Synthetic Dreams by Kim Knox

Author:Kim Knox [Knox, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781426893308
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-02-27T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The cold, damp air chilled the sweat against her forehead and she drew it into her lungs, the fresh wetness of the surrounding greenery a pleasure. Nothing seemed to grow in S-District, where everything was grime and waste and decay.

“This way.” Paul pulled the back door shut and took her arm. He led the way down the woodchip path, the lights from the surrounding houses casting a weak shine over the wild thicket of plants, bushes and trees.

The distant hum of vehicles and the underlying itch of the Mind pushed against her skin. She’d forgotten how close and thick every breath felt here, especially as the hill loomed over them, the Corporation tower a stretch of light into the darkness.

She stared up and willed her vision not to spin. Her thoughts still whirled. How could they get into the tower? Its security was reputed to be incredible, every hack impossible. Rumours swept through the Fomorians, of course. Everything from armies of synthetic robots to secret alien technology. The men who had butchered her skin had designed it. Maybe it really was guarded by a power from the bottomless pit. She could break into the upper tier of the Mind—the virtual space—but she had no hope in hell of getting past the tower’s impenetrable physical walls. Her gut twisted. “It’s in there?”

“Not exactly.”

Vyn blinked. “It’s not?”

“We have an in.” Paul flexed his grip around her arm and increased his speed, his boots silent on the uneven ground.

“You’re certain?”

“I’m certain.”

She stared at him, a sliver of light etching his profile. Was that a flicker of…something? He was obviously only completely honest with pneumatic blondes.

“I need to know what I’m doing, Paul.” She glanced back to the darkness of his house. Her voice dropped and the rush of nervous heat through her flesh made her chest tight. “I’m complicit in the murder of a senior Corporation employee. I’m trusting you to get me out of here in one piece, but to do that I have to have a clue about something.”

A brief smile pulled at his mouth. “There’s a perimeter fence beyond this stretch of land. We get through that and there’s an access through the hill. The whole thing is a warren.”

“We simply ‘get through’?”

Paul pulled her through the thick line of a box hedge. The sharp prick of thin branches and the brush of small glossy leaves itched her skin. Its acrid stink sharpened—it stank like piss. The proximity of the fence warmed the cold night air, and the hum of security walls throbbed against her eardrums.

A shimmer of air just beyond the hedge was another sign of the encircling walls. One touch and they were fried. A split second of agonised pain and she’d be a brief human cinder. She’d seen it more than once. Vyn pulled in a nervous breath. This wasn’t her area of expertise. Ossian was the one with the talent for physical structures. He’d got both of them in and out of more places than she wanted to remember.

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