Read Online The Only Game in the Galaxy by Paul Collins - Free Book Online
Authors: Paul Collins
Tags: Science-Fiction, Children's Books, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Children's eBooks, spies, Science Fiction; Fantasy & Scary Stories, Mysteries & Detectives
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this height, even into water. She would reach terminal velocity before slamming into the river (or before slamming into the inside ‘skin’ of her personal field) and it would be final.
Nor could she collapse the field in so short a space of time. Riding a collapsing field down, like a deflating balloon, would have been a possibility.
Pity about that.
That left only one thing.
She punched the emergency release of her belt, separating the field generator unit from the harness, the two still attached by an elasticised line that could winch out fifty metres or more. Anneke reversed the fields’ polarity – shoving the dial into the red zone, past the safety clicks alerting her to never do this – and flung the belt skyward. From rooftop blast, to reversing the polarity, took less than two seconds, during which Anneke was hurled sideways and then …
Dropped. Like a stone.
The fields built up almost instantly into a spastic recoil of each other and every other field nearby, including the planet.
Anneke’s belt shot upwards, riding a recoil field that tried to escape the planet’s vicinity and which would peter out as quickly as it started. However, it might just slow Anneke’s descent.
The elasticised line screamed out of the feed unit on her harness, like a deep sea fishing line that had hooked a monster fish. Anneke’s plummeting drop slowed. But the river still rushed towards her, way too fast.
The line stretched, and stretched, slowing her fall as it did so, then rebounded far too soon. She was still fifty metres up, high enough to break her bones and snap her neck like a twig. But Anneke had no choice. She was already being pulled back up by the recoiling field generator. She punched the second release button and plummeted towards the dark oily river.
This is going to hurt , she thought.
As she neared the water she shut her eyes, feeling a visceral jolt through every cell and sinew of her body. Something had seized her and slowed her descent.
She hit the water as if from a twenty-metre diving board. Still too damn high.
Anneke came up for air twenty seconds later. Dazed. When she broke the surface she saw stars, just not real ones.
She had just reinvented the ancient art of bungee jumping.
As she swam towards the opposite shore, her public radio implant picked up a targeted broadcast.
‘Are you down and depressed? Tired of life? Suicide is not a solution to one’s problems. Should the urge to kill yourself come upon you again, contact the suicide hotline. This has been an authorised broadcast by the Suicide Prevention Committee. A fee of fifty-two credits has been charged to your account in payment for your one-time use of the Municipal Riverside Field Generator Facility. Have a nice day!’
An hour later, Anneke had acquired street money (pickpocketing being one of the skills she had apparently been trained in), eaten hot food and booked herself into a tacky two-star hotel in a disreputable part of the city. She had even bought herself clothes.
She slept soundly, ate a big breakfast, and hacked into Myotan battle orders which indicated the location of some imminent mayhem. Then she went looking for Black.
She found him on a rooftop about to be wasted by a hit-merc working for the Imperial Myotan Combine which was being ambushed nearby by Maximus’ people. Black was wearing an expensive renovation, but Anneke saw through it: the situational stress causing him to revert to a default ‘inner jacket’ of body language, gestures and movements far harder to conceal than appearance.
Anneke crouched between two gnarly old gargoyles, left over from some bygone spasm of architectural hubris, and considered whether she should intervene in the dispute or let nature take its course.
But one should try to stay loyal to one’s boss, even if one didn’t like him very much.
She took out the hit-merc with a direct shot to the chest, whereas Black’s rushed reflexive shot merely hit the man’s kneecap.
Nor could she collapse the field in so short a space of time. Riding a collapsing field down, like a deflating balloon, would have been a possibility.
Pity about that.
That left only one thing.
She punched the emergency release of her belt, separating the field generator unit from the harness, the two still attached by an elasticised line that could winch out fifty metres or more. Anneke reversed the fields’ polarity – shoving the dial into the red zone, past the safety clicks alerting her to never do this – and flung the belt skyward. From rooftop blast, to reversing the polarity, took less than two seconds, during which Anneke was hurled sideways and then …
Dropped. Like a stone.
The fields built up almost instantly into a spastic recoil of each other and every other field nearby, including the planet.
Anneke’s belt shot upwards, riding a recoil field that tried to escape the planet’s vicinity and which would peter out as quickly as it started. However, it might just slow Anneke’s descent.
The elasticised line screamed out of the feed unit on her harness, like a deep sea fishing line that had hooked a monster fish. Anneke’s plummeting drop slowed. But the river still rushed towards her, way too fast.
The line stretched, and stretched, slowing her fall as it did so, then rebounded far too soon. She was still fifty metres up, high enough to break her bones and snap her neck like a twig. But Anneke had no choice. She was already being pulled back up by the recoiling field generator. She punched the second release button and plummeted towards the dark oily river.
This is going to hurt , she thought.
As she neared the water she shut her eyes, feeling a visceral jolt through every cell and sinew of her body. Something had seized her and slowed her descent.
She hit the water as if from a twenty-metre diving board. Still too damn high.
Anneke came up for air twenty seconds later. Dazed. When she broke the surface she saw stars, just not real ones.
She had just reinvented the ancient art of bungee jumping.
As she swam towards the opposite shore, her public radio implant picked up a targeted broadcast.
‘Are you down and depressed? Tired of life? Suicide is not a solution to one’s problems. Should the urge to kill yourself come upon you again, contact the suicide hotline. This has been an authorised broadcast by the Suicide Prevention Committee. A fee of fifty-two credits has been charged to your account in payment for your one-time use of the Municipal Riverside Field Generator Facility. Have a nice day!’
An hour later, Anneke had acquired street money (pickpocketing being one of the skills she had apparently been trained in), eaten hot food and booked herself into a tacky two-star hotel in a disreputable part of the city. She had even bought herself clothes.
She slept soundly, ate a big breakfast, and hacked into Myotan battle orders which indicated the location of some imminent mayhem. Then she went looking for Black.
She found him on a rooftop about to be wasted by a hit-merc working for the Imperial Myotan Combine which was being ambushed nearby by Maximus’ people. Black was wearing an expensive renovation, but Anneke saw through it: the situational stress causing him to revert to a default ‘inner jacket’ of body language, gestures and movements far harder to conceal than appearance.
Anneke crouched between two gnarly old gargoyles, left over from some bygone spasm of architectural hubris, and considered whether she should intervene in the dispute or let nature take its course.
But one should try to stay loyal to one’s boss, even if one didn’t like him very much.
She took out the hit-merc with a direct shot to the chest, whereas Black’s rushed reflexive shot merely hit the man’s kneecap.
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