Terminal World Read Online Free PDF

didn’t I?’
    ‘That was your job back then,’ Quillon said. ‘Before you hung up your badge.’
    ‘Worst mistake I ever made. Other than not turning you in.’
    ‘Do you want to know what happened or not?’ Without waiting for an answer, Quillon told him about the angel and their conversation during the examination and autopsy. ‘Then I called you. I drove by my apartment - I know you told me not to go home, but I didn’t stop or slow down - and then I came here.’
    ‘Told you not to do that, Cutter.’
    ‘No one saw me.’
    ‘You hope. Did you notice anyone there who shouldn’t have been?’
    ‘Only a van from the Boundary Commission, badly disguised as a vehicle from Hygiene and Works. I assume that didn’t have anything to do with the mess I’m in.’
    ‘Right now I wouldn’t assume anything. It isn’t just the local administration getting twitchy. They’re stockpiling pharms all over the city. You probably heard about that.’
    ‘There’ve been some shortages in drug deliveries,’ Quillon said, thinking back to the morgue’s dwindling inventory. ‘I just assumed there was a problem in the supply chain.’
    ‘There isn’t. This is coordinated and deliberate, and it smells of someone being very scared indeed. Word is it goes all the way up and all the way down. That includes the Celestial Levels, in case you weren’t paying attention. A big shift, a major realignment, would hurt the angels just as badly as it hurts us. So yes, it could all be tied in.’ Fray gave him a grin that was somewhere between pitying and sympathetic. ‘Hate to break it to you, but you’re a loose end. Could be someone’s decided to tidy you up before the big one hits.’
    ‘Judging by what the angel said, they had more in mind than just tidying me up.’
    ‘Getting at those buried memories, in the hope that you know something vital about the infiltration process? Doesn’t that strike you as a long shot?’
    ‘Maybe I do know something. It isn’t beyond the bounds of possibility.’
    ‘The angel give you any idea about how long you need to lie low?’
    ‘Not really. He said something about a change in Celestial Levels, some kind of coup. If it works, I can return. If it doesn’t, it’s always going to be dangerous for me here - and dangerous for anyone who tries to shelter me.’
    ‘This coup - are we talking about something imminent?’
    ‘Could be months away for all I know. But however long it takes, that’s how long I’ll have to keep out of Spearpoint. It isn’t just about protecting my own neck, either. If I’m valuable, then I’m valuable to the people who sent the angel down as well.’
    ‘Whose motives we don’t know for sure.’
    ‘They gave me the weapon, Fray. That suggests they have my best interests in mind.’
    ‘This weapon you still haven’t shown me.’
    ‘I’ve got it with me.’ Quillon took another sip of the Red Eye. ‘You mentioned your extraction specialist. That was news to me. Whenever we talked about this, it was always you who was going to get me out of Spearpoint.’
    Fray leaned back in his chair. ‘Maybe it’s escaped your attention, but I’m getting a little ragged around the edges lately. The drugs aren’t doing it for me any more, not unless I dial up the dosage.’
    ‘Looks to me as if you’ve dialled it up about as far as it’ll go,’ Quillon said. The decline since their last meeting was worse than he had expected.
    Fray accepted this diagnosis with a powerful, twitch-like shrug. He scratched a finger under his right eye. ‘There’s no way I can go deeper than Steamville, much less survive beyond Spearpoint. I’ll see you to the station, but from then on you’ll be in Meroka’s hands. You don’t have to worry about her. She has her quirks, but she gets the job done. Already more than a dozen successful extractions under her belt.’
    ‘Out of how many attempts?’
    ‘Oh, please. What matters is that she can do this, and she’s ready and