Read Online The Devil's Nebula by Eric Brown - Free Book Online Page B

They’ll ream the smartcore and find out exactly where we’ve been every minute of the past ten years.”
    Jed looked stricken. “Do you think they’ll know that I...?”
    Carew said, “We’d better face the fact that they have enough on us to send us down for a few lifetimes.”
    “If they don’t decide to execute us, one by one,” Lania put in helpfully. “Which is probably why we’re still together.”
    “Sometimes, my dear, your pessimism is as welcome as a dose of Lyran bowel worms.”
    Lania tipped an imaginary hat.
    Carew looked out at the stars. In the distance, a salty scatter of far suns towards galactic north, he made out the territory of the Vetch.
    “I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” he murmured.
    Lania waved away the very idea and Jed said, “Where would I be if you hadn’t hired me, boss? I’ll tell you where – dead or clapped up in some stinking jail.”
    “Jed’s right,” Lania said. “We’re with you because we chose to be.” She stopped there, though Carew had the impression that she wanted to say more.
    Lania sat cross-legged in the centre of the room, and Jed slid down the wall with his legs outstretched before him. Carew remained before the viewscreen.
    Jed looked across at Lania. “I don’t know whether I like you best in that,” he said, “or in your smartsuit. At least now I can see what your legs look like.”
    Lania scowled at him. “I feel naked without the suit. You don’t know what it’s like.” She wrapped the hem of the shift tightly around her thighs, covering herself.
    Carew smiled. He wondered why it was only now, in extremis , that he truly appreciated the company of his crew.
    He was about to lighten the mood with a story about a tight spot he’d been in on Acrab V, fifteen years ago, when the hatch in the far wall irised open and an armed guard waved them out of the cell.
     
     
    C AREW HAD A ploy he used when faced with minions in positions of authority, such as armed guards, police officers and the like. He would obey their commands, but at his own pace, and he would never establish eye contact. If he was accompanied, he would keep up a running commentary under his breath. It destabilised the power dynamic between captor and captive; it helped him retain dignity, and gave the impression that he was in some measure of control, and it often unsettled those in charge.
    “Perhaps,” he murmured to Lania and Jed, “we’d better take up their kind offer of relocation. I found these quarters rather cramped, didn’t you?”
    Lania smiled. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
    Carew led the way out at a stroll. The six guards who escorted them from the cell and along a maze of white corridors were the usual bull-like drones, oiled body-armour clamped around bulky torsos. Only their heads showed, comically tiny between their hulking shoulder slabs. They carried enough fire-power to bring down a starship and were the ubiquitous face of Expansion authority. Carew had seen their like on every planet he’d visited, and their constant presence had filled him with despair.
    “Lania, is the word overkill sufficient to describe our escort?”
    She managed a laugh. “They obviously respect your prowess at unarmed combat.”
    “Or Jed’s ability to evade the tightest security,” Carew said.
    “Cut it out...” muttered Jed, spoiling the effect somewhat.
    Ahead, a triangular door in a blank wall slid aside and they were marched into a great circular chamber like an amphitheatre.
    One of the guards gestured.
    “I think that means, in goon-speak,” Carew interpreted, “that we ought to install ourselves in the dock.”
    They moved across to a rectangular holding pen, situated in the well of the amphitheatre, and seated themselves on a hard banquette. The guards manipulated controls on the side of the waist-high holding pen. Carew felt something hard and cold encircle his midriff, a metal band that pinioned him to the bench.
    Lania grimaced down at the band at