Code Noir Read Free Page B

could match it with anyone. Heard she was real good at one-on-one.’
    ‘Uhuh.’
    Now his mouth was geared up there was no stopping him. ‘Yeah. I wanted a piece before she got disappeared.’
    ‘Disappeared?’ Now he had my interest.
    ‘There’s talk,’ he mock-whispered and winked, sidling closer. ‘Someone’s put cred out to bag her. I got friends who know.’
    I’m pretty funny about my personal space but I let him into the fringes of it.
    My hand fell casually to my holster.
    Hormone boy stopped dead when he saw what I was packing but I had the Luger drawn in the second it took him to breathe.
    ‘Siddown!’
    His legs folded under him, so that he just caught the edge of the booth seat. His face flushed with anger and embarrassment. ‘You are her . I knew it,’ he cried.
    He was beginning to irritate me. ‘Who wants her?’
    A smirk ventured across his face. ‘What’s it worth?’
    It was the second time someone had said that to me today, only this time I wasn’t feeling so charitable.
    I examined him closely, my free hand fingering the collar of poisoned pins around my neck. ‘You could get to keep your own eyes. You might not need bone transplants. The benefits are endless, really.’
    His smirk transformed back to anger - and a flash of fear. A reputation could be handy.
    I shifted my aim to the spot right between his legs. I expected he was keen to keep his gonads in working condition.
    ‘Names,’ I said quietly.
    Sweat appeared on his upper lip and his hair-freeze began to thaw. ‘Someone up Tower Town way.’
    My breath caught in my chest. I leaned forward. Tower Town was Daac’s patch.
    Bastard!
    Hormone boy saw my reaction and sucked up a deep breath like it might be his last.
    I jerked the pistol, firing it off. The booth’s table splintered to pieces. Vaguely I saw people scrambling away, but my sanity had waned as the parasite gorged greedily on my reaction to the news.
    Somehow hormone boy had avoided the bullet and was crab crawling all the way to the door.
    I let him go, flicked some credit the bartender’s way for damages and got the hell out of there.
    The backwash of my neuro-chemical reaction struck as I lost sight of the café. I went down in a heap with the barest survival instinct to get my back against something solid before the hallucination took hold. It was the same as last time and the time before . . .
     
    An Angel, massive, rose from a stream of blood,
    spraying droplets. My blood.
    ‘The change is close, human.’
    I screamed my denial. A long, terrified sound.
     
    I was still screaming as my vision cleared.
    ‘Oya?’ said a muffled, frightened voice.
    A group of ragged children - ferals - stood in a semicircle around me wearing breather masks. They looked weird but harmless. Everyone in The Tert knew better. Ferals carried bio-weapons. Lethal, close-range, fast-acting viruses.
    I recognised one of them, a tall thin boy who had helped me once before.
    ‘W-what are you d-doing?’ I stammered.
    The boy flicked his gaze to either end of the walkway. I could see figures moving past in the afternoon shadows.
    He peeled the breather skin away from his mouth and nose. ‘We’ve been watching for you to come back. Some would harm you, Oya. We protect.’
    We protect.
    I stifled an urge to laugh. What was it I’d said about repaying debts?
    I got unsteadily to my feet and the ferals spread to give me room. Then I touched the boy lightly on the shoulder. ‘What’s your name?’
    ‘Link,’ he said, drawing together black brows over a thin, angular face.
    ‘Link, I have somewhere for you all to live. Pass the word. Torley’s barracks will be renewed.’
    The boy’s eyes sparked. He turned to two of the others with a quiet instruction, watching until they disappeared amongst the passing trade. Then he faced me again. He slipped his hand into the pocket of his torn overall and produced another mask. ‘We stay with you. Oya’s guard.’
    I raised my hand to protest