say what you will, but my paranoia has served me well,” he said.
    “Tell me about Indian Springs, then.”
    “It’s a small town less than a hundred kilometers north of here. Just beyond that, they set off more nuclear teststhan anywhere else in the world. There have been about two thousand such tests in all history, and nine hundred and fifty-one of them were performed very near Las Vegas. Did you know that?”
    I thought about it. “I suppose that I did. But it’s not something that I think about every day. Are you saying that Ezzie and her kind are some sort of mutants? Because I’m not buying that.”
    “No, not at all. I’m saying that they performed a lot of strange tests in the last century—playing with physics, you understand. It is my belief that they did more than split atoms under this desert. I think they fractured something bigger.”
    “Fractured what?”
    “I don’t know. A membrane between two coexistent places, maybe. Our world appears solid to us, but really it is more like a liquid. These rips in space—I think they are akin to splashing raindrops. They cause a disruption in the otherwise flat, featureless surface of our reality.”
    I shook my head and gulped my drink. His theories were interesting, but I knew they were only theories. I also knew they weren’t helping me. “Can we get back to what happened to Bernie?”
    “You said it yourself.
You
happened to Bernie. Everyone you get close to dies.”
    I stared at the man’s dark shape. I didn’t like his answer. I thought of Jenna, Holly, even McKesson—I didn’t want any of them to die. They were the only people I knew. Well…I guess I wouldn’t miss McKesson all that much…
    “How do I stop this?” I asked. “What should I do?”
    “I think I’m getting old.” Rostok sighed. “I shouldn’t be talking to you so much. I think these matters are best leftalone, Draith. So forget them and live your life. It’s time for you to leave now.”
    I wanted to rage at him in frustration. I decided to give it one last try. “What does your object do in this place, sir? What power do you have over this domain that makes you so strong?”
    Rostok chuckled in the darkness. “Pray you never learn the truth about that.”
    “You want to get rid of me to protect yourself,” I said. “Even if I leave now, are you sure you’ll be safe from my curse? I’ve been here to see you twice in the span of a few days. Several events have occurred around the Lucky Seven that needed—cleaning up.”
    Rostok was silent for a second. “Tell me,” he said. “What’s the first thing you remember?”
    I paused. I’d expected him to become angry. I’d hoped that by poking at his obvious paranoia, I would get more out of him. Instead, he’d switched topics on me and ignored my bait. I almost told him that I could barely remember anything.