Read In Heaven and Earth for Free Online

said primly, but amusement was starting to dance in
his eyes again. “It is beyond such petty mortal
concerns.”
    “ The rack,
boiling oil, or pliers to my toenails?”
    Vairya looked horrified.
“What sort of doctor are you? That’s barbaric.”
    “ Torture always
is,” Reuben said grimly. “No matter how civilised men try to
justify it.”
    “ I don’t intend
to torture you, just understand you. It won’t hurt.”
    He seemed genuinely
upset, so Reuben smiled a little, wanting to reassure him, and
opened the door.
    It did not, inevitably,
simply open on the garden on the other side of its frame. Instead,
a long grey corridor led away into the distance. Reuben recognised
its type at once, a space station passage. Nowhere else combined
that windowless blandness with such scope.
    “ You coming?”
he asked Vairya.
    “ I’ll watch
from here.”
    “ If this turns
out to be an emergency exit, I’m going to be overflowing with
righteous wrath when I get back.”
    “ It’s not a
trick.”
    Reuben shrugged and
stepped through the doorway. It hissed shut behind him, and he
turned to see it had become a metal hatch. Shrugging again, he
walked along the corridor at a steady speed, bracing for an
attack.
    None came, but after a
few minutes the corridor ended at another hatch. Reuben touched the
keypad, and took a slow breath as it slid open. Whatever
unpleasantness Vairya had concocted for him, he was
ready.
    The door opened to show a
wide office backed with a clear wall that displayed the stars
beyond. A glass desk stood on a slightly raised dais, and someone
was standing by the window, looking out at the vastness of
space.
    Reuben froze. He knew
this room, knew it couldn’t be real, had long ago been
dismantled.
    The figure at the window
turned and stepped forwards into the light.
    “ Dr Cooper,”
General Ahrima said, her voice soft and dangerous, “I’ve been
waiting for you.”
    Reuben’s throat
closed.
    “ Come in. Sit
down. We should talk.”
    He still couldn’t
breathe, each breath catching in his throat before he could pull it
into his lungs. His head felt hot and swollen, his pulse beating
like a drum in the back of his skull, and he gasped desperately,
trying to think past the sight of her, smiling at him with that
terrible mixture of charm and menace.
    She wasn’t here. It
wasn’t real. She was imprisoned on Sirius, her mind lulled by soft
drugs, and her will chained. She couldn’t hurt him now.
    Napoleon, he remembered,
had escaped from Elba. He had been one of the few historical
figures Ahrima had recognised and admired.
    “ We have worlds
to conquer, my friend,” she said, leaning back against the desk
with an easy smile. “I need men of your calibre,
Cooper.”
    His vision was going
black at the edges, but he managed to croak, “No.”
    Her smile didn’t fade,
but even the illusion of warmth faded from her dark eyes. “I know
everything you have done, Cooper. You cannot refuse me. I own
you.”
    “ No,” Reuben
managed again, but all the other words caught in his throat. He
threw his hand out, clawing at the air to pull breath back into his
lungs. “No!”
    And, neatly and suddenly,
a wall of darkness rolled over him, scrolling down from the corner
of the room until he drowned in it.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
    HE WOKE in the infirmary
with a breathing mask over his face, and Eskil standing beside him,
one of his dreads plugged into the bed as he perused the medical
data scrolling across the wall. Meili stood in the doorway, her
arms crossed as she stared at him.
    This was the real
sickbay, then, not his imaginary one. Surprised, Reuben pushed the
mask off and rasped, “What happened?”
    “ You had a
panic attack,” Eskil said. “I pulled you out.”
    “ Shit,” Reuben
said, sitting up enough to glower at Vairya where he lay sleeping
on the other side of the bay. “Little shit sucker-punched
me.”
    Meili snorted. “Your
respect for your patients is