Neurolink by M. M. Buckner Read Free Book Online Page A

all, he was angry with his father for dying. He missed the old man more than he could say.
    At last, he forced himself to smile. “Two bit-brains are better than one. You have your Gig, so let me have my NP.”
    She gazed at him for a long thoughtful moment, but Dominic didn’t flinch. He knew how to hold his sea-colored eyes as steady as those of a painted porcelain doll. Qi turned back to her controls without comment. Reluctantly, Dominic reopened the briefcase. He was about to speak to the NP again when Qi grabbed his arm.
    “Look! Something in the water,” she said.
    Dominic covered his right eye and concentrated on the 360-degree image beaming through his eyepiece. He still had trouble focusing on the panoramic view. As he squinted and strained, gradually a mound of rubbish emerged among the dingy waves. Barrels. In the distance, it looked like a jumble of rusting barrels lashed together with cord. Some barrels had come loose and were floating free. Billowing sheets of white plastic trailed in the water, and all manner of debris had collected around them. Dominic blinked and looked closer. For a moment, he thought he saw an old woman lift her hand and point.
     
CHAPTER 4
----

MARGIN REQUIREMENT
    THE Devi circled the wreck. In the choppy waters below, Dominic saw that the barrel raft had been warped by some rogue storm into a twisted mountain of junk. Buckets and plastic bags were tied everywhere, small ones, large ones, all hanging in shreds that rose and fell with the waves. Qi maneuvered closer and adjusted their headband visors for true color, transmuting the false golds and lavenders of metavision into the dull, grimy grays of reality. The tepid ocean swelled and sluiced through the barrels, churning up geysers.
    Sure enough, there were human bodies wedged among the debris. He counted six, wrapped like mummies in clear plastic sheeting, bobbing with each motion of the waves. Through his headband, they looked small and shrunken, curled up in tight, shriveled knots, and though it might have been a trick of the wind, one of them resembled an old woman lifting her hand to the sky.
    “Are they dead?” Dominic asked.
    “Maybe not.” Qi maneuvered the Devi into a hover just above the wreck. “I’m gonna open the hatch.”
    “Wait, I’m not sealed!” Dominic fumbled for his helmet.
    Qi hummed a snatch of melody. “You’re getting all tangled up, Nick. Take off your headband first. It won’t fit inside your helmet. Here, I’ll activate a flat display so you can still see.”
    She tapped a key, and a console screen winked on, showing a two-dimensional view of the raft below. While she plucked off her cybernails and snugged her helmet into place, Dominic struggled to get his neckband seated. He’d only just sealed the gasket when she retracted the Devi’s cockpit cover with a loud thump. Now the cockpit lay exposed to the atmosphere, and in seconds, a lethal oily dew covered every surface. Frantically, he tugged on his gloves, wondering how she would clean the cockpit later. She probably had an air exchanger to blow out poisonous gases, but how would she get rid of this noxious residue? This stop was turning into a real annoyance. They might have to keep their helmets and gloves sealed for the rest of the journey.
    “I’m picking up heartbeats, Nick. They’re alive.” Qi climbed out of her seat, which caused the whole craft to list to one side. Dominic tightened his seat belt.
    “Should we call for a med crew?” he asked.
    “Nick, we’re undercover. No one’s supposed to know we’re here. Get it?” Qi threw her legs over the side and dropped out of sight.
    Dominic tilted his notebook so the NP could have a view of the flat-screen. “See the raft?” he whispered.
    “Don’t worry, boy. I see your location now.” The NP’s holographic head bulged out of the notebook and smacked its lips. “You lit up my scans the second Major Qi opened that cockpit. Pretty sweet stealth cladding. Get me a