World of Fire (Dev Harmer 01) by James Lovegrove Read Free Book Online

out again, should you get shot or fatally maimed or whatever?”
    “Nope. Not how it works. I don’t have the ability to randomly project my consciousness into ultraspace whenever I feel like it. I have to be hooked up to a transcription matrix first and use that as a portal. If I die here, I die; just like you, Utz, Stegman, anyone.”
    “Oh. I just thought –”
    “You just thought an ISS consultant can chuck host forms aside like used tissues. You thought I can unzip my consciousness from one shell and zip it into another like Polis Plussers do. Uh-uh. Not that simple.”
    “I see.”
    “And for what it’s worth, suicide isn’t high on my bucket list. I’m not prepared to kill myself in order to take a target out. This isn’t about you, Kahlo. That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it? You’re the highest-ranking person on board this pod, Calder’s Edge’s chief of police, so you’ve got to be the target. But what if you’re wrong? I think so. I think, if this is about anyone, it’s about me.”
    “What makes you so sure?” said Kahlo.
    “Consider the facts. The moment I arrive, a chunk of rock drops onto where I am. Couple of hours later, I accompany local cops to the site of a train crash – a very suspicious incident, just the sort of thing a newly arrived ISS consultant might want to check out – and on the way back I almost get clobbered by another train. Either of those events alone could be happenstance. The two together – that begins to smell nasty.”
    “You’re saying someone knows you’re here and is gunning for you.”
    “That would be the logical conclusion,” said Dev. “Someone’s unhappy about the presence of active ISS personnel on Alighieri. Someone doesn’t want me sniffing around. They’re targeting me, and trying to make it look like mishap rather than assassination.”
    “Assuming that’s the case, any ideas who?”
    “Too soon to say with any certainty. I’ve hardly got the lie of the land yet. But I’d like to start pursuing certain avenues of enquiry, and for that I’d like to beg a favour off you, captain.”
    “I’m not particularly inclined to grant you one,” said Kahlo. “If you’re right, the three of us almost died because of you.”
    “But fair’s fair, I saved your lives.”
    “And Bilk did die because of you.”
    “Unfortunate, but he was ISS. He must’ve realised there’s risk attached to that. I’m sure it’s mentioned in the welcome pack.”
    “I don’t feel like I owe you anything, if that’s what you’re hoping. I’m not in your debt.”
    “No, but do you want these shenanigans to end, or do you want things to get worse? Because, if the first, I’m your guy. Your best bet. Like it or not, it’s true.”
    Kahlo was quiet. The pod rocketed from the tunnel, out into the barely fathomable vastness of the Calder’s Edge cavern. It traversed a bridge over the chasm where the geothermal plant was sited. Down below, far down, at the foot of an abyss, a thin line of magma wove its way like a golden thread.
    “Not liking it,” she said at last. “But I’m willing to give you at least a chance. Benefit of the doubt.”
    “That’s all I ask.”
    “What do you want me to do?”

 
    7
     
     
    R OUND UP THE awkward squad .
    That was Dev’s request. Kahlo voiced misgivings, talking about ethics and due process, but eventually relented and put several squads of her officers onto it.
    They bulldozed into bars and homes and dragged out the usual suspects: the people who liked a fight, the union firebrands, the habitual drunks, the young rebellious tearaways who were forever falling foul of the law. Anyone, in fact, who had long arrest records for infractions such as affray, public disorder and breach of the peace. The troublemakers.
    They brought them back to the police HQ and dumped them in holding cells. It wasn’t a hassle-free procedure. There were scuffles. Disgruntled detainees objected; grievances were aired, loudly. These