Read In Heaven and Earth for Free Online Page A

always such an inspiration,
Cooper.”
    “ What did he
do?” Eskil asked more gently, holding his hand up to hush
her.
    Reuben didn’t feel like
sharing. “Doesn’t matter. I was making progress. I need to go back
in.”
    “ Not until your
breathing and heart rate have settled.”
    “ Fuck
that.”
    Eskil glared at him,
which was unusual enough that Reuben shut up. “Right now, I’m your
doctor too. You don’t get to put yourself at any more risk until I
say so.”
    “ Get Meili to
do it,” Reuben grumbled. “She doesn’t care if my heart
explodes.”
    Meili grinned
at him, sharp - toothed. “Damn right.”
    “ Hippocrates,”
Eskil said to her, stressing every syllable.
    “ Never heard of
him.”
    Reuben grinned at her as
Eskil’s unused hair stood on end. “And you call
yourself—”
    “ Always works,”
Meili commented to Reuben, returning his grin. “You manage to talk
to your cyberboy?”
    There was something oddly
reassuring about their mutual loathing, and Reuben returned her
smirk with a lazy shrug. “Briefly. Eskil had the right idea. He’s
using every dodge he can to avoid his memories.”
    “ Going to do
something about that?”
    “ Sure, when
Eskil stops fussing.”
    “ You’ll be here
forever.”
    “ I’m still
here,” Eskil put in mildly. “Stop baiting him, and tell him what
you found.”
    “ I can do
better than that. Juniper , show headcam from fifteen
thirty-four.”
    A rectangular window
opened up, shouldering the medical reports to the side of the wall.
It showed the airless and dark remains of Caelestia. This was a
residential area, and had clearly been tree-lined once, because
blackened boughs hung by the sides of the doors and stretched
across the street. Reuben thought of Vairya’s rose garden and
wondered what had flowered here once.
    A couple of glass statues
stood beside the leafy arches, gleaming in the dim light, and the
walls were pale. It must have been a pretty place once.
    On the screen, the
observer entered the building. Inside stairs and lifts showed there
must be higher floors, but they turned into one of ground floor
apartments.
    There was a family in
there, all caught in death.
    Unlike the people in the
street, they hadn’t collapsed where they stood when the air ran
out. They were all seated quite comfortably, angled towards
still-playing vids on the walls or games rising out of the flexible
table tops.
    “ This is what’s
weird,” Meili said, before he could make his own observations. “All
through the residential areas, we found people who had been
connected to the city net before the disaster. All of them were
already brain dead when the air ran out. The only ones who died of
air loss were those who weren’t connected to the net.”
    “ What killed
them?”
    “ Haven’t got
that far yet. Caelestia has a mental net, and they’ve all got burns
around the wireless chips in their cortex. Something, or someone,
got to them through the net, and we’re not planning to sign in to
find out how.”
    “ Someone?”
Reuben echoed, turning to look at Vairya. “You think it was him?
No.”
    “ Why
not?”
    Reuben shrugged. “Doesn’t
seem the type. Too easily shocked.”
    Meili raised an eyebrow.
“You woke up screaming.”
    “ He didn’t make
me scream,” Reuben said and forced himself to settle back against
the pillows calmly. “Send me back in.”
    Eskil looked concerned.
“Your heart rate is still a little fast.”
    “ Send me back.
I need to talk to Vairya.”
    “ Ask him if he
killed his city on purpose or whether it was an accident,” Meili
suggested sharply.
    Reuben ignored her to
close his eyes and breathe in deeply. He felt the pinch of the
sedative again, and let the stars rise around him.
     
     
     
    HE WALKED straight into
the garden, tasting the sweetness of the roses before the stars had
faded. He stood still as his vision cleared, watching the roses
take form around him, their flowers ruffs of elegantly folded
petals and