Fear the Darkness by Mitchel Scanlon Read Free Book Online Page A

judgement was respected, instead of being second-guessed all the time. I run a tight ship, and I make sure those under my command are good men. After what's been happening over the last two weeks, suddenly none of it counts for drokk, and you know with five prisoners dead it's only a matter of time before those bastards in SJS start looking for somebody to carry the can. Somebody senior enough to put all the blame on. Somebody like me.
    Sykes felt queasy and realised he was getting nervous. For a man accustomed to facing the threat of violent death every day, it was a strange sensation, but he knew it was a feeling he might have to get used to if prisoners kept dying on his watch.
    Don't let it happen again, he thought, surprised at his own desperation. Don't let there be another incident. Not tonight.
    He could only hope to Grud someone was listening.
     
    Eighteen years, thought Leland Barclay, lying on a bunk in one of the Sector House's holding cubes. And it ain't even like I killed anybody. Eighteen years. What the hell kind of minimum sentence is that?
    It had all seemed so easy when Arnie Coogan first came to him with the idea for the heist. They had been sitting in Leland's apartment, watching reruns of old Jetball games on the Tri-D, when Arnie had started talking about how much money the kneepad-mart in their block mall must be making every night. "A couple of smart guys like us, we could take the place down no problem," Arnie said. "Five minutes in and out, and we'd have enough of a score that we'd never need to work again."
    Strictly speaking, neither of them worked. Not legal jobs, anyway. Leland and Arnie were professional looters and had been for six years. Whenever some crisis blew up, the two of them would hotfoot it to the scene, break into the shops and steal anything they could lay their hands on while the Judges were otherwise occupied. Riots, block wars, terrorist attacks, disasters, invasions - there was always something going on somewhere in the Mega-City enabling them to make a decent living. But while Leland had been content with his lot, Arnie had been a man with bigger ambitions.
    "Think about it, Leland," Arnie had said. "We do one heist and get some real money. Then, we use it as seed money. I know a guy who deals stookie. It's fast turnaround and high profit. We buy in with him, we could double, even triple our investment inside a month. Six months, and we'll be millionaires! After that we could go legit, maybe buy ourselves a nightclub or one of them dream palaces. You know what they say about money: the first million's the hardest part. To start it off, all we need are a couple of masks and some hardware. Stump guns, if we can get 'em. They say they're good for intimidation. We wrap 'em up in gift paper so when we go into the mart it looks like we're just carrying presents. Then, five minutes in and out. It'll be a piece of cake."
    I should've never listened, Leland thought glumly. Looting was nice safe work. Why'd I have to let myself get talked into doing an ARV?
    The heist had gone smoothly enough. They'd gone in, shown their guns and that was pretty much it. After they had cracked the manager in the nose for talking back, nobody else had tried anything stupid; the staff and the customers had done what they were told, no problem. He and Arnie had even managed to grab themselves some nice-looking kneepads as well as the money. It had been the perfect job. Until, as they were leaving the store exactly four minutes and forty-nine seconds after they'd entered it, Arnie had to go and flap his fat mouth.
    "See, Leland?" Arnie had said. "A piece of cake, just like I told you. Now you can afford to get your wife that boob job just like you've always wanted."
    At the time, he had thought nothing of it. It was only when a Judge kicked in the door while Leland was counting his cut in his apartment that it occurred to him maybe the heist hadn't gone so smoothly after all.
    "How did you find me?" Leland