Read Online The Code War by Ciaran Nagle - Free Book Online

going to be …awkward.’
    Nancy was standing with her right foot
crossed over and slightly in front of her left. She was wearing a
close-fitting white lacy blouse which revealed just a hint of her
small cleavage. Her plain cotton skirt halted a few inches above
her knees. Now she stretched her foot forward and scraped the floor
absent-mindedly, side to side, with the front of her open-toed
shoe.
    ‘ So I think if you’ll
all promise to keep this just between us then I see no reason why
it shouldn’t work.' A short pause. 'OK?’
    The boys were now staring openly
at Nancy, all attempts at trying to look nonchalant had
disappeared. They were breathing more deeply than a few minutes
before.
    ‘ I don’t understand,’
Pete ventured at last, almost stammering.
    ‘ What are you trying
to say?’ chimed in Andy who wanted to encourage her where he
thought she was heading.
    ‘ Oh, I'm sure you
understand,' she chided. 'It just seems to me,’ Nancy was speaking
very slowly and deliberately now, ‘that if we can all share, I mean
if you can share, that is, all three of you, then we’ll all get on
well and there’ll be no reason for fights and there’ll be no
tension around the place.’
    She stopped, in no rush to get to the
point and put them out of their misery.
    ‘ But it’ll be our
secret OK? I mean, I don’t want the whole of London knowing about
this.’
    Nancy was confident, looking at the boys’ faces, that her speech
was going down quite well. She was increasingly sure of the
response she would get when she finally made her offer.
    ‘ Look, what I’m
trying to say is that sharing is good .
And I think you’d continue to be good friends, better friends in
fact, if you could find a way to share….’
    Her voice trailed off.
    ‘… .me.’
    Andy was
the first to speak.
    ‘ Yeah, well, er, that
sounds really fair,’ he said. ‘I mean, if you’re absolutely
sure.’
    All three boys were nodding their
heads slowly while maintaining very serious expressions. They could
have just been listening to a wise statesman making an insightful
talk at a conference on world peace. Only Martin wore a slight
frown.
    ‘ Thank you Nancy,
that’s very kind of you,’ said Pete.
    ‘ Yeah, I think
that’ll work well. That’s really er, er, fair,’ agreed Martin
rather lamely.
    ‘ Fine,’ said
Nancy . It felt good to be fancied by 100%
of the men present with no abstentions. ‘In that case, so that
there’s no favouritism, I think we should begin in alphabetical
order. Andy, could you help me with my case?’
     
     
    Heaven's
S hore
     
    Jabez had his hands on his head.
Inside the globe suspended in front of him w as the scene inside the Eilat apartment.
    'Ee eh! I
never saw that coming, not in the life of a galaxy. Not from her,
that was totally out of character. Wasn't it? What's going on,
Luke?'
    Luke had also been watching the scene
unfold.
    'Let me see what I can find out,'
he flicked to another view within his own sphere, one that gave him
more information about the environment around the Eilat apartment.
'The enemy's airwaves are all over this,' he reported. 'There are
passive violations of neutrality everywhere. The atmosphere around
Nancy reeks of enemy observation.'
    'You don't surprise me. You know
that I don't have much experience of this, Luke. But even I know
this is unusual.'
    Luke was still checking his
scopes.
    'The matter that worries me,'
continued Jabez, 'is that Infernals seemed to know this was coming.
Nancy has gone from carefree innocent to dedicated seductress in an
instant. They saw it coming and we didn't. This should concern us.
Their usual pattern is to watch someone who shows signs of going
wrong and encourage them to do more. But with this girl, I mean
woman, Nancy, it's different. There was no indication that she
would behave like this. This means that Hell has just got a lot
more sophisticated than they have ever been up to now.'
    'Yes,' replied Luke. 'Also, they know
we're