The Live Soldier Trilogy Box Set by Liam Clay

Author:Liam Clay [Clay, Liam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clay House
Published: 2020-04-10T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

It would seem that alcohol is still a thing here, and that soldiers like to drink it in ramshackle bars near the fortified beach that slopes down to the Burnflow (the name they use for the superheated channel). I'm already five drinks in, and since the rum pours endlessly from a magical jug on our table, we are probably just getting started. My companion is a heavyset rower who keeps trying to pinch my ass. He's giving me a crash course on what sexual harassment feels like (not great) but he's also giving me information. Peace and Amy are watching from a table across the room. Both of them look ready to knock the guy's teeth out, but so far necessity is prevailing.

“... so like I was saying, most people think it was just the Architect that screwed us over. But I say it was the government, too. Sure, we used to live on islands that might have looked something like this. But that was hundreds of years ago! And what is this obsession people have with the idea of the noble savage? We could all be wearing designer bodies and living in palaces on Saturn, but instead we get damp sand and our real flesh.”

“The bottomless booze is pretty good.” I say, pouring myself another glass.

“Okay, so there are a few nice touches.” He admits grudgingly. “But most of this world has been modeled strictly on the Real. That's why the Architect only needed to sneak one little change into the build. She fudges a few lines of code so that dead people stay in limbo unless she resurrects them, and boom, say hello to your new god!”

The man is roaring drunk, spilling his drink onto the sandy floor, and I'm not far behind. But everyone else in the bar is just as far gone. Free drinks will do that.

“What about assination?” I say.

He leers at me, showing rotten teeth and black gums. “Was hoping you'd say that. Your bunk or mine?”

“Uh, I actually meant assassination. Has anyone tried sneaking onto the Architect's island and killing her?”

“It's already been done, twice. But she just respawns somewhere else and travels back to the front. Same with her soldiers, although some of them get tired of dying and never come back.”

Beneath the rower's bravado, there is a desperation that makes him (slightly) harder to hate.

“Why is all of this even happening?” I ask in a querulous voice. “What does the Architect want from us?”

“Word is, she's trying to find our sunken space station in the Real. The government managed to hide its location from her, so now she plans on torturing it out of the Queenfisher.”

“But I thought you... I mean we, already stripped it to pay for this place.”

“Ha. That station is the size of a city. We only scratched the surface.” His eyes narrow. “You ask a lot of questions, girlie.”

“I only spawned yesterday.” I remind him. “Systems glitch.”

“Or maybe respawned. You a spy or something?”

“A spy asking questions that everyone already knows the answers to?”

“Guess that's true.

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