Read Online Hive Monkey by Gareth L. Powell - Free Book Online Page B

back, a few minutes later, he gave her a suspicious look.
    “Why are you so happy?”
    Victoria gave a start.
    “Me?”
    “You’re practically singing.”
    “It’s nothing.” She tried to wave him away, but he raised an eyebrow.
    “It doesn’t look like nothing to me.”
    Victoria drummed her fingernails against the side of the tin mug. She let out a sigh. “It’s just good to have something to do,” she finally admitted.
    Paul smiled knowingly.
    “Running a skyliner’s not enough for you, eh? You still need that extra excitement, don’t you? The thrill of the chase?” He shook his head, pretending to despair of her. “Some things never change.”
    “And some things do.” She put the tin cup down on the chair’s padded arm. “Now, what have you got for me?”
    Paul’s smile widened, and he puffed his chest forward. “Well, I’ve reviewed the footage.”
    “Any luck?”
    His eyes twinkled behind his glasses.
    “Let me show you.” A second screen lit, displaying grainy footage from the security camera in the corridor outside Cole’s cabin. “Right, here’s our man.” A hooded figure appeared from the right side of the screen, moving awkwardly and hunched over to the right, as if trying to curl around a pain in his side.
    Victoria said, “You see where he’s holding himself? That’s where he was shot.” So, Cole’s story held up. The man had been shot before entering the cabin, just as he’d said. “Okay, let’s back it up.”
    The picture froze, and then began to rewind. Victoria watched the robed figure shuffle backwards along the corridor. Moving from one camera to another, the pictures retraced his steps to a tiny berth in one of the outermost gondolas.
    “According to records, the cabin was occupied by a man calling himself Bill Cole,” Paul said. “He came aboard shortly after William.” The picture jumped to show a shot taken by a camera up on the main helipad. It showed a middle-aged man stepping down from one of the passenger choppers. He wore an expensive-looking business suit, and clutched a leather briefcase. Mirrored sunglasses covered his eyes.
    “That’s him?”
    “Yeah. He must have the robe in his suitcase, but it’s definitely him.”
    Victoria leant close to the screen. “He seems to be moving okay.” In fact, he looked like a typical business traveller. “Which means, he hadn’t been shot when he came on board.”
    Paul frowned. “So, whoever shot him might still be here somewhere.”
    “Oui. And Cole could still be in danger. Where is he now?”
    The screen changed to a real-time view of the passenger lounge. Cole, now wrapped in a white bathrobe, sat at a corner table with Ack-Ack Macaque and K8. The monkey’s revolvers lay on the table, within easy reach.
    “He should be safe enough there,” Paul said. “Nobody’s going to tangle with the Ack-ster.”
    Victoria frowned.
    “Let’s hope not.” She ran a hand up her forehead and over the rough scar tissue at the back of her scalp, dreading to think what mayhem might be unleashed if someone engaged the monkey in such a confined space. “Right,” she said, “access the room records. Find all the information this ‘Bill Cole’ gave us when he came aboard.”
    Paul waved his hands like a conjuror, and the data appeared on the screen beside him: a copy of the man’s electronic boarding pass, and a scan of his passport.
    “Here it is. Bill Cole, aged forty-eight. British citizen. With an address in the city.”
    “This city?” She glanced forward, at the lights beyond the windshield.
    “Yeah.” Street maps appeared on the screen. “It’s not too far from here, in fact. A couple of miles, at the most.”
    “Can you load it into my head?” Victoria’s neural prosthesis held a satellite map overlay.
    “Sure.” Paul’s eyes narrowed as he watched her slip her arms into the sleeves of the jacket draped over her shoulders. “Why, what are you going to do? Talk to the police?”
    Now it was