Rojan Dizon 03 - Last to Rise by Francis Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

Boundary, trying to be unobtrusive. I’d disguised myself a bit, a quick remoulding of my features. My conversation with Erlat was playing on my mind, along with about a thousand other things. Pasha and Halina noticed the change, but Pasha knew enough not to say anything and maybe Halina thought I did it all the time. Even disguised, I was twitchy. Was that man on the corner watching me? Was that bold cardinal hatching a neat little plan to hand me over to the Storad, or one of his comrades planning the same to hand me over to the Mishans? Was that junkie on the corner one of their men? It would almost be a relief to get to the ’Pit.
    From Boundary, we rode down in the lift that lived in a once-hidden access point to a place most had believed was sealed off and free of people, a cesspit of synthtox and chemicals that could eat you up from the inside. It hadn’t been quite as bad as that – the chemicals would probably take ten times as long to kill you as the people that had, in fact, lived in the ’Pit.
    I shut my eyes and concentrated on the thought of food, real food, beef and gravy and all those things I’d probably never see again, had become addicted to over a very short space of time when they’d been available to me down in the ’Pit. The thought of fat, crispy bacon on the hoof – trotter, whatever – in the Storad camp took my mind off the fact that the lift was coffin-shaped. And badly maintained. And a long,
long
way from the bottom.
    Pasha looked surprised when I offered to go first, but that was purely a face-saving move. I’d have at least five minutes to have a little gibber of terror and relief at the bottom while the lift fetched the next person. I managed to pull myself together by the time Halina stepped out and looked round with a wide-eyed stare and a wrinkled nose. The smell of synth was pretty strong down there, enough that it felt like it was stripping the inside of my throat of its skin.
    While we were on our own, as Pasha came down in the jolting lift, Halina gave me a sideways glance that spoke volumes, mostly of a series of books called “You Look Like Something That Just Dropped Out Of My Nose, Only With Less Charm”.
    She was looking pretty fine. Lastri had dug out some of her old clothes, or so she said. I really couldn’t imagine Lastri in this little number though – a clingy shirt in a blue bright enough to have an eye out, cinched at the waist to show off Halina’s figure in all the very best ways, and a pair of close-fitting trousers that brought me out in a sweat.
    She’d not forgiven me for luring her away from the Stench under false food pretences; at least I assumed that’s why she kept giving me the old side-eye. Then again, she and Lastri had been very chatty, and no doubt Lastri had given her a highly colourful and probably not especially accurate character assassination of me and my ways. I say inaccurate – Lastri only knew the half of what I got up to, so any assassination attempt would be manslaughter at best.
    What Halina said in the end, given that, came as a surprise. “Dendal says you’re pretty good at this magic. Says I should look at what you and Pasha do, and try to follow it. But he said a lot of stuff, and not all of it made sense.”
    “That sounds like Dendal. I —”
    “He also said I should ignore any of your attempts to take me out or sweet-talk me. I’m inclined to agree with him on that point. So no funny business, all right?”
    I tried the old faithful, never-fails smile. “Business will be strictly unfunny, I guarantee. I have sworn off women.” I tried to intimate with only facial gestures that I would fall off that wagon at the first hint of provocation.
    My smile failed: she looked distinctly underwhelmed by my promise.
    “And don’t you forget it,” she snapped. “I’ve had two cardinals have their flunkies ask me to lure you somewhere dark and out-of-the-way already. I’m no fan of the Ministry but I’m not beyond