The Fall of Chance Read Online Free PDF

doing?
    He stopped and talked with Mélie, Olissa and a third girl, Frid. Frid was a dumpy tomboy who was always in khaki and was destined for the Engineers. Why would he be talking to them? Was he trying his luck while the cat was away? Maybe they’d had a falling out?
    But then Unt saw his answer. Crystal emerged from the crowd right beneath Rob, Mélie and the others. It seemed impossible that she could have been hidden by a mere mass of bodies. She wore a lilac dress and seemed to have her own purple glow about her. She enticed the eye like bait wriggling on a hook but here she wasn’t the one playing the lure. Unt thought he saw what Rob was doing: if there was one thing that was sure to draw a girl who liked you it was talking to other girls.
    A blow between the shoulder blades nearly tilted him from his perch. “Grub’s up,” said Bulton.
    Unt looked at the queue for the food. “It’s still busy.”
    “That’s because all the good stuff’s getting eaten. Come on! It’ll all be gone if we don’t get a shift on. I think I see a slab of tomato flatbread with my name on it.”
    Unt could have thanked Bull and his insatiable stomach but still he looked back to the others. “Anyone else coming?”
    “No, they’re all morose idiots like yourself,” said Bull.
    “Morose is a bit of a big word for you.”
    “How about decapitation? Anyway, what’s big is the hole in my stomach.”
    “It’ll be big to match your stomach if you don’t stop eating.”
    “If I get a wife who can’t cook I might just do that. The way I see it, this could be our best chance of a decent meal for a long time. Now, pick up those bandy legs of yours and come get some food with me.”
    With that, Bull bodily hauled him to his feet and they wandered back into the throng. Bull elbowed his way in near the queue, ignoring the protests of those already standing behind.
    “You ready for tomorrow?” Bull asked from out of nowhere.
    “What?” asked Unt, taken off-guard. Bull’s eyes seemed to look everywhere but at Unt, as though he hadn’t asked the question.
    “Are you ready?” Bull repeated, head scanning the Square.
    “You’re not nervous are you?” Unt laughed. In all the years he’d known Bulton, this was as uncertain as Unt had ever seen him. Maybe there was some doubt under that guileless veneer.
    Unt felt the press of something cold, metallic and flat in his palm. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
    Automatically, Unt looked down and felt a boot kick his own. He took the hint and looked away to the fountain but his glimpse had been enough. He’d caught the polished gleam of a hipflask, the curve of metal and now he could feel the liquid rolling inside.
    “A bit of advice from my father,” Bull muttered. His mask of innocence failed and he couldn’t stop a grin from escaping.
    Unt slipped the flask up his sleeve, one-handed. He fiddled with the screw cap, working blind and was hindered by a sudden lurch in the queue. Finally, he got it undone. Keeping the bottle so it stayed upright, he faked a cough and under the guise of covering his mouth, took a gulp. The fake cough instantly became genuine as the coarse liquid etched a fiery path down his throat.
    “Hard-hitting advice, you could say!” laughed Bulton as Unt palmed the liquor back. “It was his parting gift to me and I’m sure he’d want you to benefit too.”
    Unt could feel the alcohol’s warmth coursing through his body. “And did he know he was giving such strong advice?”
    Bull shrugged. “Maybe not at the time, but I’m sure he’ll see in the morning.”
    “And did you make a roll to see if you should take it?”
    “For precious paternal advice? Only two dots would stop me heeding it.”
    ‘Two dots’ was a double-one on the dice. Bull was saying he’d rolled to see if he would take the booze but only a score of two would stop him. That put him in murky waters. It was a crime to fix odds when making a professional decision but for