World of Fire (Dev Harmer 01) Read Online Free PDF Page A

potential sabotage earlier. It’s all relevant, it all adds up to something, and my job is to work out what and why and put a stop to it. Now, I could travel to this Jansson Crossing on my own, or I could cadge a ride off you. Either way, it’s my next destination.”
    “I’m not going to get rid of you, am I?”
    Dev smiled in what he hoped was a winning manner. For all he knew, he was pulling some hideous grimace. A host form’s facial muscles were always the hardest to master. Gross motor skills came first, fine motor skills second.
    Kahlo rolled her eyes, resigned. “Very well. I suppose I’m better off keeping a close watch on you anyway, rather than letting you blunder around off the leash. You can come with. Just don’t get under my feet.”
    “I won’t, trust me.”
    “We’ve already established that I don’t,” said Kahlo. “I’d like to keep it that way, for my own peace of mind.”

 
    5
     
     
    T HE POLICE POD shot across the city along the maglev track, accelerating easily to a humming, frictionless 200kph. Kahlo and a driver, Patrolman Utz, were in the front. Dev shared the back seat with Sergeant Stegman, who kept shooting surly, resentful glances at him.
    “How long ’til we get there, captain?” Dev enquired.
    “You sound like my cousin’s seven-year-old,” said Kahlo. “‘Are we there yet? Are we there yet?’”
    “I ask because, if we’ve time, I’d like you to fill me in about the earthquakes.”
    “We’ve got a few minutes.”
    The pod shimmied slightly as it passed under an enormous arch formed by twin stalactites that descended all the way to the cavern floor. Their size – they were as big as skyscrapers – spoke of millennia of slow growth.
    “So...?” Dev prompted.
    “They started roughly a month ago,” Kahlo said. “The odd tremor now and then. Nobody thought much of it, at first. Mostly they were centred around the mines, and you do get the occasional rumble there. The digger rigs disturb the rock strata. There’s settling, subsidence. Par for the course. Miners call it ‘bellyaching.’”
    “But it got worse.”
    “We’ve had tunnel collapses. Equipment destroyed, some casualties. And it’s no longer confined to the mines. The quakes have spread outward, to the inhabited regions – the townships, Calder’s Edge itself. Which isn’t meant to be possible.”
    “Because the inhabited regions were specially selected for their stability.”
    “Exactly.”
    “How long ago was that?”
    “Alighieri was colonised back in the ’forties.”
    “Part of the second wave of the Diaspora,” said Stegman, “when the next-generation Riemann Deviation drives came onstream and reduced infraspace journey times by half.”
    “Thanks for the history lesson,” said Dev.
    “Want me to mosquito you again?”
    “As I recall, your boss did that last time, not you.”
    “I’d quite like a turn.”
    “Zip it, sergeant,” said Kahlo. “He’s only trying to get a rise out of you.”
    “He’s succeeding.”
    “So don’t let him. Don’t give him the satisfaction.”
    Stegman, cheeks reddening, folded his arms.
    Dev said to Kahlo, “Back then there would have been a colonisation precursor survey, wouldn’t there?”
    “Yes. Sonar and ground penetrating radar were used to determine which were the safest caverns to build in. Calder’s Edge and the outlying townships sit dead centre of a tectonic plate. We’re nowhere near any faultlines, and the bedrock surrounding us is pure igneous granite. Solid as a... well, as a rock.”
    “So why earthquakes all of a sudden?”
    “That’s the honking great question, isn’t it? That, and why are they getting progressively more severe?”
    “You think there’s a chance some living agency might be responsible? It’s perhaps enemy action?”
    “Maybe so, maybe not. I’ve not found any proof as yet, but my gut says it could well be. What I do know is that it’s got people scared and restless, not least the miners,