Keeping It Real by Justina Robson Read Free Book Online

escape,
    but at the same time, she didn't want to sleep. Sleep meant dreams . She lay quietly . Her eyes were sore
    and tired, so she closed them to let them rest.
    Two hours later she heard a tiny, odd noise. She woke hearing it and knowing it was trouble from a
    distance, alert and fully able, though
    only a splitsecond before she had been deeply asleep. The joltof her heart was the only symptom of her
    sudden transition and even that was soon gone into the smooth, cold world of action . She was only a
    beginner in fighter terms, but her AI was a master and it seamlessly moved her from sleeping to waking
    before sliding back to lie in her nerves like an obedient pet. She felt a frisson of anxiety - itwas a
    rebellious pet- butthe AI absorbed thattoo.
    Lila slid off the bed and crossed to the door, puther ear to itand turned up all her sensors . The slight
    sounds that had disturbed her were very small, very stealthy and far distant. Her Al-self showed her a
    plotted location - rightatthe back wall of the building.
    There was no reason for Lila to sneak, but she moved quickly and reasonably quietly out of her room
    and through the ocean room, where nightlights in recesses close to the floor showed her that there was
    nobody there. The sounds had stopped. Perhaps their maker had heard her? Butthen they began again
    and Lila pinpointed them atthe other end of the house, where the second storey backed into the hillside
    and it would be easy to hop onto the flat roofs of the kitchens once the guards had been passed.
    She accessed the house controls, using her Doublesafe code, and turned off all interior lights. Instantly
    she was plunged into darkness, but she could see relatively well on infra-red, well enough that she could
    better a human attacker, and match a magical one. In response to her action another silence ensued,
    broken only by the sounds of various sleepers and the natural noises of the night.
    Lila checked in with the perimeter guard, but they'd seen nothing. The one atthe back of the house
    was a witch, so she shouldn't have missed a trick outthere, even in the thickestforestcover. There were
    a couple of things that might get past her: an elf, or a faery of one or other kind. Lila hoped it wasn't
    either of those as she ran the length of the house, passing through rooms in a blur. She passed the guest
    bedrooms which were semi-permanently occupied by the band, butonly DJ Boom had come back so
    far. Her door was locked and there were quietsnores brushing up against it.
    Lila reached an end wall with an arched window thatoverlooked some of the lower roofs and was on
    eye level with the forestcanopy some hundred metres away. Above the black line of trees the stars
    shone brightly, and the heat rising in vapours from the kitchen vents was almost blinding. Nevertheless
    she was just able to see the agile,
    small form of a black-clad humanoid figure jump the gap between the kitchen stores and the main
    building. There was a soft thump as it landed on a window ledge - so soft it could have been a night bird
    alighting. Lila strained to see. It went right on up the wall, climbing swiftly . By the quality and speed of
    movement, its relative quietand the fact that it was hard to see - and therefore contained most of its body
    heat because of an aura - Lila guessed it was an elf .
    As she turned to monitor its progress, she heard the front door open and voices talking about the lights
    - a guard explaining itwas only temporary, nothing to worry about. Poppy had come back. The sudden
    inrush of noise deafened Lila to the sounds on the roof. She did the only thing she could do, and doubled
    back towards Zal's room as fastas she could.
    DJ Boom must have heard her. As she reached thatroom the door opened. Boom's sleepy shape
    turned into the corridor, facing the wrong way. Lila was going too fast. She had to leap through the gap
    between Boom's head and the ceiling in order to miss her - a power-assisted dive that cracked