The Temporal Void Read Online Free PDF

could ever assemble the myriad components and make it work. ‘So I can call her and arrange a meeting?’
    Stubsy produced a strange little laugh, his eyes crinkled up. ‘Sure.’
    ‘Thank you,’ Troblum said. He used the secure link he was maintaining to his starship to call ANA:Governance’s security division.
    ‘Yes, Troblum,’ ANA:Governance said.
    ‘Connect me to Paula Myo, please.’
    ‘As you wish.’
    Paula Myo came on line. ‘Are you ready to meet?’
    ‘I told you not to stealth your ship.’
    ‘I haven’t.’
    ‘Then where are you?’
    ‘Close to Sholapur.’
    ‘All right. I’m at Ikeo city, Florac’s villa, I’ve arranged for him to let you through the city’s defences. How long will it take you to reach me?’
    ‘I can be there within a couple of hours.’
    ‘Fine, I’ll be waiting.’ Troblum ended the call. He glanced over at Stubsy, who hadn’t moved. ‘She’ll be here in two hours.’ Which wasn’t exactly what she’d said, a pedantic section of his mind acknowledged. Paula would never lie, but there were a lot of ambiguities in the way she’d phrased it.
    ‘Cool,’ Stubsy said.
    ‘Can I see the collection?’
    ‘Sure thing, man. It’s downstairs.’
    Stubsy led the way back into the villa. The three companions stayed beside the pool, though their eyes followed Troblum like targeting sensors as he walked after Stubsy.
    One of the arching doors in the hallway opened to a set of concrete stairs leading down. Stubsy stood at the top as the polyphoto strips came on. He seemed reluctant to go down.
    ‘Down here?’ Troblum asked.
    ‘Yeah,’ Stubsy whispered.
    The dealer was sweating again, Troblum saw. Whatever excess he’d indulged in last night must have been substantial for his body to take so long to flush the effects out.
    Stubsy started down the stairs. Troblum was right behind him, keen to make sure his precious collection of Starflyer War memorabilia was unharmed. Everything had been in an individual case with a stabilizer field, but he’d had to rely on chartered commercial carriers to get it all to Sholapur without any supervision on his part – it was the only way to avoid Marius’s attention. So much could have gone wrong.
    There was a broad passage at the bottom of the stairs, carved into the naked rock, with smaller corridors branching off every few metres. They were lined with malmetal doors. Stubsy’s vaults were a lot larger than the villa above.
    Troblum nearly asked, What do you keep down here ? But his social interaction program told him that Stubsy was likely to get upset by that kind of question.
    Stubsy turned off into one of the side passages. A malmetal door opened for him. Lights came on in the chamber beyond. Troblum walked into a large circular chamber filled with low tables. His collection was there waiting for him. Every priceless case, their surfaces shimmering with protective shielding. It was going to be tough squeezing everything into Mellanie’s Redemption , he acknowledged, some of the larger items might even have to be discarded. His u-shadow performed a fast inventory, checking case logs. They’d been banged around more than Troblum liked, but the cases had protected their contents perfectly. Smiling, he ran his hand over the case containing the handheld array with a foxory casing; the expensive unit had belonged to Mellanie Rescorai herself, a gift from her lover Morton before his trial. Troblum could just discern its outline below the shimmer.
    ‘Thank you,’ Troblum said. ‘I know you didn’t have to do this.’ When he glanced up at Stubsy Florac he saw an expression his emotional context program interpreted as anger and contempt.
    The villa nodes relaying his secure link to the Mellanie’s Redemption went dead.
    ‘All this makes me feel quite at home,’ the Cat said.
    Shock ran through Troblum’s body in the same way as physical pain. His knees almost gave way, forcing him to clutch at the table. She stepped out from