Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour Read Online Free PDF Page A

not by the Plascrete.’
    ‘The, uh, chemsniffer,’ Rice said, looking down at a gadget she was holding to avoid looking at the skeletons. ‘The chemsniffer is showing higher than normal levels of sulphur compounds in here. The walls are coated in the stuff.’
    ‘Mystery solved, I guess,’ Aneka said, frowning. Somehow it did not feel right.
    ‘Looks like it,’ Grumand agreed. ‘I can write this up. If we have time, I’ll come back and do a more detailed survey of the area, for completeness.’
    ‘Can we leave?’ Rice asked. ‘There’s nothing living here for me to look at.’
    ‘Yeah, sure, we can go.’
    Aneka let them go ahead of her, and pulled the door closed behind her. It seemed right, but as she did so she noticed that the bottom of the door had been burned away in the same way as the one in the stairwell had been, almost as though some lava had crawled across the floor to do it.
    Yorkbridge Mid-town, New Earth.
    Ella was out at a club, but she was not out clubbing. Her mode of dress, translucent halter top and micro-skirt, suggested she was there for a good time, and she smiled brightly as she moved through the crowd, but actually she was just looking for someone.
    Toward the back she spotted a bright patch of red, and moved closer. Sure enough a tall, lithe woman with an expansive chest and long, scarlet hair was moving between the tables with a tray. Ella spotted an empty table, caught the woman’s eye in passing, and went over to sit down.
    Smiling very brightly, the waitress strutted across to Ella’s table a moment later. ‘What can I get you?’
    ‘Something warming,’ Ella replied, ‘it’s cold out.’ Which was a dumb signal in a way; it was hardly ever cold on New Earth at this latitude.
    ‘Okay, I’ll be right with you.’
    Ella waited quietly for just over a minute, and then got up to slip back out of the bar. She was around a hundred metres away when a tall, buxom, brunette woman fell into step beside her.
    ‘We got a message through from New Earth a couple of days ago,’ Ella said. ‘They’ve had attacks on ships moving between Old Earth and Titan, and they haven’t been able to identify the attackers.’
    ‘That sounds familiar,’ the brunette replied.
    ‘We need to let them know about that theory, but…’
    ‘Yes, you’re quite right, your messages are monitored. I can arrange something.’
    Ella nodded. ‘I was hoping you could.’
    ‘How are things? We haven’t talked in a while.’
    ‘Well, Aneka’s off world. Aside from that it’s business as usual. The education programmes on Old Earth seem to be going well. How about here?’
    ‘The mole is doing a good job of keeping awareness of the problem down, but the Navy is still pushing for greater activity in the areas being attacked.’
    ‘Are they going to get it?’
    ‘Yes, which is worrying.’
    Ella frowned. ‘Why?’
    ‘Because those areas are all well away from the Herosian border. Goodnight, Ella.’
    The brunette picked up her pace and Ella let her pull away, watching Winter’s back as she left.
    Farrington’s World, 8.9.528 FSC.
    Aneka watched her diagnostics scroll past in-vision, mostly because she always did, but also because it gave her longer before she opened her eyes and discovered that Ella was not in bed with her.
    Not that there was any room for the little redhead in the cot. Not that the lack of space would have stopped them from being in bed together anyway. Aneka smiled. Ella could always make her smile, even at a distance of ninety-six parsecs. Opening her eyes, Aneka slipped out of bed and reached for her clothes.
    Monkey was sitting in the mess with his feet on the table. Aneka grinned at him. ‘You can go to bed now if you want,’ she said.
    ‘Thanks.’ He lifted his feet down and turned off the tablet he was reading. ‘I sent Delta to bed an hour ago. Her yawning was getting to me.’
    ‘Huh. Anyone else up?’
    ‘Primly. He never went to bed. He’s in the ops room working