Ellie Quin Book 3: Beneath the Neon Sky by Alex Scarrow Read Free Book Online Page A

there, so whilst he’s in Harvest, he’s going to apply for a renewed license, and an extender-serum.’ She patted Harvey’s bald grey head affectionately and he, in turn, looked up at her with his expressionless, beady black eyes.
    ‘But the great news Hufty, the really great news, is that right on the flight path to Harvest City is home. Good old plot 451. He’s going to drop me off, right outside the farm on the way there and pick me up on the way back!’
    Ellie felt her cheeks flush with joy. Not only was she going back to spend a few days with her family, but Jez, curious to see what farming folk looked like, had invited herself along too.
    She sighed. This was going to be a truly wonderful stopover. There was so much that she wanted to tell her family about and in turn, so much that she wanted to show Jez. Over the last few months, she had tried to explain to her what the farm looked like, how it worked, the sort of chores she used to do, what her Mum and Dad and Shona and Ted were like. But, she suspected, her confused gabbling had done little to enlighten her friend. Well, now she was about to see it all for herself. And, despite the fact that there wouldn’t be a shop within several hundred miles, Jez seemed like she was genuinely looking forward to it.
    Ellie looked out of the window once more, savoring the warm glow of satisfaction and contentment. She realized that she couldn’t remember,
ever
, feeling this fulfilled, this happy. Even though she was still probably a year or two from having enough money to finally claw her way off-world and explore the great big universe out there, she was at last off the starting blocks and on the move towards that goal. And that’s what really counted - that she was at last moving in the right direction. It was the standing still, the getting nowhere, that got her down.
    She had a suspicion that many, many years from now, when she was an old woman she would look back at this moment. Sitting here, right now, in the window seat of this greasy-spoon chop-shop and looking out at the dreary tide of people passing by…she would one day realize that
this
was the moment when she knew for certain that it was all going to turn out all right in the end.
    Savor the moment Ellie, savor it.
    She nodded at the wise words of advice from herself. Dad had once said ‘life goes by faster and faster with each passing year. If you get a chance to pause it every now and then, do it. Pause it, and just enjoy the view for a few moments.’
    This, Ellie decided, was definitely one of those moments to pause.
    It was then that she spotted a face in the crowd; a vaguely familiar face studying her intently from across the street. A moment passed as their eyes locked, and then the face disappeared behind a cluster of moving pedestrians and was gone, almost as if it had been erased by their passing. She sat up in her chair and pressed her face against the window, looking for it again.
    There had been something familiar about that face, but she couldn’t place it; a man, an old man, but gone now, like a puff of vapor blown away in a strong breeze.
    ‘How odd,’ she mumbled. ‘Who was that?’
    ‘Missss Eh-leeeee?’ Harvey whispered quietly, looking up at her curiously.
    ‘Oh it’s nothing Harvey…I Just thought I saw someone I knew.’
    *
    Aaron checked the nav-display and shouted back over his shoulder towards the girls, ‘it should be coming up any time soon ladies!’
    Ellie and Jez scrambled forward to get a view as Aaron hit a button on one of the control panels and the windblast shields outside slowly wound up with a noisy whine. All three of them shaded their eyes and winced as the bright sunlight spilled into the cockpit. Below them was nothing but the ever-present orange clay mud, punctuated with sharp shards of rock.
    ‘How far are we from Ellie’s place?’
    Aaron consulted a display, ‘we should see it up ahead some time soon. That is, if I’ve got the right co-ords. It was