Book Read Free

The Dark Wheel

Page 7

by Robert Holdstock

Alex stood silent, thoughtful, watching the old man. In the corner, half in shadows, Elyssia stood and watched too, frightened by what she was hearing.

  'Has the grief gone?' Rafe asked, and Alex nodded. The old trader smiled.

  'How does it feel to be rich?'

  'Empty,' Alex said, and Rafe Zetter laughed.

  'You'll do for the Dark Wheel, Alex. You'll do…'

  --------------------------------------

  From the Back Cover of The Novella

  READ THE NOVEL/PLAY THE GAME

  A BOY WITH STARS IN HIS EYES

  SHOOTING THE RAPIDS OF HEAVEN

  On his inaugural flight as a 'harmless' combateer, Alex Ryder experienced the sharp divide between Sim-combat and live action in the fast lane of Witch-Space. Seated next to his father, the occasion (a celebration!) was suddenly jarred by the fatal laser fire of a fellow trader…

  Emerging from unconsciousness aboard a Moray hospital ship. Alex's first impression was conditioned by a sleazy holoFac of Rafe Zetter (a friend of

  Alex's father who has blotted his legal status by trading in slaves). As Alex's mind grappled with his senses, his desperate questions seemed to provoke still more perplexing riddles from the old warrior.

  What had the trader hoped to gain (their cargo had been almost worthless)?

  Why had Jason Ryder stayed to engage the attacker, when he could have bailed out with Alex? What had he meant by 'Raxxla! Remember Raxxla!', as Alex slid into his escape pod?

  But gradually, with Zetter's help, Alex began to assemble some pieces of the jigsaw. His father was no simple trader, far from it; he had been one of the few — an йlite combateer. The marauding trader was no bounty hunter, but an assassin programmed to kill.

  As a thirst for revenge spurred the fury of Alex's emotions, he understood that Jason's mission must now become his. To succeed, he too would have to prove himself worthy of — THE ORDER OF ELITE

  a fighting quality far beyond courage, macho and cool precision

  --------------------------------------

  'Elite: The Dark Wheel' is a novella written by Rob Holdstock and inspired by the intergalactic space trading adventure program, ELITE, by David Braben and Ian Bell.

  Elite is a Trade Mark of Acornsoft Limited (c) Acornsoft 1984 (c) BT 1985

  Firebird is a Trade Mark of British Telecommunications PLC.

  --------------------------------------

  Complete Novella typed in by Paul Thompson, March 2003

  FB2 document info

  Document ID: b9809c26-5d37-40e6-96f9-07f38b6af95d

  Document version: 1

  Document creation date: 04 October 2011

  Created using: FictionBook Editor Release 2.6 software

  Document authors :

  Lykas

  Document history:

  1.0 — создание файла Lykas

  About

  This file was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.1.5.0.

  (This book might contain copyrighted material, author of the converter bears no responsibility for it's usage)

  Этот файл создан при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.1.5.0 написанного Lord KiRon.

  (Эта книга может содержать материал который защищен авторским правом, автор конвертера не несет ответственности за его использование)

  http://www.fb2epub.net

  https://code.google.com/p/fb2epub/

 

 

 


‹ Prev