Helix Read Online Free PDF Page B

there,
or what’s left of it. A billion dead. A country wiped out.” He grunted. “Only
the temples are left standing.”
    “Plague?”
Hendry asked.
    “And
civil war, and drought.”
    A
while later the pilot commented, “To your left. That was Israel, Jordan, Syria
and all the rest. It’s a no-go area now. Nothing lives down there, not after
the nuke wars.”
    From
the air, the devastated region gave the paradoxical impression of calm, a
geographical serenity not matched by a century of conflict culminating in the
mutually destructive war of ‘75.
    Italy
was a parched wasteland, its surviving population having fled north a decade
ago. Only as the sub-orb screamed in over Austria did a kind of normality
return—though that was deceptive. Despite the sight of lush green valleys down
there, Hendry knew that Austria was no longer a functioning state; like eighty
per cent of other European countries, it had suffered from civil wars, plagues,
societal breakdown due to the more invidious malaise of mass unemployment as,
one by one, services necessary for the smooth running of a modern industrial
state had ceased functioning.
    Switzerland
was a fortified enclave populated by the rich and the privileged, and the
lucky—those who had found themselves in the right place at the right time:
Chrissie, for example. It was ironic that the Swiss state, for so long neutral
and without an army, now possessed the largest fighting force in the northern
hemisphere—employed to patrol the borders and keep undesirables out.
    Hendry
was taken by armed convoy from the spaceport to the ESO headquarters, a journey
of some half a kilometre through what looked like a shantytown of ad hoc
buildings and listless citizens roasting in the midday heat.
    His
driver saw him staring. “Mainly Italian and Greek refugees,” he said. “They
work in the factories, what few are still running.”
    By
contrast, the ESO compound was an oasis of modern brick buildings equipped with
air-conditioning. He was shown to an apartment overlooking a swimming pool, in
which tanned, healthy-looking Europeans disported themselves.
    He
underwent a comprehensive medical check-up later that afternoon, conscious for
the first time in years of his middle-age gut and general level of unfitness.
“We’ll soon knock you into shape,” the medic joked. “Now let’s have a look at
your head.” For the next hour he suffered tedious probes and prods as a
neuroscientist checked the functioning of his implants, the sub-dermal receptor
sites set flush to his skull that allowed him to interface with shipboard
smartware. It had been one of his fears that recent developments in that area
might have rendered his hardware obsolete—but the head-tech assured him that he
had nothing to worry about. There had been precious few innovations in that
area for at least ten years.
    The
following morning, at breakfast, he met Bruckner again. The man was just as
impeccably attired, and still insisted on wearing his trademark wraparound
shades.
    He
drank orange juice across the table from Hendry and gave an outline of what the
new arrival was to expect over the next few days. He would undergo basic
training—nothing that should prove too taxing, given his prior experience in
space—along with a regime of physical exercise. Before all that, he would meet
his five colleagues in the maintenance team. In a little under a week they
would take a shuttle up to the Lovelock , where cryo-technicians would
put them under for the long sleep.
    “And
you?” Hendry asked as Bruckner was about to rise and leave.
    The
official smiled and resumed his seat. “You mean, am I coming along?” He shook
his head. “I applied but was rejected. Middle-management hacks are not in high
demand for the colony the ESO plans for out there.”
    “I’m
sorry.”
    Bruckner
nodded. “But if you think I’m doing this out of altruism, well...”
    Hendry
wondered what possible reward there might be, other than job