Download Sleeping Beauty - Harper Voyager Books

een analysed. This time it will succeed. Nor will your life be forfeit.Even this one isn’t dead – not truly.’ Hakon slipped from the tableand stood before me, both hands tight about the stand. ‘Carry mefor long enough to complete three alternate hosts and I’ll send youon your way with nothing but a few stitches.’‘Why me?’ I glanced around, looking for the way out. ‘Get somenew bodies to play with.’‘You’ve broken my last sedation units.’‘Mend them-’ I lunged forward and tore one of the vials free.Releasing the stand, I stepped away, holding the vial overhead, readyto smash it.‘Don’t-’‘Who was the other one? The ghost who put on the skull-andbonesshow for us, tried to scare us off?’‘A colleague at this facility, also copied and stored as a data echo.She ... disapproves of my work here. We’re isolated in this network.Security they called it.’ She made a bitter noise. ‘Our research tooclassified to risk a leak. And so until I find a way to have our dataphysically carried to another portal we’re cut off from the deep-nets.Just us two ... arguing ... for a thousand years. I have the upper handnow though, especially in here. The outer part of the station collapsedlong ago and our projection units are outside. She lacks the powerto interfere for long.’I spotted a door and backed rapidly toward it. The ghost winkedout but Hakon followed me, carrying the stand like a quarterstaff,a touch awkward in his gait. I wondered if he was still in there,fighting her, or were the important parts of his brain floating in somejar on a high shelf?