Read Online The Fifth Civilization: A Novel by Peter Bingham-Pankratz - Free Book Online Page B

of a Nyden. Roan focused on the traffic flying by out the
window, not caring about the car’s speed or the sharpness of its turns.
    They’d managed to get in their skimmer and tear out of Yuko
Mall just as the city police showed up. Sirens screamed by as they escaped. By
now, the authorities must have found Aaron’s body and knew the names and faces
of both Roan and David. They weren’t going to be happy with the people who
caused this very public firefight. Not that it mattered, because Roan had no
intention of talking to them. While the Japanese police were known to be on the
congenial end of Earth’s finest, there were few things Roan wanted less than to
sit down for a police interview.
    Nor did he want to sit down for a Kotaran interview, which
would no doubt end in the extraction of one of his molars. He shuddered at the
stories he’d heard.
    “We’re almost to the spaceport,” David reported. “You might
want to look into a ship we can take.”
    Roan banged his fist against the hull. “How can you be so
nonchalant at a time like this? Aaron was just killed in front of you! What is
that, a minor inconvenience?” He was breathing heavily now, seething at the
alien at the controls.
    “I’m grieving too, Mr. Roan,” David said. Roan noticed
David’s bulbous head shined red. An indicator of sadness, perhaps? Roan almost
regretted his outburst. “This is a very hard day for me,” David continued.
“I’ve seen Aaron nearly every week of these past five years. He was—he
is—a family member to me. But this is not a time for pausing. Reflection
can come later. We need to reach a ship with alacrity.”
    “OK, David.” Roan thought about Aaron for a moment. He
struggled to get out the next few words. “Aaron didn’t have a family. No blood
relatives on Earth, I mean. Did he have anyone who he might want to contact in case…in
case he died?”
    “There is only me,” David said, and turned the car down a
major thoroughfare. Roan wondered what kind of a life it was to be close to
only one person, but then remembered that he could count his close friends on
one hand.
    Roan glanced at the rear camera on the dashboard monitor,
and didn’t see any familiar hovercars. This was good news. It meant that the
Kotarans who attacked them were no longer in hot pursuit, and had probably been
scared off by the police as well. But it was too much of a risk to stay on
Earth any longer. Though the Kotarans were renowned hunters and brutal killers,
Roan had much more faith in the human police tracking him down and bringing him
in for questioning. This was their territory, after all. He was just sure the
Kotarans were monitoring the police channels, and would try and grab him if he arrived
at any police station. Then he’d be in trouble, because he did not doubt the
Kotaran’s ability to kidnap a stationary being.
    Roan pulled his com from his jacket, his hand brushing past
the hexagonal pad given by Aaron. With his index finger he scrolled through his
directory, looking for someone to call, someone to get him out of this
situation. Jonas was in São Paulo, he knew. Rigo was all the way in Yokohama,
and his ship was always staffed by a bunch of cutthroats anyway. Reiko…no. She
was definitely out. The only person who could remotely help them out was Masao,
and Roan pressed the number to dial him, hoping the copilot didn’t have too
much of a hangover.
    One ring. Two. Three. On the fourth, a click and a sniff.
    “Masao here.”
    “Thank God! Listen, it’s Nick.”
    “Nick?”
    “Yeah, I need your help. I’m kind of being chased.”
    “What? Nick, you been hitting the Centauri stuff?”
    “No, no! Masao, listen to me very carefully.”   He gave Masao a brief rundown of what
happened. On the other end there was silence, punctuated by periodic coughing.
When he finished, Roan waited for a quick question of where he was and an
estimate of how quickly Masao could get there.
    Instead: “Seriously, Nick, I thought