Half Life (Russell's Attic Book 2) Read Online Free

abilities since I’d known them, though Arthur was way more subtle about it, and also—admittedly—more concerned with my moral compass than with my skill at instantaneous vector calculus.
    “So I can do math,” I said. “Just because I can do it really fast doesn’t mean I’m some sort of superhero.”
    “I didn’t say super hero,” Checker argued. “You’d have to be heroic for that.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Superpowers do not imply superhero. The converse isn’t true either, y’know. That would preclude Batman.”
    “Batman is fictional.”
    Checker threw his arms wide. “And yet he still saves Gotham City every week! Think how much more you could do being real!”
    I leaned a hip against the nearest rack of computers. “You know what?”
    “What?”
    “The way you chatter reminds me of a squirrel.”
    “Such persecution! What have I ever done to deserve this?”
    “You made me watch that horrible movie where the Wookies growl at each other for twenty minutes.”
    He winced. “Er, yes. Sorry about that. I don’t suppose you’d buy ‘rite of passage,’ would you?”
    “Not in a thousand years. Hey, I’m here on business.”
    “Your crazy man?”
    “Yeah. He says his daughter’s missing. I told him I’d look into it.” I was already regretting accepting the case, but I grabbed a pad of paper and scribbled Noah Warren’s name and contact information on it. “I need as much as you can give me on him. And I need to know whether he actually has a daughter.” I added the address for the Southern California headquarters of Arkacite Technologies that Warren had given me. “And anything suspicious about his wife’s colleagues. According to him, they’re the ones who have his kid.”
    Checker crossed his arms. “How rude. What am I, your trained monkey?”
    I stopped writing, puzzled. He had never given me the runaround before. “That’s why I’m paying you.”
    “And I’m not selling today. Not even to good friends with superpowers.” He shrugged apologetically. “Sorry. Um, seriously, I’ve got this— thing I have to deal with today; I’m not—” He cocked his head at me, cutting himself off. “Unless…”
    “You want more than your usual rate?”
    “You’re so mercenary-minded! No, I said I’m not selling. But now that I’m thinking about it, I might be open to a trade. A, uh, a barter, if you will. It’s remotely possible you might be able to do me a wee little favor—”
    “What kind of a favor?” I asked.
    “Just a small one.” He picked up a pencil from the detritus among his keyboards and started fiddling with it. “I, ah…well, I may have…angered some people.”
    “You? Really?”
    His jaw dropped open in mock offense. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’m a very genial person!”
    “Wookies. Growling. For twenty minutes,” I reminded him. “So who else did you piss off?”
    He fidgeted in his chair. “It’s possible…the Mob.”
    “ What?”
    “By accident!” he squawked.
    “I hope so!”
    “I didn’t mean to! But I thought, well, maybe you could do that thing where you, you know, threaten people, and they go away—”
    “You want me to be your goon squad?” I cried.
    “Uh—maybe? I hear you’re very good at it.”
    “Goddammit, Checker. I work for the Mob.”
    “You do?” His eyebrows shot up. “ Definitely not heroic.”
    “Well, it’s not like they have me on retainer or anything, but I’ve done the odd job for the odd Mafia member,” I said. “And let me tell you something. Unlike some of my other clients, they always paid me on time.”
    “Did I say, ‘not heroic?’ I think I meant ‘anti-hero,’ bordering on ‘villainous’—”
    “You’re asking me to piss where I work,” I told him severely. Not to mention that I didn’t want to make enemies of a very, very powerful organization with whom I currently had a good working relationship.
    Checker raised his hands placatingly. “Okay, okay. Geez. We all know how