Nylon Angel (18 page)

From my position, spreadeagled across the bottom of the boat, I watched the ’copters descend on us like a swarm of wasps, squirting sprays of fire.

But Ibis was ready. The whole topside glimmered with the net of a security field. I recognised it immediately. This boat belonged to Razz Retribution.

Instinctively I ducked my head as the field crackled. The boat rocked dangerously.

‘Parrish, get the suit on,’ shouted Daac. ‘The hood will seal and oxygenate. It hums when it’s working. When I tell you, fasten it.’

‘What then?’ I shouted louder, so he could hear me over the noise of the artillery.

He spared me a grin. ‘Hope you can swim.’

I felt the boat slow marginally, then twist and turn. I tried to catch a glimpse of Ibis but I was being tossed around like a ball.

Suddenly the engine noise cut out.

So did the ’copters’ fire.

We glided along silently on momentum.

Daac whispered, ‘Now,’ and crawled towards me. I scrabbled like crazy to get my arms in and press the seams together.

Ibis climbed down from his perch, wearing an identical suit. They each grabbed one of my arms and hauled me up on to the side of the boat. The security field crackled excitedly just millimetres from my head. Daac stooped so as not to contact it.

Ibis pointed over the side, and then indicated with three fingers that he was going to count us in. From the pocket of his suit he produced a small object. He released me, balancing the remote in one hand and holding the fingers of his other hand aloft.

We jumped on cue.

Correction. They jumped. I did a dead body impersonation.

It crossed my mind as the water claimed me, and panic strangled my breath for the hundredth time in a few days, that for a bodyguard I wasn’t much of a thrill-seeker. Maybe I needed to visit Doll for some neuro-programming.

Or at least a swimming chip.

Daac dragged me downwards into the blue depths with him. When I thought I would finally pass out from oxygen dep, I took a breath. Just as he’d said, the suit was cycling breathable air and hummed steadily in my ear.

As my vision slowly cleared I attempted to stroke with one arm and kick, to help him.

Down this far, the water seemed crowded with distorted shapes and the dull tug of pressure.

At the bottom Ibis forced a salt-encrusted grating off a pipe inlet. He waved us to hurry, swivelling his head anxiously.

Checking for water ’pedes?

In the supercities canal living was not unusual for the very rich. The water ’pedes discouraged little escapades like ours.

Suddenly I wanted to get into the safety of that pipe as urgently as I’d wanted to jump out of the ’copter.

Daac went through it first, followed by me, then Ibis. He didn’t wait for Ibis to pull the cover back but wriggled straight on down the pipe like a giant worm.

I knew if Daac’s shoulders fitted then so would mine, but now I was inside the pipe . . .

We squirmed along for an eternity. Daac’s feet flapped in front of my face. I supposed Ibis had the same angle of me, but it was too cramped to turn and look.

Several times we jackknifed at pipe junctions, changing direction. I tried to estimate the elapse of time and the possible limits to my suit’s air supply.

Neither calculation made me feel good. I had to trust that Daac and Ibis knew what they were doing.

Trust! What a shitty word!

I was so busy whining to myself that I head-butted Daac’s feet.

He’d stopped. Something was wrong.

A moment later Ibis whacked into me.

I waited between them, not knowing why.

The water grew colder and colder. The chill penetrated my suit. It started at the tip of my nose and spread across my body. The only sound was of my own teeth chattering. Even the suit’s transparent mask clouded with ice particles. A cold shadow appeared at the edge of my mind, spreading. Conscious thoughts began to fade.

Then a jolt of adrenalin stirred the faintest warmth inside me. I had a vision of my Angel melting ice with a torch.

My feet? It was Ibis!

I scrubbed at my faceplate and looked for Daac’s feet, but the water above me was empty. How long had I been immobile?

I lurched forward, frantic that we’d lost Daac. Ibis must have been thinking the same thing, nudging me along every time I slowed down.

After a few minutes we reached a T-junction. No sign of Daac. I cursed him for not noticing we’d dropped off the chain, and myself, for losing us.

