Sons of the Crystal Mind (Diamond Roads Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

to get by; tonight for example is another pre-wedding party. We don’t want to go but at least it will pass the time, distracting us from silence and restless, bleak rage. I put my hand on Ursula’s arm. She turns and embraces me tightly.
    Suddenly, I want to stay here with her forever. Everyone in Diamond City thinks they love Ursula but none of them love her like I do. We’ve got kilos so the Basis will supply us with food, air and water. We will have each other for company and we will be safe.
    Inevitably Ursula lets go and reluctantly so do I. She straightens and becomes the People’s Princess.
    “Come on,” she says and walks out.
    I look at the salon longingly but there isn’t time for me to use it. Instead I put my chin into the crook of the suit elbow and draw the smart cloth up over my face, which emerges made up in its usual way. Shading modulates my inexplicable light tan, shadow with a subtle green design surrounds my eyes to make the best of them and a pale sheen covers my lips to detract from their fullness and avoid looking tarty.
    I head through the door after Ursula. As I hurry along the corridor I clench my hair between my upper and lower right arm and pull it between them. The hair emerges clean and conditioned to rustle down my back in a wavy golden fall.
    I run onto the walkway and see Ursula stride ahead of me, the grey dress rippling out behind her. The walkway is thankfully deserted, not that Ursula needs an audience for her seductive swagger. I run to catch up before anyone else appears but just as I reach my sister, Ruben Toro hurries out of a side corridor with the fixed look of someone pretending this is a coincidence.
    A respected analyst in Gethen Karkarridan’s feared Centrian Business Division, Ruben used to be a small man. He was proud of his naturally occurring baldness and slightly wonky face, which were endearingly original features amid Centria’s many perfections.
    Now, however, he is tall like Ursula.  His hair is thick, dark and cut in a style that Ursula might sport if she was male. Ursula’s unconventional beauty is notoriously hard to replicate, especially in men. The most effective option, which is the one Ruben has chosen, is not an exact match but a variation on a theme. Ursula’s jaw is slightly masculine anyway and Ruben has had this feature emphasised. Ursula’s eyes are striking because of the humour in them as much as their rich hazel colour; again this can’t be copied so instead Ruben has enhanced the slight upturn at the outer edges. His mouth is wantonly kissable and his teeth when he smiles are slightly, maddeningly uneven, like Ursula’s. The unnerving result of Ruben’s surgery is that he looks more like Ursula’s brother than I do her sister.
    “Woh!” Ruben says. “Hello Ursula!”
    “Hello you scruff,” Ursula says.
    She doesn’t break her stride. Ruben is put off-balance but rights himself like an automatic toy and hurries after Ursula. He ignores me but I’m used to that.
    “I saw your chat show the other night,” Ruben says.
    “Of course you did,” Ursula says. “I was amazing.”
    “That chap who supported the Sons of the Crystal Mind; you absolutely tore him a new one. Um,” Ruben swallows nervously. “Do you support the Blanks then?”
    If Ursula says yes then Ruben will support the Blanks. If Ursula says no then Ruben will probably join the Sons himself. He is not quite a stalker; he would soon be an ex-employee if he was. Instead, he thinks he’s got a unique link to Ursula, a belief he has in common with most of Diamond City.
    “The Blanks are the Blanks,” Ursula says.
    She manages to make it sound like an opinion.
    “Ah, yes,” Ruben says.
    He tries to mull Ursula’s statement over but the glare of her presence has burned away rational thought like a pleasure drug.
    “It’s amazing really,” Ruben says, “the Basis I mean. You take how amazing it is for granted; well I do anyway, sometimes.  Do you?”
    “Yes,”