The Eidolon Read Online Free Page B

hell happened here, Geoff?”
    Zimmer sighed and slumped into an empty chair next to Chris. When he lifted his eyes, he looked beaten. “They didn’t even phone me. The first I knew about it was when I got here this morning. They’re closing the whole project down. They have it in writing.”
    “For fuck’s sake! When we’re this close? How can they stop it this far down the line?”
    “I don’t know...”
    “What about Norris? Have you spoken to the Science Minister?”
    “He signed the letter, Robert.”
    “But he endorsed the project!”
    “He seems to have changed his mind. I’m sorry, boys, there’s nothing I can do. This is way above our heads now. The others have already gone. They’re taking everything – I mean everything : programmes, discs, scrap paper, anything relating to the research.” He sat back. “They’re giving us one more month’s pay. If anything else comes up, you’ll be the first to know.”
    I turned to Chris. “Let’s get out of here.”
     
     
    C HRIS DROVE ME home in his dented red Mini. I stared out of the window at the grey buildings and sodden streets, frowning, and chewing my left thumbnail. I turned to Chris. “You’ve got back-up, right?”
    “Yeah. You?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    We drove on in silence.
    “So, what will you do?” I said eventually.
    Chris shrugged. “Dunno. See what else is out there, I suppose. If they can’t finance this project, the chances aren’t good of something else coming up. Not in this line of work. I know times are hard, but I’d didn’t think they’d pull the plug.”
    My teeth ground together as I thought about it. “You don’t buy that it’s just about the funding?”
    Chris shook his head. “No, I don’t. Maybe it’s better we don’t know.” He snorted. “Kay keeps on at me to take a break, so maybe this is the right time. What about you? What’ll you do?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll try to get into Romfield Labs again, go back to doing some work on the Grid. Or maybe do some lecturing work. There’s a temporary post going in Manchester.” I shrugged. “And I can always do some web design to tide things over.” It was how I got by as a student.
    “You won’t have any trouble. Not with your track record.”
    Of the two of us, I was in a far stronger position than Chris, and we both knew it. And of the two of us, he would be under more pressure to sort things out, with an eighteen-month-old child to consider. I don’t know how he stayed so level about the whole thing. I felt like I was on the edge. The slightest trigger and I’d detonate.
    The grey streets flashed past: glum mothers pushing prams, youths in baseball caps leaning against the walls of seedy pubs, puffing out smoke and waiting for life to happen, shuffling old men with nowhere left to go. Disillusionment festered where optimism once might have been.
    “How’s Cora?” Chris asked. “Is she, you know... okay?”
    “She still cries some nights, and she’s still not sleeping much. She’s back teaching yoga, at least, and she’s getting out a bit more.” I glanced at my watch. She’d be home from her lunchtime class soon. What the hell was I going to tell her?
    “How long’s it been now?”
    “Seven months.” God, had it really been that long? I couldn’t believe that Sarah had been dead for seven months.
    “They must have been pretty close. If Kay lost her sister, she’d cry for half an hour and then go shopping.”
    I snorted as the car pulled to a stop beside the tenement building. Fresh graffiti decorated the metal shutters of the shop beneath our flat; I stared at the frustration vented on them, feeling a mix of anger and empathy towards whoever had left their mark. I got out and leaned my forearm on the roof of the car. “Thanks for the lift. Let me know if you hear anything.”
    “No problem. See you... whenever.”
    I swung the door shut. The Mini chugged off and splashed a puddle of muddy water onto my legs. I stepped back,