Angel Stations by Gary Gibson Read Free Book Online Page B

‘I was just trying to do the right thing.’
    ‘The right thing?’ said Danny, his lips set in a thin line. ‘I wonder where I’ve heard that before. Tell me you weren’t responsible for bringing it here, into this country?’
    ‘I wasn’t responsible.’ Elias’s voice was now a thin wheeze. ‘I was trying to help stop it, all right? But something went wrong.’
    Danny smiled humourlessly. ‘That’s the wonderful thing about people. They’re always so surprised when things don’t work out exactly the way they expect them to. I myself always expect the worst, which is why I’m still alive – you should remember that.’ He seemed lost in thought for a few moments. ‘Patching up your wound I can do, but the Blight is another matter. I can’t help you with that. No one can. But if it’s any consolation, you really should be dead.’
    ‘Thanks.’ Elias coughed. ‘That really makes me feel so much better.’
    ‘Listen to me, Elias. What they did to you and the others, they did to me too, remember that. It didn’t work with me, or almost any of the rest of us, but what you possess is priceless. What you can do is . . .’ He stopped, looked down at his hands, which were trembling. He stared at them until they became still. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d have said it was miraculous. You could have helped so many people.’
    ‘Not if I was dead. Trencher tried, and now he’s gone. City Authority catches me, I’ll be dead too.’
    Something trilled in the background. Danny stepped away, and tapped a paper keyboard spread across a fold-down table. ‘That’s the analysis just done on your nervous system.’ Danny eyed Elias with a carefully neutral expression. ‘It’s not looking good, I’m afraid. Your body seems to be resisting the Blight, but it’s still pervading your system. Enough, I think, to constitute Slow Blight.’
    Elias felt his flesh go numb.
    ‘You know what that is, right? It’s still in there – can’t get it out. It’s part of you now.’
    Elias looked at him blankly.
    ‘Elias, the Blight is some kind of biological machine . It’s much more than just some random bug. It locks itself into your nervous system and tries to change the way your body works. Nobody knows just what it intends, but nobody ever lived long enough to find out.’
    ‘I’ve heard of Slow Blight. Takes about a year to kill you, right?’
    ‘The good news is, it’s a non-infectious form of Blight. But it eats you from the inside out, starting with the nervous system. First thing you get is the shakes. I’m sorry to be so blunt about it, Elias, but you should know.’ Elias noticed Danny seemed to be having trouble meeting his eyes. ‘Don’t believe what they tell you when they say it isn’t going to spread beyond India,’ Danny continued. ‘I’ve been hearing otherwise.’
    Slow Blight? Somehow he couldn’t quite take it in. What Danny hadn’t said, but Elias already knew, was that there was no cure for it. Now there’s a time limit on everything I do , he thought.
    He would die slowly, his nervous system rotting away, dying from the inside out.

Three
    Autonomous Mining Collective ‘Essex Town’
(Mars/Jupiter orbit; Asteroid Cat: No. 2152 NZ20)
Ten Years Before
    Something had happened to Pachenko. Elias moved ahead, scouting out the further curve of the corridor, his combat rifle gripped ready in the hands of his armoured pressure suit. These corridors were carved from bare rock, the flickering emergency lights that illuminated them bathing the walls in a blood-red glow.
    ‘Pachenko,’ barked Elias over the intercom. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ Elias looked around. Pachenko had been at the rear.
    A howl of pain and despair came over the radio. Elias turned back, pushing past Farell and Eduardez, heading back in the direction of the military transport that had brought them to this pressurized asteroid. He found Pachenko huddled against a wall.
    ‘They’re going to die,’ Pachenko