Stealing Time by Rebecca Bowyer (acx book reading .txt) 📕

it, so I still and waitfor an encore. It’s a noise I haven’t heard in many years.

There it is again. A wet, choking sound,followed by a thump on the wall.

“Kir!” I wail as I leap out of bed, ignoringmy protesting, creaky limbs, and bound into his room.

Kir is having a seizure.

I go into autopilot, clearing the areaaround him, making sure he won’t hurt himself with the jerking andflailing limbs.

It lasts just minutes, but it changeseverything.

Afterwards, he is still again, and I havewiped his mouth. His pale, bruised eyelids have closed again, andhis breathing is regular. I sit, and I let the tears fall down mycheeks and feel the fear constrict my chest.

Time is moving on for Kir. Maybe it’s only aminute, but it’s enough. Time is running out.

Chapter forty-four

Varya

Varya sat on the couch for a long time after Zoeleft. She emptied her vodka glass and still she stayed, watchingthe last of the day’s light refracted through the crystal patterns.The light faded altogether and still she stayed, in the near-dark,the only illumination a faint glow from the kitchen light in thenext room.

Zoe’s words haunted her. She had found acure to Kir’s disease, it was true. It had happened faster thanshe’d feared, though more slowly than she’d hoped. She’d arrangedfor the operating theatre at the Minor Miracles Foundation to beopened secretly. Professor Langford had arranged for the surgeon,anaesthetist, and theatre nurses to visit on a Sunday morning. Theywere told that Kir was the child of a major donor to the charitywho didn’t want to wait until the treatment passed the myriadwaiting periods and evidentiary requirements for new treatments.They were sure this would work.

The day she’d brought Kir out of the TimeLock was magical. So much hope, so much excitement from the littleboy who’d spent two years already locked away. He’d wanted to toucheverything in the apartment; he’d commented on everything he sawfrom the car on the way to the research facility. Varya had beentoo tense to respond to most of it. Marisa answered his questions.Yes, the other cars move too. Yes, it is very dark at night-time,but the lights come on so that everyone can see. No, this isn’t thesame area he lived in with Nanna. Yes, Nanna was fine back at theapartment.

“Oh no, I have no interest in coming withyou to the operation. I am very much looking forward to havingmyself a nice, long, hot shower here in your apartment, thank youvery much. With running water. Lots and lots of running water,”Elena had told her. That was another anomaly of the Time Lock—norunning water. All the water had to be brought in from the outsidein large containers and fed into the plumbing system. The pipes hadfrozen in time.

Six weeks, Elena and Kir and spent outsideof the Time Lock. The operation was difficult. A new procedure, asmall mistake resulting in significant blood loss. Kir pulledthrough though, transfusions of donor blood were close at hand toreplace what he lost. A new learning for the research team; amistake that would not be repeated on the next child. Thepost-operative treatment was successful. Varya had started to turnher mind to her mother’s Rest Time Ceremony. After gaining an extratwo years of time, she had just one day left.

Kir was home in his own bedroom in theapartment when he’d had the first seizure.

Varya positioned him so he wouldn’t hurthimself, and waited. Then she called Professor Langford, who calledthe medical team back in. Varya and Kir met them at the researchfacility late that night. The scans were clear. The cancer hadn’treturned.

“What, then?” Varya demanded.

“The treatment successfully destroyed thetumour. But it also appears to have caused problems with his RestTime Chip,” he explained quietly.

So, it was her fault. She was the one whohad rushed the treatment through, who demanded it be carried out ona live patient before all the hurdles had been cleared. The hurdleswere normally just administrative hoops that never showed upanything else they hadn’t anticipated. Her research teams werenothing but thorough.

But the Time Chips. How could the treatmenthave affected them? It just wasn’t something that had ever come upbefore.

“I think we can isolate the particularchemical which caused the reaction, test it out on other Time Chipsto be certain.” The doctor paused. He looked down at his feet. “Itwon’t be a problem in future patients.”

“And Kir?” Varya tipped her head, trying tocatch his eye, trying to force him to look at her and tell her thetruth, but make it a good truth. An easy truth. A certaintruth.

He shook his head and met her gaze with painand sorrow. “I don’t know. It will take time to find a way toneutralise the reaction. And I don’t think the young lad has enoughtime to wait. I’m so sorry.”

And so, Kir was stabilised again and Elenawent back into the Time Lock with him, with just hours to spareuntil her own Rest Time Ceremony. Kir sulked for days, asking aboutthe moving people and why he couldn’t go and play with the cat inthe stairwell again.

At least, this is what Elena told herdaughter when Varya finally came to visit them after six days ofabsence. By then, Elena and Kir had settled into their routineagain. Although Kir remained a little more sullen and cross thanusual.

Varya ran her finger around the rim of hercrystal vodka glass and relished the musical ringing it elicited.She was just starting to feel calm enough to consider getting upfor a refill. The doorbell buzzed and Varya shuddered, both at thejarring sound and the concerning meaning that came with it. Shewasn’t expecting anyone. The doorbell buzzed again. This time shegot up to answer it.

“Sebastian.”

“Hey.” He held up his hand in a half-heartedwave. Varya thought he looked tired, defeated. She still didn’twant him in her apartment, nor in her life. His presence forced herto confront things in a more immediate fashion than she cared to.His physical proximity scrambled her mind and his scent distractedher. She stood, her hand on the doorhandle and her body blockinghis entrance to the apartment, waiting.

“Can I come in?” he said at last.

“Why?”

He raised his