The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke - Sample Chapters

close looked like the walls of a mirrored maze. And threading through the stomping, rushing feet of all the pedestrians were city-stamped worker-bots, sleek as beetles, that sucked up dirty slips of paper and cardboard cups and trails of broken glass.

Her parents went first to a used electronics shop, the walls festooned with wires and circuit boards, the shelves crammed with ancient, dusty computer shells. Antique and Current blinked an LED light hanging above the door. When they stepped inside, Cat’s father strode up to the man at the counter, called out a name in greeting – Cat didn’t catch it, but from the sound of their friendly, familiar laughter her father and the man knew each other.

Cat slunk down the aisles, bored. The old fluorescent lights flickered overhead. Cat made her way to the back of the store. Another LED sign: Robotics. A doorway closed off with a black curtain.

Cat stopped in front of the doorway. She listened to her father’s laughter drifting up from the front of the store. Then she wrapped her fingers around the curtain. Tugged it aside. She poked her head in.

It didn’t look that much different from the rest of the store. More old computer parts. The light back here was dim. Cat eased her way past the curtain.

Her interest, piqued by the blinking sign, was starting to fade.

Something tugged at the corner of her vision. She swung her head around: she wasn’t alone in the room. A tall, wide figure leaned against the wall opposite, unmoving, gazing at her. Cat stood still