The Spaces in Between Read Online Free Page A

You’d be amazed by what nothing could do to a man.”
    “Where are we?”
    “In a panic room. Walls and a door are nearly as the thick as the hull. Door only uses an internal timer for the lock. The Draco take their yearly breaks here. I’d say we’ve got about forty-five minutes before the door opens. The Talisman was a bust-“
    “But why can I hold it? I thought I couldn’t interact with physical objects.”
    “I don’t know. That’s not as important as getting off this God forsaken yoni before that door opens again.” There was a crash outside the blast door.
    “Looks like Tsuen is blasting the door with ki ,” Ryoma said and then pulled his upper body back through the wall. “I’d say we have about five minutes.”
    “ Fuck ,” Cameron was sitting up now. “I’m really rethinking this whole ‘too good to blink you out of existence’ ideal.”
    “Well why don’t you?” Ryoma said. “Because you’ve managed so well without using the big magick so far.”
    “Maybe if my Yojimbo was far more competent I wouldn’t have to!”
    “That body you let me borrow is crap. You’re too tall, barely gave me enough fingers to fire that gun, sword was too heavy, and the gun was too light.”
    At this point I glazed over in the same way that I would when my parents would fight. My mind wondered off compiling code for the new front page for BadBoyswithBigBirds.com. I immediately purged the thoughts from my mind when a transparent version of the site floated over my head. Fortunately, I don’t think anyone noticed.
    I looked down at the talisman in my hand. I ran my thumb over the inscription on its stone face. It actually felt real to me not like the distant feeling of Tsuen’s sword. There wasn’t even any pain in my arm, but this talisman felt real. The arrangement of the symbols on the talisman reminded me of something.
    “Hey,” I said, “The Astral is where thoughts and ideas filter down to reality, right?”
    “Yes, but we’ll deal with your remedial metaphysics lessons later. Right now the adults are talking.”
    “I think I know how the talisman works.”
    “Go on.”
    “I think the talisman is like computer code. You compile the code in the Astral to make a change in reality.” I held up the Mehmet talisman. “I don’t think this is real. That’s why I can pick it up.” I tossed the talisman to Cameron.
    He rolled the talisman around in his hand, and a light of understanding flickered in his eyes.
    He turned towards me and with blazing speeds wrote the symbol from the talisman on me with a glowing index finger. I hate to admit that it kind of tickled. Then the damnedest thing. He punched me square in the stomach. He knocked the wind right out of me – it was like getting sucker punched in real life.
    He tore the symbol off of me, which was like getting your nipple ripped off on duct tape. And then passed his hand through me.
    “Son of a bitch…” I said, “That actually hurt.”
    “You can return that punch if you ever meet me in your body.” There was another crash from the outside. Now a dent was visible in the door. “Alright, change in plans.” Cameron drew his flintlock pistol with his left hand – his five fingers wrapped around the handle. He turned to me and flashed a toothy grin. He knew exactly what I was thinking. “What? You’re a computer guy. You should know the importance of restoring to an earlier backup.” Cameron leaned over to pick up the hilt of the broken Lemurian sword. He smiled and turned the sword over in his hand. The light danced down the razor edge of the full-length sword.
    “Ryoma come here, and I’ll fill you in.” Ryoma floated into Cameron. “Alright. I’m going to up Tsuen’s dosage to ten millitres of anti-matter.” Cameron pulled a shell the size of a chicken egg out of the air like a magician. “But first this shell.”
    Cameron pulled the trigger, and there was a huge flash of light. The blast doors to their credit were still