Rock of Ages Read Online Free

useful I could be.”
    Maijstral’s eyes—wide open for once—moved to the Titian. “You may have proved far more useful to the police than to me,” he said. “They were just here looking for that painting.”
    “I know,” she grinned. “I saw them leave. Don’t worry—they didn’t see me. Especially not those two clots out in the thorn bushes—they couldn’t skulk their way out of a dead people’s convention. The only person who saw me was one of your people, the one in the darksuit, and he took off.”
    A cold finger touched Maijstral on the neck. “A darksuit?” he asked.
    “Yeah. A good one—most detectors wouldn’t have spotted it, but mine did. He flew in just after the cops left—he stopped at your window, looked in for a moment, then flew on. That’s when he saw me and flew off.”
    “A moment, Miss Sparrow,” Maijstral said. He reached to the wall by the door and touched the service plate. “Roman? Drexler? Were either of you just out on the grounds?”
    The answers were negative. Maijstral turned to Conchita Sparrow.
    “I’ll look at your recordings if you like,” he said, “but that person lurking around outside was probably a member of the Special Services Corps, and will be very happy to send me to prison for possession of that painting. So if you would oblige me by taking it very far away , I’ll be in your debt.”
    “Only too,” Conchita said, meaning Only too happy . Maijstral raised an eyebrow at this cheeky piece of cant.
    Conchita stepped toward the paintings, took a bag out of her darksuit,. and slipped it over the painting. Once bagged, the painting levitated as of its own free will, then followed Conchita to the window. Before she slipped through the drape she turned on the holo projectors of her darksuit, and blended almost indistinguishably with the background.
    “The recordings are in your upper right drawer,” she said. “Happy to’ve met you!”
    The drapes parted, the window opened, and out she flew.
    Maijstral went to his, bureau drawer, saw a recording sphere lying there, and then marched to the service plate to summon Roman and Drexler.
    They searched Maijstral’s. room for the nest hour, but found no more surprises.
    *
    Next morning. Maijstral bade farewell to Lord and Lady Huyghe and set off for North America. Once airborne, Maijstral put his car on autopilot and reviewed Conchita’s recordings with Roman and Drexler. He understood why she was seeking employment as a tech. Though her equipment was first-rate—her black boxes always worked, and her darksuit’s equipment wove an elegant path through a wide assortment of alarms—she was nevertheless a very poor thief. She was nervous: she dropped things, or performed operations in the wrong order and had to start over, and once she forgot to tell her darksuit to neutralize a set of flaxes and had to fly in disarray when the alarms began to ring.
    “She’s a disaster,” Drexler snickered, as he watched Conchita head for the horizon.
    “Still,” Roman said, “she would not be employed for-her abilities as a thief. Her gear really is her strong point—it works flawlessly.”
    “When she remembers to use it,” Drexler grinned, his tongue lolling. “She hasn’t done anything I can’t do. And besides, what happens if you need her to pinch something for you?”
    “Quite,” Maijstral said.
    Drexler might lack a certain bonhomie, he reflected, but at least he didn’t show up uninvited in one’s bedroom with a stolen art treasure moments after irksomely fanatic police decided to search the place.
    “Roman,” he said, “put Sparrow in the file. We might hand her some contract work if Drexler is ever overburdened.”
    “I won’t be overburdened at the rate we’re going, Mr. Maijstral,” Drexler said. “When are we going to steal something really big?”
    “After vacation,” Maijstral said, and was aware of Drexler’s diaphragm pulsing in resignation.
    Let it pulse, he thought. Drexler