The Time Paradox Read Online Free Page A

of city hall.
    Holly’s target lay away from what would shortly be a bustling center of commerce. She adjusted her fingers, and the sensors in her armored gloves translated the movements to commands for the mechanical wings on her back, sending her spiraling down toward the small island of Uunisaari, half a mile from the port.
    “The body sensors are nice,” she said. “Very intuitive.”
    “It’s as close as it gets to being a bird,” said Foaly. “Unless you want to integrate?”
    “No thank you,” Holly said vehemently. She loved flying, but not enough to have a LEP surgeon stick a few implants in her cerebellum.
    “Very well, Captain Short,” said Foaly, switching to business mode.“Pre-op check. Three W’s, please.”
    The three W’s were every Reconnaissance officer’s checklist before approaching an operation’s zone: wings, weapon, and a way home.
    Holly checked the transparent readouts on her helmet visor.
    “Power cell, charged. Weapon on green. Wings and suit fully functional. No red lights.”
    “Excellent,” said Foaly. “Check, check, and check. Our screens agree.”
    Holly heard keys clicking as Foaly recorded this information in the mission log. The centaur was known for his fondness for old-school keyboards, even though he himself had patented an extremely efficient virtual keyboard.
    “Remember, Holly, this is just reconnaissance. Go down and check the sensor. Those things are two hundred years old, and the problem is more than likely a simple overheat. All you need to do is go where I tell you and fix what I tell you. No indiscriminate blasting involved. Understand?”
    Holly snorted. “I can see why Caballine fell for you, Foaly. You’re such a charmer.”
    Foaly snickered. “I don’t rise to jibes anymore, Holly. Marriage has mellowed me.”
    “Mellowed? I’ll believe that when you last ten minutes in a room with Mulch without throwing a hoof.”
    The dwarf Mulch Diggums had been at various times enemy, partner, and friend to Holly and Foaly. His greatest pleasure in life was stuffing his face, and not far behind that was irritating his various enemies, partners, and friends.
    “Perhaps I need a few more years of marriage before I get that mellow. A few more centuries, in fact.”
    The island was large in Holly’s visor now, surrounded by a monk’s fringe of foam. Time to stop the chitchat and proceed with the mission, though Holly was tempted to circle in a holding pattern so she could talk some more with her friend. It seemed as though this was the first real conversation they’d had since her return from Limbo. Foaly had moved on with life in the past three years, but for Holly her absence had lasted only a few hours, and, though she had not aged, Holly felt cheated of those years. The LEP psychiatrist would have told her she was suffering from Post-time-travel-displacement Depression, and offered to prescribe a nice shot to cheer her up. Holly trusted happy-shots just about as much as she trusted brain implants.
    “I’m going in,” she said tersely. This was her first solo mission since debriefing, and she did not want anything less than a perfect report, even if it was only Kraken Watch.
    “Copy,” said Foaly. “You see the sensor?”
    There were four bio-sensors on the island relaying information back to Police Plaza. Three pulsed a gentle green in Holly’s visor display unit. The fourth sensor was red. Red could mean many things. In this case, every reading had risen above normal levels. Temperature, heartbeat, brain activity. All on the danger line.
    It must be a malfunction , Foaly had explained. If not, the other sensors would show something.
    “I have it. Strong signal.”
    “Okay. Shield and approach.”
    Holly twisted her chin sharply left until her neck bone clicked, which was her way of summoning the magic. It wasn’t a necessary movement, since the magic was mostly a brain function, but fairies developed their own tics. She let a dribble of power