PP 1 - Nylon Angel by Marianne De Pierres

Author:Marianne De Pierres [Pierres, Marianne De]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781841492537
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2011-03-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Ibis let us into a tiny, sparsely furnished condo unit in the medium gyro of the city shortly after nightfall. 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 neighbors.

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 swiveled 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 dryly.

“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.”

“Who?” The blood in my veins turned to ice.

“I’m not sure. At least I’m not sure why. But it didn’t stop there. They’ve stolen Anna’s research as well. The only other records of everything we’ve done are on that disk.” His voice trembled as he nodded toward the PC.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.