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

lawn mower had a baby with a tree trimmer except it had a machine gun mounted on it and the whole thing appeared to be remote-controlled.

“What does he do here exactly?” Sonya whispered.

“Whatever he feels like. Milo goes where his muse takes him. I just pay the invoices and try to stay out of the way.”

Milo had heard me. “Oh yeah. If monsters hadn’t eaten my family when I was a kid, I’d probably be building Mars rovers now, or maybe working at a Ren Faire. Could’ve gone either way, I think.”

“He’s a mechanical genius,” I said.

“Naw. I just get ideas and then poke at them until they work or blow up. That happens a lot too. Anyways, I’m really sorry about how it went yesterday.”

“I’m the one who attacked you.”

“Yeah, but it was a heated situation. You roll with it, sometimes you make a dumb decision, but we all learned from it, and nobody got shot, so no hard feelings.” We reached the back corner where Milo had set up his forge. There was a big anvil and a wall full of hammers and tongs. Milo had all the modern tools for metal working, like lathes and drill presses, but sometimes he felt like going old school. “Hey, Z. You mind giving me and Sonya a minute?”

“Sure thing, man.” I looked to Sonya. “Promise not to take him hostage again?”

“I’ll try not to,” she said sarcastically.

I nodded and walked around the corner to give them some privacy. I didn’t wander off too far though, not because I was worried, but because I was curious. Milo was being kind of weird. Not his regular weird-weird this time, but awkward weird. There was a pair of electronic earmuffs hanging off one of Milo’s power hammers, so I put them on and then cranked up the volume on the microphone so I could listen in on their conversation. It was probably rude of me to spy, but I was trying to look out for my friends, and I still didn’t entirely trust the shifty shapeshifter to not stab us in the back again.

Sonya was apologizing, “I really am sorry. I know you and my dad were tight and—”

Milo stopped her. “Yeah. We were. Which is why I needed to apologize to you.”

“But I . . . ”

“You screwed up one day, Sonya, but I screwed up years. Your dad was one of my best friends. I should have helped more after he was gone, just because of that. I owed Chad that. Only I was never there for you.”

“I remember we met once,” she said, sounding hesitant. “Or did I imagine that?”

“A few times actually, only you were little.”

“I just remember somebody who made me laugh who had a big fluffy red beard.”

“That was me. The beard’s greyer now, but yeah. I used to stop by to check on you guys. Me and my buddy Sam, he’s gone now too . . . but your mom . . . well . . . we’d get to reminiscing about your pop, and the whole thing just kind of made her sad.”

“She does struggle with depression.”

“I think it’s because she longs for her home. There aren’t too many things that make Earth okay for her. You’re one. Your pop was another. Only whenever I’d visit, it was like reminding her of what had been taken from her, what could have been. She’d end up in a funk afterwards, and it was my fault. I was doing more harm to your family than good. I tried to be a good uncle, and instead I was a painful reminder. I’m not good at not talking about things. Now, Earl, he’s great at never talking about emotional stuff. So he kept visiting, but I stopped. I don’t think your mom liked being reminded of the old days.”

“Yeah . . . I’m finding out that my mom was a lot more selective about telling me about things than I ever thought.”

“Don’t get mad at her. It’s a parent’s duty to protect their kids. She did what she thought was right. But either way, I wasn’t ever there for you, and for that, I’m really sorry. Meeting you makes me feel like I let your dad down.”

“Because I’m a thief and a screw-up?”

“I didn’t say that. I think you’re a young woman who made the best choices she could and ended up dealing with some really bad people.”

“Yeah, when the Church guys asked me to grab the package, I didn’t know Stricken was—”

Milo cut her off. “I’m not naive, Sonya. You don’t suddenly know how to steal things, beat up a bunch of Feds, and have preplanned escape routes the first time you do something like that. You’ve been up to some shenanigans.”

Sonya gave an embarrassed laugh. “Okay, yeah, you got me. It seems like a waste to have powers and not use them to have some fun.”

Milo used his dad voice. “Who else have you robbed?”

“Drug dealers mostly. Okay, yeah, I haven’t always made the wisest decisions . . . Please don’t tell my mom.”

“I get it. I was a teenager when I started doing this stuff. You wouldn’t believe some of the stupid crap I did! When we have more time, remind me to tell you about me and your dad playing zombie golf.”

“Zombie golf?”

“Long story and no time. I’ve got a lot of work to do before sundown, but I would love to talk more later.”

“I think I’d like that, Milo.”

“Cool.” Milo sounded relieved that he might actually get to fulfill some self-appointed-uncle responsibilities. “Anyways, I wanted to give you something.” There was some noise as Milo started moving items around on a shelf. “Now, I’m no samurai bladesmith whose family has five hundred years of experience folding meteor steel ten million times and all that metaphysical bushido, soul of the sword stuff that Chad liked to go on about, but I did win the competition on the one episode of Forged in Fire I was on.”

Now I was really curious, so I poked my head back around the corner to see what Milo was giving her. There was a