Read Online Torn From On High: Free City Book 2 (The Free City Series) by S F Chapman - Free Book Online Page A

aren't from
the original village?”
    “Well:”
Luis hedged, “more or less. The settlement was flooded when the sea level rose
a few hundred years ago. They moved nearly everything up on the bluff and
renamed it New Grytviken.”
    “Everything?”
Ryo smiled.
    “Yeah;
even the old cemetery with Sir Ernest Shackleton's grave, it's still the only
real claim to fame here.”
    “Speaking
of bodies,” Ryo stared up at their host, “I understand that you discovered one
a few days ago.”
    Luis's
expression darkened, “Yes; the poor fellow is down in one of the boathouses.”
    • • •
    A
frigid squall raked merciless across the foursome.
    “So!”
Ryo shouted above the roar of the wind, “how did you come upon Mr. Briggs'
body?”
    Once
again in their orange survival suits, the three visitors trudged long with Luis
as they labored towards the harbor.
    “One
of my duties at New Grytviken is that of the Harbor Master of Cumberland East
Bay.”
    A
sudden gust of icy wind caused Seamus to wobble precariously until Luis and
Keira steadied the old man.
    “Twice
a week on Tuesdays and Fridays I take a small grappler tug around the perimeter
of the bay and then through the length of the two shipping lanes.” He pressed
forward against the wind, “If I find anything floating around that could be a hazard
to navigation, I tow it to the harbor and secure it.”
    “Do
you find much stuff?” Keira yelled.
    He
nodded, “I found a basketball from a girl’s school in Manila a few years ago,
it's up in the cottage somewhere.”
    Luis
led them down a long creaky dock, “Mostly its just driftwood logs and stray
fishing nets, a few years ago I spent days tending to a capsized speed boat
that had strayed away from the marina at Governor's Bay in New Zealand which is
over fifteen thousand kilometers away!”
    “Mildly
valuable cast-offs,” Seamus smiled, “that sounds to me like space debris
salvage.”
    They
stopped at the tall, waterside edge of the dock and stared at the huge mangled
silver and black cylindrical object that bobbed in the choppy water as it
pulled impatiently against the stout cables that moored it.
    Their
host pointed to the battered and burned object that was at least twice the size
of his cottage, “This monstrosity was floating just outside of the bay about a
week ago.”
    Seamus
studied the dented and scorched artifact, “It's the upper stage of an old Y69
rocket booster, I've seen a dozen or so, although they're usually in much
better shape in Low Earth Orbit.”
    Ryo
tilted his head in confusion, “I thought that nothing could survive the inferno
of an uncontrolled plunge to Earth.”
    “It
depends on a lot of factors such as the angle of re-entry and the composition
of the object,” Seamus pointed to booster, “but the most important thing is
size.”
    Luis
nodded, “There's a good thirty tons of titanium, aluminum and PlastiStruct in
that thing.”
    “As
interesting as this relic is,” Ryo shivered, “what does it have to do with Mr.
Nathan Briggs?”
    Luis
frowned, “Tangled up in the stainless steel plumbing for the rocket engines,
fairly well protected from the heat of re-entry, I found what I thought was a
helmet and the upper half of a space suit.”
    The
visitors followed him into a tidy old boathouse.
    Finally
out of the frigid wind, Luis continued, “Something like that would be a great
novelty to show off to tourists: the space suit that found its way from orbit
to New Grytviken.”
    They
stood shivering together around a shipping crate that was the size of a large
trunk.
    Luis
lifted off the cover and Keira flinched in horror.
    The
remnants of the space suit contained the charred and mutilated remains of a
man.
    Seamus
whispered a Gaelic prayer, Ryo stared ashen-faced at the body and Keira spun
around and vomited.
    “Gruesome;
I know,” Luis solemnly noted, “but at least the cold keeps the smell down.”
    After
several minutes of reflection over the corpse, Ryo asked the