Into the No-Zone. Eugene Lambert

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СКАЧАТЬ what you think, huh, Slayer-boy?’

      I scramble up and get between them. ‘Don’t call him that.’

      She shoves me back a step. ‘Tell your gom of a brother to shut it.’

      But my brother isn’t done arguing yet. ‘Don’t listen to her, Kyle. She’ll get you killed, for nothing.’

      Sky’s lips twitch. ‘Nothing? My sister’s a nothing?’

      She snatches up her cleverbox and stalks off.

      I curse and close my eyes. When I open them again, Sky’s long gone. Colm looks at me and slowly shakes his head.

      ‘Don’t,’ I tell him, as his gob opens. ‘Just don’t, all right!’

5

       THE FIREFIGHT

      I love my new-found brother. I do. We share everything: we like the same stuff, make the same jokes and laugh at them. Sometimes I wonder how I ever got along without Colm.

      Now though, I need a break from him slagging off Sky.

      Not that he’s all wrong, but I’m not in the mood to hear it. I slip away, leaving him chuntering away to himself on his bunk. Soon as I’m outside the tent I stand up straight and suck fresh evening air deep into my lungs. It calms me down. There’s still hope, I tell myself. Maybe this peace deal is for real. And I like Colm’s suggestion about trading prisoners. Getting Tarn back like that would beat sneaking off with Sky and defying Ballard.

      A gust slaps the tent’s canvas and blows my hair into my eyes. If it stays like this, Sky will be flying tomorrow. No, she won’t. I remember our windjammers are grounded.

      I hesitate, then go looking for her.

      Two women she shares her tent with are outside it, smoking. They tell me Sky’s not there. I glance doubtfully at the tent flap. The older one blows smoke in my face and smiles.

      ‘She ain’t. Honest. Take a look inside if you like.’

      ‘Any idea where she is?’

      They swap looks and shrugs.

      ‘You guys had another bust-up?’ the younger one asks.

      ‘Something like that,’ I mutter. And clear off, my face all hot.

      I consider tracking Ness down to see if Sky’s stropped off to have a nag at him, then get a better idea. I make my way back out through the gathering darkness to the canyon where the captured Slayer windjammer was hidden away. My hunch pays off. The rear loading ramp is down. A flicker of light shows. I peek inside. The light is from a shiner hung up on the bars of the cage. Sky is sitting inside, her back against the hull where Tarn scratched her tag. Her head is down, her arms wrapped round her knees.

      She’s so still. Is she asleep?

      I do a cough to let her know I’m here. Good job too. Her head snaps up and a blaster appears in her hand.

      ‘It’s only me,’ I tell her.

      ‘Oh joy,’ she mutters. But at least she puts the gun away.

      I step inside. ‘What are you doing?’

      She glares at me. ‘Thinking. Being with my sister.’

      ‘Want me to go away?’

      She hesitates. ‘How’d you know I’d be here?’

      ‘I didn’t, not for sure. I just –’

      The wail of the landing siren cuts me off, followed by some distant shouting and the chuff and clank of steam tractors.

      ‘Sounds like we’ve got incoming,’ Sky says.

      ‘Bit late and dark, isn’t it?’ I say.

      I hustle back to the ramp and stick my head out. The landing area is all lit up now by lines of brightly flaring oil-burners.

      She limps over to join me on the ramp.

      ‘They’re back then,’ she says.

      I spot the small windjammer on final approach. Sky knows her jammers way better than I do, but even in the dark I can tell which one this is – the fast transport that flew Ballard and the other rebel leaders out of here a week ago. Air brakes already out, its lifters howl as they’re throttled up to landing power. It dives towards the ground, flares late and touches down. The howl dies away. I hear the rumble of wheels pounding the hard-packed dirt.

      ‘Nice landing,’ I say.

      Sky grunts. ‘You reckon?’

      The burners are doused, plunging the Deeps back into a smothering darkness. Sky shifts beside me.

      ‘So what do you want?’ she says.

      I throw my hands up. ‘I don’t want anything.’

      ‘Yeah, you do, Kyle. That’s why you’re here. You want me to let you off the hook for helping me find Tarn. Don’t you?’

      ‘No. You’re wrong,’ I lie, squirming.

      ‘Am I?’ She tilts her head to one side. ‘So when Ness finally comes up with the goods you will help me?’

      ‘What if we mess up the ceasefire, like Colm said?’

      Sky shows me her teeth in a sneer. ‘Oh, quit with the Colm says this, Colm says that crap, will you? That’s all I boggin’ get from you these days. Think for yourself.’

      ‘I do think for myself. It’s just . . . he talks a lot of sense.’

      ‘Run back to him then. You’ve got your brother; you don’t need me any more. I’ll only get you killed, for nothing.’

      ‘Oh, come on, Sky! It’s not like that.’

      ‘So what’s it like? Tell me.’

      I take a deep breath, then let it out. ‘Maybe our cause should come before what we want. Like the people here who have children, but still choose to risk their lives fighting for Gemini. They’re fighting for everybody’s ident children, not just theirs.’

      ‘Colm preach that at you, did he?’

      ‘Just because you don’t like him doesn’t make him wrong.’

      Sky folds her arms, looks away and says nothing.

      ‘You were all for the cause yourself once, when you thought Tarn was dead. We need to build a world where purebloods and nubloods live together in peace, that’s what you said.’

      ‘What СКАЧАТЬ