Earthbound (The Reach, Book 1) Read Free Page B

hours he came upon the wall that surrounded Link.  It rose up several storey s high, an imposing mass of steel and concrete with a diameter of several kilometres that surrounded the Reach, drawing the line between Link and the slums.
    The line between hope and despair , Knile thought.  Or between despair and even deeper despair.
    He found concealment under the staircase of an old apartment block and observed the checkpoint, an archway cut into the wall, from a short distance away.  At this time of night there was not a lot of traffic moving through.  There were men dressed in black gathered around the arch, members of a group known as Enforcers, the equivalent to lawmen in these troubled times.  They stood idly against the ramparts with their rifles slung over their shoulders, talking and laughing as if they had not a care in the world.  As he watched, Knile saw a woman hobbling forward uncertainly toward the archway, her hand outstretched.  The Enforcers simply waved at her, dismissing her as if they were swatting away a fly, but when she kept moving forward, one of them roused himself and strode over to her, grabbing her roughly by the wrist.  He brought up a scanner and waved it across her fingertips in search of identification, but the procedure evidently came up empty, for he then gripped her shoulder and turned her away.  He gave her a second shove for good measure that made her stumble and almost fall.
    “You come back again and we won’t be so gentle,” he called out.
    No one got through the checkpoint without the proper ID chip embedded in their skin.  Knile knew that as well as anyone.  Trying to scale or break through the wall was also out of the question.  It was too well guarded for that.
    There wasn’t time to arrange a fake chip.  That could take days, or even weeks, since the contacts Knile had once established here were most likely gone.
    That left him with only one other option.
    Knile got up and began to walk confidently toward the archway.  He let his boots ring out on the asphalt, no longer making any attempt to hide his presence.  He quickened his pace, walking faster now.  Then he began to run.
    Knile pumped his arms and set his face in determination, striding out as he closed in rapidly on the checkpoint.  He counted six, seven Enforcers.  Maybe eight.  One by one their conversations came to a stilted halt and they turned in his direction.
    He must have looked like a madman careening at them.
    He did not relent, and even quickened his pace as he came closer.
    He bore down on them now, close enough to see the expressions on their faces: surprise, confusion, disbelief.  They were not used to being approached like this.  Not by someone from the slums.  They demanded fear and respect from those outside the walls, and they almost always got it.
    “Slow down!” one of them yelled through his respirator, finally reacting and bringing up his rifle in Knile’s direction.  Others followed his lead and did the same, training their sights onto Knile like a firing squad.  Knile took a few more steps before slowing his pace and coming to a stop a few paces before them, breathless.
    “Did she come through here?” Knile shouted, doubling over.
    The Enforcers looked at each other, confused.
    “Huh?” one of them said.
    “Th e whore!  Goes by the name of Sienna.”  Knile straightened.  “At least, that’s what she called herself last week.  Might be Candy.”
    One of the Enforcers stepped forward, a tubby man with an old-fashioned and bulky respirator.
    “You better start making sense, dipshit.”
    “Listen,” Knile said urgently, still trying to regain his breath, “and pay attention to what I’m telling you.  One of my girls, goes by the name of Sienna, or might be Candy or Lizzy, is on her way into Link right now.  To your barracks.”
    The Enforcer shrugged and gave a nervous laugh.  “Good for her.”
    “Good for her?” Knile practically shouted, feigning