Virex 01 - New York Nights by Eric Brown

Author:Eric Brown [Brown, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780575068728
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 2000-06-08T04:00:00+00:00

Ten

The alarm went off at midnight. Halliday lay on his back and stared up at the shaft of moonlight slanting through the frosted skylight.

He had slept solidly since midday without dreaming, something of a miracle considering the sights he’d witnessed that morning. He and Barney had stayed back at the ComStore while the tech attempted to decode the file that Sissi Nigeria had uploaded seconds before her death. The tech had come up with nothing. Barney had speculated that the file contained the information Wellman had hoped Nigeria would not divulge to rival firms. She had sent it to an unknown destination, though quite how and why she died was still a mystery.

Another shock that morning had been his meeting with Sue . . . or rather Anna. He reached out and took her card from the bedside table, reading her new name. Anna Ellischild. Not only her name had changed, he reflected. Since he’d last seen her she had become a mellower, kinder person. He recalled Sue as she had been, bitter and guarded, seemingly always looking for the opportunity to rebuke him with cutting criticisms and observations. In five, six years she had grown up, matured, lost her anger and become a person he could easily come to like.

Eloise had turned up again while he’d sat talking to Anna. Out of the blue she had appeared at a table across the room, watching him and swinging her legs beneath the table. At one point she had mimed the words, ‘Ask her, Hal!’

So he’d steered the conversation around to the painful subject of the fire, but to his disappointment Anna could tell him not much more than he recalled himself. When he’d looked up to reprimand Eloise with a stare, she had vanished.

He yawned and stretched. The Nigeria case was closed and he was about to begin another shift. He wondered whether Barney had anything of interest on the files. A simple case of an absconding husband, perhaps.

‘You ‘wake, Hal?’

He turned and pulled the warm bundle of woman towards him. He located her face in the moonlight and kissed her lips. ‘Mmm . . . when did you get in?’

‘ ‘Round five. You were snoring. Didn’t want to wake you. I crept in like a mouse.’ She reached out, took the card from his fingers and read the name. ‘Anna Ellischild? Who’s that, Hal?’

‘My sister.’

She stared at him. ‘But you haven’t seen her for years, Hal! Did she call round?’

He considered telling her that they had met yesterday, but he was dissuaded by the thought of trying to explain the complex emotions he had experienced in the bar.

He shook his head. ‘She dropped the card off when I was out.’ He pushed his face into her hair and inhaled. ‘Ah, barbecue spiced pork, spare ribs, steamed noodles.’

‘Hal! And I showered before coming to bed!’

‘I’m not complaining. I haven’t eaten since last night.’

‘It was a nice meal,’ Kim said. ‘Should do that more often.’

‘Fine by me. Look, I’m off at midday tomorrow.

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