BooksBarbecue
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Chapters (36)
  1. Title Page
  2. Acknowledgements
  3. Prologue
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 18
  22. 19
  23. 20
  24. 21
  25. 22
  26. 23
  27. 24
  28. 25
  29. 26
  30. 27
  31. 28
  32. 29
  33. Epilogue
  34. From Neal Asher
  35. Praise
  36. Copyright Page

Her mein was coy, and it surprised him. He glanced up as a group of technicians walked in after their shift, and he silently thanked them.

‘We could finish our drinks in my cabin,’ he suggested.

Her coyness disappeared and she inspected him estimatingly. Abruptly she stood again, and he thought he had maybe pushed too hard. She was going to chop him down.

‘I really need a shower,’ she said.

Cormac waited now for the kind rejection.

‘I can’t get in your cabin by myself,’ she said impatiently.

Cormac was out of his seat and exiting the canteen before he even had a chance to be surprised. At the door to his cabin he slapped the palm-lock and entered in a teenage terror at how to initiate things. Chaline dispelled that worry in an instant: halfway across the room she turned, ran her thumb down the centre of her overall and parted it, kicked off her deck slippers and shrugged her overall to the floor. Cormac remembered to close his mouth as she smiled at him, then headed for his shower. We forgot our drinks, he thought, and then grinned. He left his clothes beside her’s and followed.

‘You are slow,’ she said, as he moved up behind her and placed his hand on the lighter skin at the soapy curve of her hip.

‘Too long listening to AIs,’ he said, pulling her to him and sliding his hands round her waist, then up to her breasts. She pushed her bottom back against his erection and slowly moved it from side to side.

‘I hope you haven’t lost all your manual skills,’ she said, then turned and reached down.

Cormac pulled her close again and started kissing her neck, and then he found himself on top of her on the floor of the shower room, inside her. From there, to the bed and the night—not one thought about gridlinks.

12

12

Wouldn’t you think that with such omnipotent AIs, such advanced security systems, and such dedicated ECS Monitors, crime would be a thing of the past? Think that and you aren’t thinking. Our security systems may be advancing every day, but so are the criminals. Between what I like to call the forces of order and of chaos there is a constant ‘arms race’, and it’s difficult sometimes to say who might be winning. Sometimes it is also difficult to distinguish which side is which.

From How It Is by Gordon