Crash Deluxe Read Free

nodded. ‘I didn’t think you’d want me to mention it in front of Gigi.’
    ‘Mention what?’ I held my breath.
    ‘I saw the terms of del Morte’s sentence. He was serving life for murdering and dissecting a bunch of cadet Prier pilots. Seems he had a thing for their bio-interfaces. His term was bought out.’
    ‘Who?’ I held my breath.
    ‘I couldn’t access that.’ Teece hesitated, as if there was something he didn’t want to tell me.
    I crossed my arms and waited.
    ‘There is a record of it, though. I followed the signature as far as I could. The name you want is kept on an impartial .’
    ‘Where?’
    ‘Jinberra Island Detention.’
    Jinberra . My heart plunged. Jinberra wasn’t just quod - it was another dimension in prisons. ‘Cool.’
    He ceased prowling and stared suspiciously at me. ‘ You can’t crack in there.’
    ‘No,’ I agreed. ‘But there’ll be someone who can. I just have to find them.’
    I expected Teece to argue. To tell me it was impossible. When he didn’t, I knew he had someone in mind.
    I grabbed him. ‘Teece, you must help me if you can,’ I said fiercely.
    He stiffened.
    He was right to be careful of me. I’d come back from MoVay with more preoccupations than scars - only to develop a bad case of sour grapes over his new love life.
    I forced myself to back off and reached out an appeasing hand to him instead. ‘ Please . . . help me.’
    He took my fingers hesitantly. Then he squeezed them together, hard.
    A Teece-size bear-hug would have been nice, but I settled for a crushing handshake.
    I smiled.
    He smiled.
    Things were better again. Not the same - but better.
    ‘I need that name, Teece. Whoever paid to have Ike freed also paid him to infect the whole of The Tert with the parasite and form those . . . those . . . creatures. If the canal hadn’t been saturated with copper sulphate we’d be overrun by freak knows what right now. As it is, some of them may be loose on this side already.’
    Teece groaned.
    ‘What?’
    ‘I owe you an apology, Parrish.’
    I dropped my fists, surprised. ‘You . . . me?’
    ‘When you came back from there, I thought you were going to run out on me . . . on us. I should have known you better than that,’ he said.
    I sighed. ‘You do know me, Teece. The truth is . . . I was going to. But not for the reasons you thought.’
    I hesitated. I hadn’t told him this - should I now? The chances of coming back from my next jaunt rated in the minus minuses. Somehow it was important that he knew everything if I was going to wind up dead or in quod for life.
    His stare drilled me. Faded blue eyes - slightly aggrieved, always concerned.
    I sank down onto the couch.
    ‘In MoVay . . . I lost consciousness at the end of it all - when I was with Tulu. I woke up and Loyl was waiting for me. He told me I’d changed - shshape-changed. And I believed him, because . . . well . . . I tried to. I stopped fighting the parasite and let it take over.’
    Teece’s expression got incredulous and I rushed on, justifying myself.
    ‘It was all I had left to fight with, Teece. I was dying and I wanted to buy the Cabal some time so they could defeat Ike. I thought that if the parasite took me over totally I’d have the strength to hang on a bit longer.’
    ‘And . . .’
    ‘Loyl said I’d gone all scaly-monster and then healed. I believed him. But I wanted to come back and see you, put things in order before I went away. And I had to go away, Teece. No one else was going to put a bullet in me but me . . . you understand?’
    He nodded slowly, processing all the nuances and implications of my confession.
    ‘But now you believe that you didn’t shape-change? ’
    I nodded slowly. ‘I’ve got an . . . ally. A Prier pilot. She’s contacted me a couple of times. The last time was to say that she had taken Wombebe, one of the MoVay ferals.’
    ‘You call someone like that an ally?’
    ‘She wants me to stop whoever is playing God with us. She said she