Going Under by Justina Robson Read Free Book Online Page A

to do that." The faery stared unhappily at her hand and then his eyes narrowed in speculation. She flexed her fingers and put her hand down.
    Lila gave him a slow, thoughtful nod. "You're right. I was definitely much more like a robot with rubber gloves on a year ago. Now I don't even need to bother requisitioning gloves. Or, come to that, boots and stockings."

    Malachi raised his eyebrows, "Does it do other colours?"
    Lila imagined her hand wearing a red glove. The black became muddy brown and then mottled, as if cancerous. She went back to black quickly. "Seems I don't have the hang of that. Or it doesn't like it. Maybe it's a goth technology." She hesitated. "I don't really like to dwell on why it will do some things and not others."
    They shared a glance of profound discomfort and worry and then both looked away at the same moment. Lila felt strange again, as she had with Madame when she had showed the demon the same thing, and she tried to forget that just now she had referred to parts of herself in the third person, as if they weren't really her at all. A shudder tried to get going in her back but she didn't let it show and instead it closed on her spine with a cold grip-the fear she didn't want to know about that kept on screaming silently "What if it's alive? What if it's not you but something else? Was it always like this? Did they know when they remade you? Or is it something made lately, in Alfheim, because of Zal, in Demonia ... what is it? Whose is it? Why? Didn't Spiderman once have this kind of trouble and look what happened to him ..."
    No, she didn't want to give in to that kind of fear. That was a luxury reserved for people who feared something they could actually flee from.
    Tath sighed an elfin sigh-long, soft, and so eloquent you could have sent it to a debating competition as an irrefutable speech on the folly of human nature. Lila imagined herself giving him a kick in the pants and sent it as a mental image, but he was impervious to taunts.
    Meanwhile, "On the plus side I don't have to bother with two hours of medical and maintenance every night," she said, attempting to be breezy and failing.
    "You still go back for ammunition, medical gear, or downloads?"
    It was a good question. She didn't know the answer since she hadn't used up any supplies since her last trip back to the Agency. In one of the wardrobes a large unopened holdall contained a field-base's worth of spares. Of the duels she had fought during and since the wedding she used barehand and blade techniques to be on the safe side. She didn't know what rounds were fatal and nonfatal to demons, and anyway, getting out a missile or bomblet seemed unsporting and not in the spirit of ritual mortal combat. At least the demons seemed to agree with her. None of them had made an attempt on her life with anything more accurate or long range than a single hand crossbow.

    "The Al processes go up almost a hundred percent when it happens," she said because it was all the hard information she had.
    A voice said from her ear, "Yeah but even that's been going down lately. I keep telling ya to change into something interesting like a speedboat and give it something to worry about but do you listen?" Thingamajig crawled out of his hiding form as a ruby, jewelling Lila's ear, and stretched out on her shoulder to stare at Malachi with proprietorial interest. He was slightly hunched and stroked the backs of his own hands, eyes narrowed, like a villain in a pantomime.
    "He must be an interesting third party in bed," Malachi said. "Unusually quiet today."
    "I've got a name, you know," the imp said sulkily, slumping back into his recent despondent state.
    "Yeah, when you know what it is give me a call," the faery replied.
    "Myeh," Thingamajig turned his back and buried his face in Lila's hair, aiming his small rump directly at Malachi and briefly emitting a fart of yellow flame.
    "Can you turn into a speedboat?" Malachi asked.
    "No. When can I meet your