If only I could ask Ibis the way, but the width of the pipe didn’t allow for friendly chinwags. In desperation I wedged my knees up as close to my chest as I could, reached down with my hands and began making frantic hand signals.

Eventually Ibis responded by tugging my left hand. I had no idea if he understood what I was trying to say. My own senses told me we’d been moving steadily west and the junction lay north-south. His guess or non-guess would have to be better than mine.

The left junction led south so I slithered into it with the small comforting thought that The Tert lay in that direction. The idea of getting back to Torley’s and my own tiny room seemed like the best I’d ever had.

I slithered and crawled along so desperately that in the end I almost missed the way out. A shaft of light in the water, enough to make me look up.

Where the smooth top of the pipe should have been was more water. Carefully I reached through. Another, wider pipe, ran vertically from the one we were in. A rung jutted out of one side, and the whole diameter felt rough in texture like it had been made from a different substance.

Something inside said,
here
.

I thought about doing my Kamasutra act and trying to explain what I’d found to Ibis, but I knew it was the right place.

I climbed steadily for about twenty metres hoping that Ibis would either follow me or wait below at the junction.

My legs shook with the effort of climbing and I could hear my own breath rattling, ragged and uneven. The last week had begun to take its toll. So had dropping eight metres from a ’copter into a moat, and being tossed around like popcorn in the bottom of a boat.

Suddenly my head burst free of the water. I blinked as water dripped off the faceplate. Daac peered anxiously down into the mouth of the pipe.

He smiled a force fifty at me. Then he reached down and hauled me out. My feet barely touched the last few rungs.

He dumped me on the floor of a well-lit basement. I stumbled and turned back anxiously for Ibis, but the plump figure emerged seconds behind me.

Not bothering to hide my trembling hands, I tore off the suit and gulped in some real air. For a moment I thought Daac was going to kiss me again, but he settled for a bone-crunching squeeze. I sagged heavily against him.

‘What happened to you?’ he demanded.

‘Th-the c-cold. I c-couldn’t move. Then I l-lost you.’

Daac nodded. ‘It’s a freeze organism. Designed to kill anything living in the pipes. The suit is enough to protect you if you know what to expect. I thought if you were between us it would be all right.’

Ibis stood beside us, grinning. His plump face seemed none the worse for the last hour or so.

‘You gave me a moment, pet. Back there. My fantasy of being alone with you wasn’t in a water pipe!’

I couldn’t help but warm to him. The man had saved my life. Impulsively I hugged him.

‘I don’t know why you did it, Ibis, but thanks. Thanks a lot.’

He tutted. ‘Don’t let Pat catch you doing that.’

Daac shoved a tube of sweet liquid into my hand. ‘Here. We have to keep moving. This will help. Did you get them?’

‘What?’

‘Her files?’

‘You knew?’

‘Not exactly . . . call it a guess.’

Questions clamoured over each other in my mind. Too many people knew what I was doing before I even did it. ‘Is that how you found me? A guess?’

‘I never really lost you.’

‘You mean you followed me the whole time?’

‘Not exactly
followed
.’ He got cagey.

‘How then?’

‘Did you get them?’ he repeated impatiently.

‘Why should I tell you?’

‘Call it a trade. How I found you, for proof you’ve got Razz’s files.’

Something told me I’d regret it, but I had to know how he was able to follow me.

‘Yes, I got them.’ I fished inside the cheesecloth to my leather tank and pulled out the wiper Lang had given me - the zip disk lay snugly in another place. No point in giving away all my secrets!

The wiper lay small, wet and black in my hand like an oyster shell.

He restrained himself from snatching it - just.

I closed my fingers over it deliberately. ‘And you . . .?’ I trailed off.

He paused before answering. ‘My comm spike has a locator.’

‘Your comm spike!’ I felt inside the tank again, this time for the spike. I had it close to my heart. Too close.

My hand trembled with cold and anger. Mainly anger.

