Skyfall by Anthony Eaton Read Free Book Online Page B

there.’
    Kes just snorted as the lift slowed again, switched briefly through a horizontal shaft, then climbed a short way to a hub. A moment later the doors slid open and the thump of muffled bass music filled the air.
    â€˜Come on.’ Kes grabbed his hand.
    â€˜Kes—’
    â€˜Don’t worry so much! We’ll have a quick look around and then get out of here, okay?’
    â€˜Why’s it so dark?’
    â€˜Dunno. Let’s find out.’ She pulled him out. The doors closed behind them and they stood beside the hub for a moment, taking it all in.
    â€˜Cool!’ Kes actually sounded impressed.
    â€˜You’re joking, right?’
    People thronged around them, jostling and bumping. Music pounded through the dome from at least a dozen different directions.
    â€˜This way!’ Kes pushed past a couple of women who were scanning the lift allocation plate and headed for the edge of the common.
    Ignoring the strange looks thrown their way by the women, Lari hurried after her.
    Compared with what he was used to, the restricted rec dome felt small and cramped. The common was little bigger than Lari’s apartment. The dome’s facility towers loomed high around them, filling the interior almost all the way to the roof and festooned with an eerie array of glowing signs, advertising products and establishments whose functions Lari could only imagine. The noise and smell and pulse of the place shuddered through him as he shouldered after Kes.
    â€˜Watch it!’ snapped a man in a shimmering black robe as Lari was jostled hard against him.
    â€˜Sorry,’ Lari muttered, but the man was gone and Lari lunged after Kes again, only to almost knock her over as she stopped.
    â€˜Look!’ Kes pointed and Lari stared up though the tiny section of dome visible immediately above them.
    â€˜Wow.’
    Through a small gap between the utility towers, the city filled the sky, an almost unfathomable tangle of domes, lift and shafts, all lit from behind by daylight and thrown into dark silhouette against the sky.
    â€˜Tell me that isn’t impressive?’
    â€˜It’s impressive, all right? Now, can we get out of here?’
    â€˜But we haven’t seen anything.’
    â€˜People are staring.’
    It was true. Almost everyone they passed directed odd looks at them, expressions ranging from amusement to curiosity to outright hostility.
    â€˜Let’s keep moving.’
    And she was away again, darting down a passage between two buildings.
    â€˜Do you even know where you’re going?’
    â€˜Lari, relax!’ A note of exasperation crept into her voice. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve never wondered about these places.’
    Lari felt colour rise in his cheeks.
    â€˜I knew it!’ Kes grinned and punched his arm. ‘You try to pretend you’re different, Larinan Mann, but you’re like every other guy I know. Now let’s make the most of this.’
    She grabbed his hand and led him deeper into the shadowy gap between the buildings. The further they walked, the darker and more sulphurous the atmosphere became. The close press of the walls packed the crowd even more tightly than out in the common. Conversation in a dozen banned languages babbled around them, and in the darkness of a recessed doorway someone was vomiting copiously.
    â€˜Check it out!’ Kes squeezed his hand. Ahead, a small, shuffling crowd waited in a puddle of red light cast by a glowing sign mounted above a heavy iron door. The flickering glow painted them bloody.
    â€˜What are they doing?’
    â€˜It must be a club.’
    â€˜Orpheus,’ Lari said, reading the sign.
    â€˜Hey!’ A heavyset man in black noticed them and detached himself from the crowd. ‘Hey, you kids!’
    â€˜Come on!’ Kes spun round and dashed back towards the common.
    â€˜Shi!’ Lari muttered under his breath as he sprinted behind her.
    â€˜Stop there, you