Shine Read Online Free Page A

to kill him?"
    Papa was silent. His face was utterly still, and he didn't blink.
    "I want to show you something," I said, newly careful with every syllable. I didn't know how precarious a line I was walking anymore, and I couldn't be sure that Papa wouldn't throw me in the Whale for collaboration. But I also couldn't let my brother die. I queued up the sim, prepared to send--
    "If it's Xiaohao's new Yunhe," said Papa, "I've seen it and don't want to see it again."
    I froze. "You've seen--"
    "He sent it to all of the Administrators the day he came back."
    "And you saw," I said. I felt clenched and cold.
    "I saw enough."
    "You saw the garden. You saw the painting in the library."
    Again, Papa was hard-eyed and silent and absolutely still. And I finally understood. I'd thought that he was furious with Xiao, disappointed and sore with wounded pride. But incredibly, terrifyingly, this wasn't a matter of emotion. It wasn't personal at all.
    Papa was unwilling to make it personal.
    He'd never been particularly traditional. He might have forgiven Xiao for simply running away with a professor. Even if the professor in question was male and Filipino and given to lectures on crowdsourcing microprotest. Xiao's romances were a family matter. But he had fled to a metanation, and that made his choices the business of the state. That was defection. Dereliction, sedition.
    Papa couldn't forgive sedition.
    "His world means nothing," he said softly. "It's fantasy. That's all."
    "I think Xiao believes he can make it real."
    "Your brother believes a lot of stupid things." He stood with a grunt, finally turned his wide eyes away from me. "You have a gentle heart, and I admire that, but today we can't be gentle. I trust you're smart enough not to be moved by other people's stupidities."
    I struggled to make my face as opaque as his own. "Yes, Papa," I said. My intentions must have leaked out of my eyes. I stood and opened the partition door, but Papa stopped me.
    "One more thing, sweet." He gripped my shoulder. "You mustn't give away your honoraria. Word travels, and it makes us appear ungrateful. Arrogant. We can't afford that kind of reputation at the moment. Do you understand?" He smiled his disarming smile.
    "Yes," I said. I understood.
    I flipped on my arc knife. The blade hissed and lit up the creaking, deathtrap stairway of the Whale , cast my skin in electric blue. I jumped past the the last two steps, and my landing echoed in rattling metal. There was no time for caution. It was time for knives.
    I'd stashed the tools in the soles of my shoes, but that proved unnecessary: Zhu didn't give me trouble, didn't even ask me to pull out my pockets. I hoped he would be just as accommodating on our way out. We could cut through the hull if it came to that, but I didn't exactly relish the thought of sinking a ship while Xiaohao and I were still inside.
    I hurried down the hall of open doors, swinging blue light at my side. Xiao's eyes appeared in the grate, bright first with panic and then confusion. "Yuen? What do you--"
    "Step back," I said. "As far back as you can go."
    He obeyed. I cleaved the thick padlock with one swipe, turned off the knife, and hauled open the heavy door. Inside, Xiao pressed himself flat against the far wall. He was dressed in a dirty undershirt and too-small black pants. He looked stricken.
    "Yuen--" he started.
    "You were right, Xiao. I was wrong. We have to go."
    He blanched. "They're going to kill me?"
    "I don't know. I have no idea what they'll do anymore." I pulled off my left shoe, peeled open the sole, and drew out a second arc knife. "Take this."
    Xiao frowned at the knife for a moment. Then he took it.
    "What's your plan?"
    "We leave the city. Make for--I don't know. A real city. I have some money. Maybe we go to your Ecclesia. If it comes to that. Maybe..."
    Xiao's frown deepened. "Your money's worthless," he said quietly.
    "We'll get by."
    He bit his lip and fiddled with the arc knife. Flicked it on and sat down