I threw it into his outstretched hand in disgust. ‘How did you get on to M’Grey?’

‘I have a permit.’ Daac shrugged. ‘If you’d told me where you were going . . .’

He had a permit!
My head reeled with possibilities. ‘You mean I could have
walked
. . . What about the boat?’ I demanded.

Ibis chipped in. ‘We . . . er . . . camped on it last night.’

I shook my head in amazement. They’d been in it while I’d spent a miserable night between two concrete pylons a few metres away.

Life sucked!

‘Let’s go.’ Daac plucked a kit bag from the corner and threw it over his shoulder.

I thought mournfully of my own bag scattered on the bottom of the moat somewhere. Now I had nothing left but my pins and the garrotting wire in my G-string. It would take me a year to save enough for another sniper rifle, let alone the worm. And I’d used all my charms - the explosive ones, that is.

I glanced around at the basement. ‘Where are we?’

‘Later,’ said Daac. ‘We move.’

Ibis placed an arm around my shoulders, steering me to a narrow set of stairs. ‘How did you know which vertical to take?’ he whispered.

I stared at him for a moment. ‘What do you mean? There was only one.’

He shook his head slowly. ‘No. We must have passed at least a dozen after we lost Loyl.’

Something tightened my chest. I remembered the Angel’s voice in my head when I was in the ’copter. Then the image of it warming my frozen body. And the sense of urgency forcing me upwards.

What was happening to me?

I smiled brightly at Ibis. ‘Just damn lucky, I guess!’

I
bis let us into a tiny, sparsely furnished condo unit in the medium gyro of the city shortly after night-fall. There’d been no Intimate in the lobby. Just some vandal-proof tissue recognition samplers and lots of deadlocked doors. The sorta place you never see your neighbours.

With a few muttered excuses that Pat would be worried to death, and a stern warning for us not to harm each other, he left us to it.

I wasn’t exactly happy about being alone with Daac but fatigue dampened my finer instincts. And I didn’t have any better ideas.

He went to the fridge and ripped open two beers. ‘San’s in there.’ He pointed toward the bathroom door.

‘You first,’ I insisted, not sure that I trusted him.

Or myself.

He shrugged and took his drink into the shower.

The beer tasted wonderful. I gulped down most of the can and when I was sure the water was safely running, I slid the wiper out of my top and began to examine it. After a quick check to make sure the unit’s PC had nothing much on it, I gingerly sleeved the disk. It was a clever piece of deception, for all intents formatted like normal storage - with fake download icons - while it actually erased.

‘Couldn’t wait, eh?’ Daac spoke quietly into my ear.

I stopped the disk running and swivelled abruptly.

He pulled a side table across to sit on. Moisture from the shower glistened on his skin. It made me aware of how filthy my hair must be and that what was left of the caftan hung in clumps.

‘I should shower now,’ I said nervously.

He shook his head. ‘I don’t think this can wait any longer.’

‘OK,’ I agreed cautiously. ‘So start talking.’

‘I told you about Anna’s research?’

‘What’s she got to do with it?’ I frowned.

He gave the fleetest of smiles. ‘Didn’t you wonder who might be funding it? How someone with my background had access to a fully fitted lab and an ultralight? How I could come and go so easily in Viva?’

I shrugged. ‘I guess I figured Anna had money herself. Hell, she owns
acreage
.’

‘She also has some advanced genetic research teknology available. Even Anna’s inherited wealth has limits.’

I thought of the body scanner. ‘So what’s your point?’

He paused again, his flesh hand twitching. The man was wrestling with some serious discord.

‘Knowing this will put you in more danger.’

More danger!
‘Well not knowing is definitely gonna get me killed,’ I said drily.

‘Razz Retribution is . . . was funding our research.’

My mouth opened and closed stupidly for a moment.
Why would a media princess fund research to help the wasted?

He knew what I was thinking. ‘She had . . . her reasons. But someone knew about the results. They figured if they snuffed out our financial backing then we would have to stop.’