Quake Read Online Free PDF Page B

trade-mark grin. ‘Trust me Carter, you do not fucking want to know. Just keep it safe. I’ll be back for it soon.’
    Carter stared at the GridMap now. On it were markings, coordinates, and tiny tags reading ‘AnComm Post’. Carter had heard a rumour about AnComms, a back-up form of an analogue communication network Spiral were - supposedly - in the process of installing in the event of ECube failure in the future. Of course, Spiral was admitting none of it. The official line was that the ECube was infallible. And if their digital wonder-toy was flawless, then why integrate a back-up system?
    Still, Carter toyed with the tiny flexible digital GridMap. What was Jam up to?
    Pushing the item to one side, he looked down at his paper notes - notes for his speech which he had been diligently working on. His discarded pencil accused him, and the sheets looked far too blank for his liking.
    ‘Shit.’
    He sipped the water and, taking the pencil, chewed the end thoughtfully as he remembered Natasha’s words - it’s a huge responsibility, you mustn’t fuck it up for Jam and Nicky ... they have placed their utmost faith in you ...
    ‘Yeah, right. I wish the bastard had asked Slater instead. I can do without entertaining a bunch of drunken friends and family ... I would die for Jam, but perform his best-man speech?’ Carter realised that he was grumbling to himself, and he forced his mouth to shut. He stared hard at the page, chewing splinters, but inspiration was denied him. He knew that this leisurely atmosphere, this heady relaxation in the mountains should be highly conducive to work and creativity: but the words just would not flow.
    He read what he had already written in his untidy pencil scrawl:
    The Marriage of Nicky and Jam: Alexander the Great, ruler of the Greek Empire between 336 BC and 323 BC and the only man to ever conquer the exotic continent of Persia, quantified his Royal relationship with the Proletariat as this:

    ‘It is better to rule by fear than to rule by love. If you rule by love, the people can give it - but they can take it away. If you rule by fear, then you can enforce the fear and nobody can take that away from you.’

    Jam rules Nicky like Alexander ruled his Empire!
    Carter shook his head, dropped his pencil atop the notes which slithered out in a fan, and cursed Jam for the thousandth time. It was one thing performing a dual parachute raid on a terrorist HighJ explosives den, but quite another to stand in front of a group of people -family people - and attempt to fucking entertain them.
    Humour.
    Carter snorted. He hated the word. Humour was something that happened to other people.
    He peeped in on Natasha, breathing deeply in sleep, then on impulse moved to his bag and dug out his Browning 9mm and a few spare clips. He toyed with the familiar bulk of the battered old gun - it nestled in his grip, an old friend.
    ‘ You expecting trouble?’
    Carter ignored Kade, dressed, and grabbed his snowboard.
    ‘I always expect trouble,’ he muttered as he stepped into a landscape of dawn pastel shades that were too good to be true. A living breathing dreamland.
    Carter stood on the edge of the mountain. Sunlight glittered revealing a virgin dawn, sparkling across the snow like blood wine across a fistful of sprinkled diamonds. He crouched, feeling the flexible solidity of the snowboard beneath him; he twisted his ankles slightly, checking the torque of the quick-release bindings, then kicked himself free.
    Silence smashed him in the face. Exhilaration grasped his spine in its adrenalin fist and threw him head first down the mountain. He banked left, breath in a gasp, and a shower of snow hissed behind and to his right. Trees loomed. Carter ducked under branches and kicked gracefully around their grasping fingers. The board ... sang. Carter grinned harshly behind the black neoprene face mask and ski goggles, breathed out slowly, and fixed his gaze on the vertical drop flashing past on either side in