The Last City by Nina D'Aleo Read Free Book Online Page A

something.’
    ‘Why would you even care what happens to Keets?’ Diega demanded.
    ‘I understand how you feel,’ the commander replied to Jude. ‘But Keets won’t give us anything. I know her. She’s a scullion. She will never talk. She will never change. There is no way to reach her. There’s nothing I can do. End of story.’
    Eli thought of the way Ev’r Keets had looked at Silho and wondered if this was completely true. It had definitely appeared as though she had recognised the new recruit. Eli glanced at Silho. She was keeping silent so he decided not to mention what he’d seen in front of everyone. He would talk to Copernicus when they were alone. In the meantime, there was an unveiling to be done.
    ‘Okay,’ Eli jumped in at the pause in conversation. He dumped an armful of equipment onto the table in front of the others. ‘As promised – the new and improved tracker communicators.’ No one responded, deep in their own thoughts. It wasn’t the level of excitement Eli had hoped for, but he ploughed on regardless. ‘New functions of the Communicator 8020 include holo-speak, multi-talk and multi-message, which means I could call everyone on the team at once and either have a conference call, with or without image display, or leave a group message, which you could all access. Additionally, it has an automatic message function, so if the connection doesn’t go through or the machine is switched off, you can still leave a message, which will sit in the lines until the other system can receive it. As well as that, it has improved sound quality, range and speed of connection. It works underwater, underground and at high velocity, and it also has the highly anticipated detachable locator function, so we can check our systems and see exactly where everyone is at all times.’
    ‘Great,’ Diega said, her tone flat. ‘Exactly what I needed – minus zero privacy in my life.’
    ‘You’ve done well, Eli, as always,’ Jude said. He sat forward and took one of the new communicators. SevenM scurried down his arm and patted at the locator screen with one metal limb.
    ‘See,’ Eli leaned in and pointed to the screen, ‘we’re all a different-coloured marker. I’m yellow, Diega is pink, Silho is green, the commander is black and you and SevenM are blue. And the whole system is fingerprint operated, so if anyone else grabs your communicator it will immediately shut down, and if someone tries to access the internals without a security pass the communicator will explode. I’ve already programmed them to override the old system, so all we need to do is activate them and you can hand in your old machines.’
    ‘I don’t want to be pink,’ Diega complained.
    ‘You’re pink. Deal with it,’ the commander said. He leaned over and took one of the communicators. He powered it on and pressed the locator screen to activate the machine. As he did, the communicator emitted a deafening high-pitched squeal. Eli hurriedly fiddled with the settings and managed to stop the sound.
    ‘It may take a bit of time to iron out all the glitches.’ He gave a nervous giggle.
    The commander’s new communicator buzzed with an incoming call and Copernicus answered.
    ‘Yes.’ He paused. ‘Yes.’ He moved away from the group to talk.
    The others handed in their old systems and activated their new machines. Eli noticed Silho didn’t have to take off her gloves to activate her system. She just flipped up the capped end of one of the fingertips. He found himself staring. She really was unusually stunning.
    His stomach rumbled, gurgled and gave a flatulent squeak. Diega looked at him and raised an eyebrow. ‘Hungry?’
    ‘I was up before dawn this morning and early rising gives me gas,’ he explained.
    ‘That and everything else,’ the Fen teased.
    ‘Not everything,’ Eli said. ‘Just silence, emotional speeches, running, sudden bouts of laughter, baked beans, lentils, cabbage . . . Please, like I’m the only one.’ He