Monster Hunter Bloodlines - eARC by Larry Correia (read a book .txt) 📕

perfectly normal, and the Ward wasn’t there anymore. Somebody must have figured out how to remove it already, and in such a way that it hadn’t even left a mark. “What are you doing here?”

“I was just reading.”

“Were you crying?”

“No. Of course not.” Sonya was clearly lying and doing her best to hide the fact that she really had been crying. She wiped her nose and sniffed. “It’s dusty in here.”

“You’re supposed to be confined to one of the guest rooms but, let me guess, you changed your face again so you could sneak past the guards unnoticed?”

“Yeah, dude, I totally risked getting shot by some trigger-happy goons just so I could go to the library.”

“I’ll pass that on to our librarian. He’ll take it as a compliment. Let’s go.”

“Wait. Earl gave me permission to wander around the main building, as long as I didn’t mess with anything or get in the way. And this is my real face. I was born with this one.”

If she wasn’t lying, she was actually a lot more unremarkable-looking than most of the masks she wore. I thought it over, trying to decide if she was telling the truth, or if I needed to escort her back to her room. My gut told me she was lying. After the stunts she’d pulled, Earl wouldn’t let her wander around our basement unsupervised. We had some scary shit stored down here and secret tunnels that could be used to escape.

“Come on, Sonya. I’ve got a finely tuned bullshit detector.”

“Just give me a few more minutes, please?”

I looked to see what she’d been reading that was so important. I could read the numbered sticker on the side. Coincidently, the notebook in her hands was the very same one I’d just been looking for. Then the realization slowly dawned that the memoirs she’d been reading had been written by her dead father. She saw me looking at it, and then she knew that I knew. Sonya got embarrassed and put the book on the table. This had just gotten awkward.

“Have you read your dad’s stuff before?”

“Sure. Earl made copies after you guys found them and mailed them to Mom, but I wanted to see the originals because . . . ” She trailed off for a moment. “Never mind. I don’t really know.”

“Yeah, you do.” I picked up the book and handed it back to her. “And there’s no shame in that.”

She took the memoirs, looked at them, and then sighed. “I guess it’s because my dad touched these pages, so it’s different. You know?”

“I do, kinda.” It hadn’t been that long since I’d lost my dad, and sometimes I still forgot he was gone. It wasn’t like we’d been super close most of my adult life, but I suppose I’d just taken for granted that he’d always be there. At least I had known mine. Sonya had never had that chance. And thinking about that made me feel a little bad for her, and the next thing I knew I was trying to be helpful.

“I looked at those after Lee found them. Your dad seems like quite the character.”

“You think he’s full of shit.”

“I didn’t say that.” Some of the guys had, but I didn’t say that part out loud. “Hunters tend to be a little colorful in our recounting of events is all. Some more than others. Earl and Milo vouched for him. That’s good enough for me.”

“All I ever knew about Dad was what my mom told me. She always said he was the brightest and bravest human she’d ever seen. She really loved him, which you’ve got to understand is a big deal for one of her kind to fall for a human. As I got older I always thought she might be exaggerating. You’ve got to understand that my mom’s kind of a hopeless romantic. She’s addicted to Scottish time travel romance novels. She’s a little flighty, so I take her stories with a grain of salt. But after reading his memoirs, it’s like I’m hearing his voice. I don’t know, it changes things, makes him seem more real to me.”

Sonya and I had gotten off on the wrong foot, but she was basically a scared kid who’d gotten pulled into some crazy business, so there was no need for me to be a jerk when she was being vulnerable. I pulled up one of the other chairs and sat down.

“I get it. I didn’t really understand my dad most of my life either, and mine was around. Sometimes you think you know somebody, but then it’s not until you get older that you really understand what makes your parents tick.”

“Was your dad cool?”

“Cool?” I snorted. “If you mean cool as in nice or fun, oh, hell no. But he was a good man. And probably the toughest man I’ve known, and I work here. Look, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to connect with your past. Even if you didn’t meet him, he’s still part of you, and part of where you come from. You should take that memoir and keep it with you during your stay. But just make sure you put it back before you leave, because Albert will lose his friggin’ mind if somebody messes up his system.”

She laughed, but did keep the book on her lap. “Thanks . . . About the whole thing with yesterday, I really am sorry about how that went down. I kinda stepped in it, and you guys have done nothing but try and help me. I even threatened to shoot you.”

“Hey, I’m fine. Though you should probably take it up with Milo. He’s a nice guy and gets kind of sensitive about being taken hostage.”

“That wasn’t my finest moment.” She seemed genuinely contrite.

“It really was a douche move. But Milo is honestly about the kindest and most forgiving person in the world. He’s like Mr. Rogers but with more guns. Talk to him. You’ll see.”

“I’ll apologize to him,” she promised.

I gestured at her hand. “I see the Ward is gone. Was