“Get me Tam, and we’ll talk.”
“If you want him, you’ll talk now.”
She gave a short, controlled sigh.
“Very well. Simple time-motion analysis states Grey’s ultra-passive workforce is inefficient.” A second needle joined the first. “Quiescence doesn’t make for good employees – or good profits. New ideas are unforthcoming, everybody suffers. It’s all here.”
“What fuckin’ genius told you that?” He let the smoke out in a cough of dark humour.
Tarquinne chuckled. “I’ll put you in touch with the Tech – she’ll help you locate him.” She held out both needles. “I asked you to name your price.”
This time, Lugan took them. “You said five ’undred thousand. ’Alf a million eurobucks – in advance.”
“One hundred thousand now, the rest if you’re successful. And you sign a contract stating you’ll not take arms against Pilgrim again.”
“Two ’undred now, the rest whether we’re successful or not. No contract.”
Tarquinne nodded, almost approving. “Two hundred and fifty thousand in advance. A quarter of a million eurodollars, Lugan – and the same at the conclusion. You sign the contract.”
“I’m not signing shit.”
“You’re throwing away a great deal of money.”
“An’ you’re here for a reason. Why don’t you ask the Tech yourself? Why come ’ere and pay me to do something you can do yourself? You wanna keep your ’ands clean. Dontcha?” He grinned through his beard. “You need us to do this for you.”
“Very well then.” Tarquinne extended a ladylike hand and smiled, revealing the diamond. “I see your reputation is richly –”
The glass wall shattered.
A massive, screaming implosion of flying, crystal pebbles, a detonation of a million pulverised shards.
His brain screaming betrayal, Lugan was behind the desk, hand tearing the gaffer from the sawn-off that lived beneath.
He could hear Tarquinne shrilling orders – wherever her back up lurked, it was close.
Jam her signal, for fuck’s sake. He was snapping orders of his own, orders at Fuller in the security office. Jam her – !
Done. Collator says... fuck!
Lugan had never heard Fuller swear. Get me a grid on the bastards! As the glass scattered across the desktop, the floor, he snapped home the shotgun’s nerve contact, felt the weapon in his hand – in his head.
Fucking bitch. He’d string her up by her...
He heard her swear, a gasp of utter disbelief.
“Holy shit.” Suddenly, her poise had gone, her Chicago accent was fully deployed – her shock was genuine. “What the hell...?”
Where they at, for fuck’s sake? How many? Where the fuck are Strafe and Heels?
Luge... we’re not under attack. Fuller sounded bloodless, shocked to the soles of his journo loafers. Take a look. Collator’s having a bloody meltdown!
Sawn-off in hand, Lugan eased a look over the desktop.
Tarquinne was staring, stock-still, through the shattered remnants of the glass wall.
At a brick-walled, tile-roofed impossibility, at some sort of holographic piss-take – at the arse-back-end of some fucking building that had beamed the fuck in where his workshop should be.
“What the fuck,” Lugan asked, “is that?”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For my Norwich Vike Wrecking Crew, my Sigismund Sisters and my Brothers-in-Arms. For Andrew, who first coined the phrase “Virtual Rorschach”, and for Liam, for forging a fractal from my name.
For Cath at Titan, whose patience is both boundless and remarkable, and for my agent Sally Harding, crusader extraordinaire.
And, always, for my son Isaac, with no words adequate.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANIE WARE is the publicist and event organiser for cult entertainment retailer Forbidden Planet. She has worked closely with a wide-range of genre authors and has been immersed in the science-fiction and fantasy community for the past decade. An early adopter of blogging, social media and a familiar face at conventions, she appears on panels as an expert on genre marketing and retailing.
WWW.DANIEWARE.COM
For more fantastic fiction from Titan Books in the areas of sci-fi, fantasy, steampunk, alternate history, mystery and crime, as well as tie-ins to hit movies, TV shows and video games:
VISIT OUR WEBSITE
TITANBOOKS.COM
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
@TITANBOOKS
Ecko Rising
Print edition ISBN: 9780857687623
E-book ISBN: 9781781162835
Published by
Titan Books
A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd
144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP
First edition: September 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Names, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental.
Danie Ware asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
© 2012 by Danie Ware.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group Ltd.
What did you think of this book?
We love to hear from our readers. Please email us at: readerfeedback@titanemail.com, or write to us at the above address.
To receive advance information, news, competitions, and exclusive offers online, please sign up for the Titan newsletter on our website.
www.titanbooks.com