Sword of Minerva (The Guild Wars Book 10) by Mark Wandrey (good books to read for teens txt) 📗

Sato had handed a beggar a 5-credit chit, they had to move. Rick had been forced to crack some ribs in the process, too, getting the train’s security involved. The conductor had relocated them to this car, far back in the train, and admonished them against encouraging the beggars.

“Likely many of them live on the train,” Rick had noted after watching how they worked the passengers. Thievery was a way of life to the urchins on any world. They’d checked their meager possessions, all carefully secured by Sato, with locking mechanisms far more advanced than the train they traveled on.

Nemo’s bud didn’t mind being locked away for a couple days. It said it was passing the time reading the collective works of Jules Verne, something it had always wanted to do, but never had the time.

All Sato had on him was a slate and some money. They’d traded a few credits for a massive wad of various Central American currencies. It had helped them blend in, even if it constantly frustrated Sato when he wanted to buy something.

Leaving their sleeping car, he moved through another, and eventually into what they nominally called the dining car. It looked like as many people were travelling in this car as any other, but the center section was dominated by a snack bar. At least, it had once been a snack bar. Now it was four autochefs, with two out of commission. A bored looking railroad employee sat on a stool and made sure nobody accosted either of the surviving autochefs.

Nobody was currently using the devices, so Sato went to the closest one and scrolled through the selection. After a day on the train, he’d already learned how to trigger English menus. As the trip moved on, the autochef selections had begun to decrease. He wondered how often the nutrient and ingredient packs were changed? Probably better not to think about it.

Sato selected a carafe of green tea and paid with several Brazilian real. The tea was hot and the right color. He grabbed a couple plastic cups, then bought two muffins, which also looked fresh. Of course, in an autochef, there was no way of knowing. Since it dispensed them immediately, that meant they hadn’t been cooked on the spot. Less chance of food poisoning from a baked item, he justified to himself as he took the food and immediately headed back.

As he was passing through the intervening car, he noticed a standout sitting in one of the seats. A Caucasian woman, beautiful, in her thirties, with long auburn hair tied back in a ponytail. This was unusual; he hadn’t seen another white person on the train since they left Brazil behind. However, as soon as he entered the car and spotted her, he knew she’d already been watching him.

Of course, an Asian on the train might be rarer than a white person. But the intent way she stared at him immediately set off his suspicions. He stopped and considered turning around, but if she was a potential enemy, that would put more space between him and his guardian angel.

Sato did his best to ignore the woman and keep walking. Playing cool had never been his strong point. Socially awkward, unprepared, and nervous was more his wheelhouse. Despite every ounce of will at his disposal, he looked down at her as he approached.

“Hello, Taiki,” the woman said.

“Uh,” was the best he could come up with.

“Surprised to see me?”

“Uh…”

She gestured to the seat next to her. “Please, sit.”

“Look,” he finally managed, “I don’t know who you are.”

“Right, sure.” She smiled, looking at him with bright blue eyes. Then a frown creased her face. “Are you serious?”

He stared at her face. She was pretty and common at the same time. If she were sitting on a subway in Boston, he wouldn’t have noticed her. Or…would he? “You’re kinda familiar…”

“When I got the flash you’d been spotted at a maglev station in Agua Branca, I couldn’t believe the news.” Her eyes darted around his features, eyebrows narrowing as she studied his face. “It is you, of course. How many years?”

“I-I have to go,” Sato stammered and moved onward.

“Taking a maglev instead of a sub-orbital was smart,” she said, just behind him. He tried to hurry, but the cars were too crowded. Instead he jostled more people and further slowed his progress. “We’ve got eyes everywhere on the planet. Surely you know that?”

Suddenly someone was standing in front of him. His ebony complexion was as out of place as the woman’s alabaster on a train full of cocoa complexions.

“Excuse me,” he said and tried to slip by.

The man moved smoothly into Sato’s way, removing any doubt that he was with the girl, and he was hemmed in.

“It’s been many years, Taiki. We should talk. A lot has happened since you disappeared.”

“Let me go,” he pleaded.

“I think you should come with us,” the black man said.

“That’s not happening.”

Rick Culper’s voice behind the huge dark-skinned man was the most welcome sound Sato had heard in a long time. The man’s head came around in surprise, locking eyes with the twin glowing blue of Rick’s armor. The woman stood slowly, carefully turning her own head to regard the new arrival. Her eyebrows went up, and she took in the figure, mostly obscured behind Rick’s black robes.

“Well,” she said, a thin smile playing across her lips. “You’ve upped your game.”

“Move,” Rick said to the big man between him and his charge. The other man narrowed his eyes, his lips slowly skinning back in a hint of a snarl. “Move, or you’ll regret it.”

“It’s okay, Joey,” the woman said. “We don’t want to make a scene.”

The man moved aside slightly, and Sato wasted no time moving through the space. Rick put out an arm and maneuvered Sato until he was