Killswitch by Joel Shepherd

Author:Joel Shepherd [Shepherd, Joel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pyr®

CHAPTER TEN

RI'S idea of low visibility, secure accommodation for the night turned out to be a mega-rise fly-in hotel. They left the cruiser for the automated parking to handle, got a booking at the upper lobby with one of An's many IDs, and took a room just one floor down from the parking bay.

Ari made calls and net-scanned while Sandy showered, then took his own shower, leaving her free to sit on the bed in a moment of solitude, and gaze out through broad, five-star windows and the brilliant city beyond. She wished she could talk to Vanessa, but dared not use the uplink. Besides, Vanessa would most likely be sleeping. And things were a little more complicated there than she was used to. It frustrated her, that complication, right now when she most needed Vanessa's insight. And she wished she possessed the insight herself to know what the problem was. But she didn't ... and never really had.

It would have been easy to become frustrated with Vanessa, for dumping it on her right now ... but Vanessa was lucky to be alive, and understandably upset at recent events. But Sandy couldn't believe it was that simple ... could Vanessa now feel truly uncomfortable with her simply for being a GI? Not after all they'd been through.

She was very lucky, she told herself instead, that Vanessa were alive at all. It terrified her, that close call. Somehow, despite the dangers, she'd never truly felt that Vanessa was at risk. She was so cool, so professional ... almost a GI, in fact, in the degree of confidence Sandy had become accustomed to placing with her in all things operational. But that was stupid too. GIs could survive things that straight humans couldn't. On top of all their skills, GIs had a margin for error. Vanessa did not.

And fuck it, when was she going to finally get wise, and stop making stupid assumptions about her environment and her life? Every time she thought she'd finally gotten on top of this new life of hers, something else happened that shattered all her carefully constructed truths. It was becoming alarming-not just the inevitability of the events, but the depths of her own naivety.

Ari emerged from the bathroom in his white hotel robe, dark hair damp and scruffy, and sat down at her side. Copied her pose, gazing out at the vast expanse of light and colour.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

"That Takawashi's not telling all he knows." Ari nodded, but said nothing. "I mean, what the fuck's he doing here anyway? I think Ramoja's trying to find this GI as much as we are. Maybe he wants to cover the League's arse on something. Takawashi got sent to help."

"Wouldn't help the League much if it turns out a GI they had some hand in murdered Admiral Duong," Ari pointed out. "It wouldn't quite re-start the war, but it wouldn't help."

"Maybe." Ari slid across to kneel upon the bed behind her, and began massaging her shoulders.

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