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

looked up when the colleague did; overhis shoulder his eyes met Varya’s. He murmured something else tohis colleague and walked toward her.

“If you could wait outside for now…” hesuggested gently.

“Why is he in my apartment? How did he getin without a…” Varya trailed off as she stared at Reg. Everythingstarted to fall into place. “Marisa… is Marisa here?”

Sebastian shook his head.

“Mum?” she said. She started to calculate inher head how many hours she’d been away for; how many hours hermother might have been outside of the Time Lock for. How many hoursshe might have left until her Rest Time kicked in.

He pressed his lips together and flicked hiseyes towards the kitchen.

“Mum!” she called out, a plea this time. Shetried to walk towards the internal door separating the two rooms,but Sebastian stepped in front of her.

He shook his head. “Not yet. She’s stillbeing questioned.”

“Questioned? Why are you questioning her?She has nothing to do with this, she’s…” Varya tried to push himout of the way but he took her by both arms and steered heraround.

“Let’s go outside into the hall where it’s abit quieter. I can explain there.”

Varya’s head swam but she clutched tightlyto her handbag as she allowed herself to be led out of her ownapartment. She pressed her fingers against the shape of thescanner, nestled next to her screen in the bag’s centralcompartment, reassuring herself it was still there. She wasn’tentirely sure what use it would be now, but she had to have it. Itwas her security blanket. Something to bargain with, perhaps.Sebastian led her to the small padded bench seat on thelanding.

“Did you know your mother was seeing Reg?”he started.

Varya shook her head. “No, I had no idea.She can’t be involved with this, she wouldn’t…”

Sebastian held his hand up. “We know. Shewasn’t directly involved. We caught the perpetrators earlier today.Reg swears he doesn’t know them, but they seem to know him and havecopied the tech he stole from Rest Time Corps. Fortunately, theydidn’t copy it particularly well. As we suspected, it’s aninaccurate duplicate and not functioning the way it should.”

“So, why is he being arrested? Why do youhave him in cuffs?”

“Varya, he’s still responsible for a serioustheft. And that theft led—albeit indirectly—to the deaths of fourkids.”

Three kids, thought Varya. She studiedSebastian’s face for signs that he knew about the Time Lock,whether he’d found Daniel.

“Have you notified the children’s familiesyet?” she asked.

“Not yet. We’ll get Reg processed and theothers fully questioned before we make those calls.”

So no, he hadn’t found the Time Lock.Otherwise Zoe would have been one of the first people hecalled.

“How about the people they sold the kids’life spans to? Have you found them?”

Sebastian nodded. “Yes, we have. They’vebeen taken into custody for receiving stolen goods. We’re stilltrying to decide what else to charge them with, and what theirpunishment should be. We can’t allow them to benefit from theproceeds of their crime. At the very least, we’ll confiscate theadditional life span they stole.”

Varya pulled her handbag onto her lap,opened it, and handed him the black scanner.

“Is this…?” He turned it over, examining itas though he knew anything about the technology. Varya had to biteher lower lip to stop herself from laughing inappropriately.

“Yes.”

“You figured it out? It works? That’s prettyimpressive.” He weighed it in his hands. “It’ll need to bedestroyed again, though, after we confiscate the perpetrators’stolen life spans. It’s no use to us now, with the kids…”

With the kids already dead, is what he meantto say.

“I’ll hold onto it for now, if that’s okay,while the higher-ups decide what to do with it,” he said.

Varya’s mind was already ticking over,trying to figure this bit out. She’d been so focused on gettingDaniel out of immediate danger she hadn’t planned ahead for the bitwhere her team actually succeeded in reinventing the time transfertech and Sebastian’s team succeeded in catching Daniel’s life spanrecipient.

“Your mum said she did it for you, youknow.”

“Did what?”

Sebastian stared at her long and hard.“Asked Reg to steal the time transfer tech.”

She frowned. “What? For me? That doesn’tmake any sense.”

He shook his head. “No. It didn’t make senseto me either.” He stood up and stretched to his full height. “I’llneed you to wait out here until Reg has been read his rights andremoved to the station. Then I’ll come out and bring you inside.You’ll be able to talk to your mum then.”

“You’re not taking Mum into custody,then?”

Sebastian looked at her curiously. “No,we’re not. She says she doesn’t have long until her Rest Time.Maybe hours. We’ll question her and then she’ll remain here withyou. It’s what she wants.”

Varya just stared right back at him as hereturned to her apartment, her mind whirling.

If the time thieves had used the timetransfer tech during the abduction of the children, it must havebeen stolen well before Daniel was taken. Why would her mother askReg to steal the tech before then? For herself? Did she hope toextend her own life span? It made no sense at all. Varya fidgetedand chewed on her tongue, hoping they would finish the questioningquickly.

It felt like hours, but her screen told herit was just seventeen minutes later, the door swung wide again, andReg was led out by Sebastian’s colleague and the uniformedofficer.

“Varya,” Reg nodded.

Varya looked at him, taking in hisdishevelled appearance. Did he feel guilty for what he’d done?

“I’m so sorry, love,” he said, as thoughhe’d read her mind.

“I’m sorry, too, Reg.” If it hadn’t been forher mother would he ever have thought to try to steal the timetransfer tech? None of this mess might ever have happened. Theofficers moved Reg along and they started the several storeydescent down the stairs. Sebastian appeared at the door. The messhad thrown her in the way of him again, which wasn’t all bad. She’dbeen meaning to contact him, to ask about Kir, she’d been workingher way up to it. She just wanted to try a few more things, to makeabsolutely sure it wasn’t something she could fix herself.

“You can come in now,” said Sebastian. “Yourmum’s asking for you.”

He disappeared back down the hallway. Varyafollowed him, closing the door behind her.

Chapter fifty

Elena