World Walkers by Neal Asher

Author:Neal Asher [Asher, Neal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor
Published: 2024-06-21T17:00:00+00:00

Chenghu

Chenghu dropped a couple of metres onto a roof, rolled, then came up sideswiping with his weapon and dropping the guard. He gazed down at the thin man, who was now clutching at his bloody head, picked him up by the scruff, dragged him to the door into the stairwell and tossed him down it. The man recovered enough to come up into a crouch on the stairs and look up. Chenghu pointed his weapon, then took a grenade off his bandolier and weighed it in one hand. The man turned and ran down, out of sight. Chenghu sighed and pulled the door closed, sliding across the locking bars, then looked around.

The rooftop, just like most in the sprawls of Committee Earth, was owned by a gang; it looked little different from the one from which he and Irene had watched the riot that her assassination of Garrick had triggered. They had greenhouses up here to catch the precious sunlight, and some gardens whose sides had been constructed out of expanded foam plastic blocks. With a good harvest here, the guard would at some point return with other gang members. But they wouldn’t be hurrying back. The man would’ve assumed Chenghu was Inspectorate and therefore bad news. Chenghu turned.

Chancel, Adriana and Pranjab came out of the transition separately, as if stepping individually through the menisci of bubbles. They looked around, grim faced. Adriana and Chancel turned as one and headed over to the roof edge, looking back towards the conference city. It was just visible in the distant mountains, marked out by a green barrier lying between it and the sprawl below. Pranjab simply sauntered over to a walled garden, sat on the edge of it, and pulled up a carrot for inspection.

‘How long?’ he asked.

‘One minute twenty,’ Chenghu replied.

No way could the Inspectorate soldiers make it into that server room, move the fallen rack and disarm the bomb in that time. He tilted his head, sensing another approach, then Irene and Ektian fell through, staggering. They’d been hit a few times, as had they all, but he sensed no injuries, just as he could also distinguish their change of demeanour. He nodded, understanding as they all did that their biotech was wiping out their base drives, and now only the grim chore of coming to completion remained. Irene gestured, and she and Ektian went over to join the other two at the edge. Chenghu followed, Pranjab falling in at his side while munching on the carrot he’d picked.

‘So we’ll be safe here,’ Pranjab commented.

‘Just so long as we don’t look at the flash,’ said Chenghu. ‘And even then.’ He shrugged.

‘Probably okay to do that,’ said Pranjab. ‘Our eyes are no longer human.’

The words kept playing in Chenghu’s mind as he reached the edge, and then checked his watch.

‘One minute,’ he said.

They just stood in silence, surveying the sprawl, seeing gang members far down in the street below looking up – one had a pair of binoculars. Some copters and fans glittered in the sky above the distant city.

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