Nova War Read Online Free PDF Page B

can talk about this later,’ Remembrance parried. ‘I have the direct authority of my own Queen, and that’s enough. You know from my reputation that I’d never call in a raid without extraordinarily good reasons.’
    Honeydew looked less than convinced. ‘You still don’t have the jurisdiction to go pulling stunts like this. I’d rather—’
    ‘Listen, someone somewhere inside your Hive has been keeping Bourdain under cover and well out of sight. That’s exactly how he’s been staying ahead of us. And that means somebody on the inside of your own security service is working against you,’ Remembrance continued patiently. ‘If I’d done things the usual way – the approved way – we’d have lost him again, so I called in a raid using my own authority—’
    And didn’t bother to tell me until it was already under way?’
    ‘—since your chain of command is compromised, as I just explained. So here’s what we do: we go in now, grab Bourdain -and then maybe we’ll have the last link in the smuggling chain.’
    Honeydew buzzed his wings in indecision. ‘If he isn’t there, you’ll be at the mercy of our Hive, and even your precious Queen of Darkening Skies won’t be able to do a damn thing to help you.’
    ‘Let’s just get this over with,’ Remembrance snapped, ‘and save the threats until later, okay?’ He reached up and pulled his shotgun loose, then held it close against his chest. Honeydew fixed his gaze on the shotgun barrel for a moment, then drew his own. ‘You are aware, I hope, of the precise nature of the establishment we’re about to enter?’
    Remembrance of Things Past glanced towards the cave entrance. Apart from the polished stone floor of the ledge beyond, little had been done to alter its natural appearance: just a rough-edged, eight-metre-tall crack in the side of the mountain, wide enough at its base for several Bandati to enter side by side.
    Uncultivated wild scrub grew on the rising slopes above the cave entrance, immediately over which an enormous sign of glowing multicoloured tubes had been constructed: a crude animation of monstrous jaws alternately opening and closing on a crowd of helpless – but clearly human – diners.
    ‘It’s a public eating establishment,’ Remembrance replied, with a world-weariness that spoke of a lifetime of having seen all too much. ‘A restaurant, as the human vernacular has it.’
    Such public consumption of food was taboo within the Bandati culture, and only the most offensively perverted of their species gathered together in order to practise it. Remembrance had become aware that the restaurant’s human owners were discreetly servicing an exclusive Bandati clientele that greatly valued their privacy.
    ‘I’ve raided places like this before, Honeydew.’ He glanced up at the sign above the cave entrance. ‘Mind you, actually advertising it this way . . . that’s got to be a slap in the face for common decency, hasn’t it?’
    ‘It’s called The Maw,’ Honeydew explained.
    Remembrance stared back at him in incomprehension.
    ‘It’s become quite famous,’ Honeydew continued. ‘The owners are proponents of what they call “extreme dining”.’ Raising his shotgun for a moment, he added, ‘Believe me, it’s not the place to start a fire-fight.’
    All I know about it is that it’s a place of public eating, designed for other species.’
    ‘By my Queen’s sphincter, all this time on Ironbloom and you don’t. . .’ Honey dew’s wings flickered in exasperation. ‘Listen, the restaurant is a living organism, a maul-worm. Its body extends deep inside the caves that riddle the mountainside. It adheres very closely to the curves and contours of those caves. The inside of a maul-worm is basically a miniature ecosystem in its own right, and dozens of other species have taken up residence there. For the most part, the worms live a long time. They hardly ever move unless provoked, and they reproduce maybe once a century. The