Apex Cypher (Prequel to The Techxorcist series) by Colin F. Barnes Read Free Book Online Page B

through. It seemed that not only did the penthouse give you the best view and space but also the safety of graphene-glass.
    “Nice place,” Petal said. “Rent high?”
    “You’re a funny girl,” Jericho said. He tossed the bag casually onto the sofa, fell next to them sinking into the cushions. He patted the space next to him. “Why don’t you come sit here, tell me a story.” He leered, but Gabe knew it was posturing—all part of his image.
    “Nah, no offence,” Petal said, “but I don’t have a story. What you see is what you get.”
    “A little punky killer?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Hey Holly, these are good’uns,” he said, rummaging through the parts and holding them up to the pale-blue light of the holoscreens. “What poor bastard did you kill for these?”
    “No one this time. I made a deal with ‘em. Basically, they give ‘em to me and they don’t die. I was low on ammo.”
    “Smart thinking.”
    Gabe hovered around, taking in the place, noticing the various servers he had running and wired up to the place. He could sense with his internal interface that he was running a network here; either sending or receiving data but Gabe couldn’t access it. He had excellent stealth tech running. Probably military, if the information Shelley was anything to go by.
    “Fuck, man, sit down, will ya? Take some weight off. You’re making me nervous.” Jericho indicated to Gabe the free armchair set against the wall, next to the floating speaker-globe of his sound system. Nice bit of kit. Ancient now, but from what he heard outside, it still sounded good.
    He hadn’t realised it, but as he took the seat this was as comfortable as he had been in years. The place was really comfortable. And he yearned to relax, perhaps listen to some music again—anything to not be the killer or survivor for a short while. He could understand why Jericho had holed himself up here. For a few moments he felt normal again.
    “What, man?” Jericho said, starting at Gabe. “What’s the matter? You’ve got a weird smile on your face.”
    “This might be a strange request from someone ya’ve not met before. But that music ya had playing earlier. Would ya mind if—”
    “You want it back on?”
    “If that’s cool.”
    “Yeah, man, that’s fucking cool. You like the reggae, eh?”
    “It reminds me of home.”
    “Likewise, man.”
    Jericho leaned over, gestured at the holoscreen. The dub beats of a reggae track filled the room. Petal smiled, reached for Gabe’s hands. She lifted him out of the chair and together they danced to the music, Petal pogo-jumping, and Gabe just let his body move to the triplet rhythm almost hypnotically.
    Jericho, and Holly soon joined them. The latter pogoed with Petal, giggling.
    For the next hour, their host played a mix of Reggae, R n B, and some old rock. At one point, Gabe noticed tears on his cheeks. It was a mix of joy and sadness. For so long, he’d been in survival mode, always being tense, fearful. He was always filled with anger for not getting back to his family in time, but here in the penthouse, with friendly company, and his only family in Petal, he felt for the first time in years a sense of peace.
    But as they wound down, the music that he grew up with reminded him too much. Reminded him of the bad choices he made. It made him long to see his mother and father again. Long to be back in the shelter with his people.
    Collapsing into the armchair, tired physically and emotionally, Gabe caught his breath. Petal and Holly were chatting in the kitchen, sharing drinks from Jericho’s fridge. He’d even had a beer. A real beer!
    “Hey, man, wanna drag on this?” Jericho leaned forward, handed Gabe a roll-up.
    “What is it?” Gabe said, unable to identify the sweet smell that came from the smoke. He’d sampled various drugs during his time with the gangs, but nothing that smelled like that. It had a very distinctive pungent quality.
    “A special blend of herbs that I