Betrayer of Worlds Read Online Free

. . . minions brought it?” Who better than the black market to smuggle something into a Resistance camp?
    “For a princely fee.”
    History said Puppeteers were cowards. Nathan believed it. Who but cowards fled perils twenty thousand years removed? But cowardice was a way of life for Puppeteers, not an insult. What of the opposite label?
    Nathan said, “Trusting the criminal element, sneaking into an armed camp. Forgive me, Nessus, but those actions seem insanely brave.”
    “If I were not insane, I would never leave home.” With one head, Nessus plucked at his braids. “But even the craziest among us cannot handle an alien world for long. So, decide. Will you assist me?”
    The aristos would hunt Nathan forever and he had no way off this planet. Of
course
he wanted in! The catch was, he had no clue where his father was. Either father. He had had no contact with his family for decades.
    And if he had known? As much as he resented—had sometimes hated—his parents, they hid for a reason. He would not sell them out. Certainly not to an insane alien.
    “I guess you don’t know,” Nathan said. “There was an accident a few years after I left Home. Everyone died.”
    Nessus plunged a head deep into his mane, twisting and tugging convulsively.
    The Puppeteer was terrified! That fear might come only of standing here, exposed and alone among aliens, his manic bravery at low ebb. Nathan sensed more was involved.
    Who the Finagle
were
his parents? What had they done? What drove them to abduct their own children? From whom did they hide? And what service could any of them possibly provide to draw a Puppeteer out of hiding?
    With a shudder, Nessus lifted the head from his mane. With both heads held high, he fixed his gaze on Nathan. “Take his place.”
    Nathan blinked. “Doing what?”
    “It may be dangerous,” Nessus said, scraping at the disc with a forehoof. “You will be compensated well. I can reveal no more than that.”
    More dangerous than the middle of a civil war? “How well?”
    “Extraction from this place. Wealth, commensurate with your success. And excuse my indelicacy . . . a cure for your addiction.”
    If Nessus knew that much about him . . . “Why would you
want
my help?”
    “You are Louis Wu, the son of Carlos Wu, among the most brilliant minds of Earth’s many billions. Your mother was born Sharrol Janss. Beowulf Shaeffer, your stepfather, was an adventurer and explorer without peer. He was of great service to my people more than once. He skimmed the surface of a neutron star and lived to tell of it. He traveled to the galactic core and discovered that it had exploded. He . . .”
    Louis! An explosion of memories, like fireworks in the brain. His name from the distant past. And those astonishing disclosures about his family. Accompanying Nessus was a way to recover it all.
    Nessus was still speaking. “There is another condition. Things that you will see cannot be revealed. Your memories will be edited before I return you to Known Space.”
    “Edited,” Nathan—no, Louis!—repeated.
    Something warbled softly in Nessus’ sash. “A proximity alarm. Whatever you decide, decide quickly. Twenty seconds after I leave, this stepping disc will explode.”
    “Edited
how
?”
    Nessus thrust a head into a pocket—and vanished.
    Twenty seconds! Nineteen. Eighteen. Seventeen.
    The count ticked down in Louis’s mind. His heart pounded.
    Fourteen. Thirteen. Twelve. Eleven.
    He stared at the circle on the ground. You arrive in Wonderland down a rabbit hole. You don’t leave that way.
    Nine. Eight.
    From downstream: a noise, indistinct. Probably a perimeter patrol. What would the Resistance leaders think of finding him near an exploded alien device?
    And how
big
an explosion?
Run,
he told himself. His legs were rooted to the spot.
    From two short paces away, the disc stared back.
    His stepfather—the infamous Beowulf Shaeffer!—trusted Puppeteers to keep their word. All the words. Including