Zero Read Online Free PDF Page B

know I was dishonourably discharged.”
    Webb looked at him. “I'm willing to bet that most folk, Service or not, feel the same way that Anton does. They'd've done the same thing in your place. If they had the balls, that is.”
    Hugo grunted.
    “It's those Analysts Hugo. They'll get you every time. You should never piss off the Analysts.”
    “ Well I know that now,” Hugo muttered.
    Webb snorted. “Well done, Hugo. That was almost a joke.”
    “ Captain,” Hugo corrected.
    Webb ducked his head. “Sorry. Captain.”
    “ Zeek,” Rami said.
    Webb blinked. “Yeah, yeah. Hang on, I'll pull in.”
    “ What's happening?”
    “ I'm just checking in on the moonframe, Captain. I need a grounded workstation for that.”
    “ Rami likes to keep tabs on the set up of all local systems,” Webb said as the Jeep pulled up onto a walkway. “It's a rather tedious hobby of hers.”
    “ Commander,” she said coolly. “If you want me to be able to get into and around every system I need to know if they upgrade. I'll see you back at the Zero .”
    “ Bolt,” Webb said over his shoulder. “You go with her.”
    “ I don't need a bodyguard, Webb,” Rami muttered.
    “ I know that better than most, Anita. But still. You're more likely to get a seat on the shuttle if Bolt is there, right?”
    Rami sighed. “Very well. Try not to lose the new captain. Captain.”
    “ Lieutenant. Crewman.”
    “ Cap'n,” Bolt mumbled and they climbed out the back of the Jeep and onto the brightly lit walkway before disappearing into the crowd.
    “ You hungry?”
    Hugo blinked at his commander. He hadn't thought about it before, but suddenly his stomach clenched uncomfortably. All he had had that day was that cup of engine-oil coffee at the spaceport that morning, that morning that already seemed a million years ago. “Yes.”
    “ Great. I know just the place.”
    Webb pulled them back into the traffic and lapsed into silence as he steered through the tangled groundways. Hugo had been trying his best to keep his bearings but now he just gave up. The hive of lights and metal that arched above them in a never-ending stream of neon and orange went on and on.
    “Is this a first for you then, Captain?”
    Hugo kept staring out the windsceen. “I've been to Tranquillity before. For conferences.”
    “ Uh-huh,” Webb said with understanding. “I'm guessing that was Southside?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ Enclosed walkways? Air-conditioning?”
    Hugo ignored him and clutched at the seat as the Jeep lurched under him and made its way up a ramp and through an entrance in the side of one of the megablocks. The sign over the entrance declared it to be Imbrium Block. Three of the letters were blacked out and the gate had been wedged open with an empty crate.
    “Where are we going, Commander?”
    “ For lunch,” Webb replied, pulling over into a parking bay. “Best goulash in town, trust me.” Hugo mumbled under his breath as he climbed out of the Jeep and followed Webb across the parking pool to the wall of express lifts. “Level 102,” Webb said when the lift doors closed behind them. There was a judder and a hiss and then they were zooming upwards. “Captain?” Webb said in a low voice, casting him a sideways glance from under the peak of his baseball cap.
    “ What?”
    “ Do you trust me yet?”
    Hugo narrowed his eyes. “No.”
    Webb paused, then shrugged. “Too bad. Just take it on faith then that you want me to do the talking here.”
    The lift juddered to a halt and the doors hissed open. Hugo followed Webb as he strode out onto the broad walkway. “I thought you said we were going for lunch?”
    “ We are.”
    It was a wide and busy level, people rushing back and forth with panels and tools and grim expressions. One wall was a bank of windows looking out onto the blinking neon mess of Tranquillity. The ceiling was high above them and on the far left of the walkway were clustered a myriad of establishments: repair shops, tool