Empire of Light by Gary Gibson Read Free Book Online Page B

of the most fundamental laws that govern nature.’
    Ty swallowed again. The words came easily, memorized long ago but still clear in his mind. ‘There are good reasons to believe we live not in the original universe but in a simulation, possibly one of many. Reality, at its most base level, is little more than an expression of various mathematical formulae; therefore, once you acknowledge these simple truths, the idea that our world could be anything other than created becomes ridiculous.’
    ‘I’m disappointed, Mr Whitecloud.’ Ty looked up at Kosac. ‘I don’t know much about Uchidanism, but I know something about personal faith. I believe we pay for what happens in this world in the next.’
    Bleys had turned away slightly, reaching up to touch the side of his head. Ty noticed for the first time the man wore a comms bead in one earlobe.
    Ty looked back at Kosac. ‘Why are you asking me these questions?’
    ‘Because I’m probably the last person you’ll ever speak to, and I wanted to know what kind of man does the things you’ve done.’
    Ice gripped Ty’s heart. ‘I’m to be arraigned. Taken off the coreship to be tried.’
    Kosac smiled sadly. ‘In a less imperfect world, perhaps.’
    ‘Sir?’ said Bleys, and Kosac turned to him. ‘We got a report that the Authority’s people are on their way here. I think we should hurry.’
    The ice spread long frozen fingers deep into Ty’s bowels. ‘I’m too valuable for you to just shoot,’ he croaked.
    ‘No, Mr Whitecloud, you’re not going to have a chance to escape a second time.’
    Ty stared backwards and forwards between the two men. ‘Escape?’
    A moment later two armed and visored guards appeared at the cell door, and Ty knew the worst was yet to come.
    The two guards entered the cell and dragged Ty out into the corridor, where one slammed a shock-stick into the back of one knee. He collapsed on to all fours. A second blow sent him sprawling on his belly.
    A moment later his arms were twisted painfully behind his back, and he felt the plastic ties being clipped into place around his wrists. He was pulled upright a moment later and pushed towards a service elevator at the far end of the corridor. His legs gave way under him, but the guards dragged him along between them, regardless.
    They pushed him inside the elevator and forced him to his knees, then hauled him back out, once they had arrived at the ground floor. Ty managed to find his feet, and was shoved towards a steel door at the far end of the corridor, a thin but freezing trickle of cold air seeping past its frame and carrying with it the scent of oiled metal and decay. One of the guards stepped forward and unlocked the door, revealing stacked pallets as it swung open.
    Ty clenched his teeth at the blast of frozen air and tried to hunch up, his paper uniform providing him with so little protection that he might as well have been naked.
    He realized he was weeping as they dragged and shoved him out into the courtyard. Everything seemed to get a little farther away, as if he were experiencing the world at one remove, reduced to being a passenger within his own skull.
    They pulled him towards the wall at the rear of the courtyard. He was close enough now that he could make out the dark stains where the wall met the ground. For the first time, he saw a door set into the wall over to his right, where it had been hidden from his view in the cell by a pile of crates. It stood open, a military transport parked on the street outside. A guard stood by the door, his visor pushed up, arguing with two men who looked too healthy and well fed to come from Ascension.
    One had a thick woollen hat pulled down over his stubbled skull, but Ty still saw the irregular grooves and bumps disfiguring his cranium, which marked him out as a machine-head. He was tall and gangly, with a worried expression, whereas his companion was small but wiry and muscular-looking. The second one’s gaze locked on to Ty the instant