Free Ellie Quin - 04 - Ellie Quin in WonderLand by Alex Scarrow Page A

you'd get round to growing yourself a coupla bed babes!'
    Shelby stiffened and curled a lip at that. 'Oh, please.'
    Graham checked Jez out and nodded tacit approval. He looked at Ellie and pursed his lips thoughtfully. 'Made some real interesting design choices. But, seriously? Mother let you make them this life-like?'
    'Oh, good grief! They are not
products
! They're people.
Guests
.'
    His eyes rounded. 'Real…
people
…?'
    'Oh, I'm definitely for real,' purred Jez. She leant forward in her chair and extended a hand. 'I'm Jez, by the way.'
    Inwardly Ellie sighed and gave up trying to look attractive. Jez was already deploying her A Game, which of course rendered any flirting strategy Ellie might come up with rather pointless.
    He stepped forward and grasped her hand gently, turned it over in his and studied it for a moment. 'Yeah, you must be for real. Shelbs would have designed far more
practical
hands. Definitely no long nails.'
    He grinned at her. 'Hey, Jez. I'm Gray.'
    'Pleased to make your acquaintance, Gray.'
    Oh, for crud-sake
. Ellie found herself eye-rolling like Shelby.
Jez never speaks like that
.
    Gray let her hand go and acknowledged Ellie. He offered her his hand. 'Hi, and who are you?'
    She cleared her throat, held his hand lightly. 'Ellie.'
    'Good to meet you too, Ellie.' He flashed a bright grin at her, then came round the table, slapped Shelby affectionately on the shoulder and slumped down casually into one of the chairs.
    'Sheeez, Shelby, it must be, like, months since we last shared a beer!' He winked at him. 'Or even a milkshake.'
    'Seven weeks and six days to be precise. But that's not important. Aren't you curious as to
why
we have visitors?'
    Gray nodded. 'Sure man…that was my very next question.'
    'We got ditched here,' said Jez. 'We got totally humped by some freight ship jockeys who-'
    Ellie stepped in quickly in case Jez blurted out too much. 'We paid for tickets to Gateway, but they cheated us and dropped us here.'
    Gray shrugged. 'Gateway? Why? You girls running from something?' Ellie stiffened in her seat.
What? Why did he just say that?
For a moment she wondered whether they had 'fugitives from the law' stamped on their foreheads then she realised he was being flippant.
    'Running from total boredom more like,' she replied quickly. 'We just want to see more of Human Space.'
    'Well I'm afraid you won't get very far,' said Shelby. 'I presume you've been checking the headlines on the system's NewsNet? The Administration's ordered a lockdown on the Seventh Veil.'
    Ellie nodded. 'We heard that. Some kind of quarantine or something?'
    'Indeed. Hmmm. They're not saying what kind of virus or pathogen is out there, but the news is that, whatever it is, the outbreak ground zero is on Harpers Reach. The city of New Haven, to be precise.'
    'Where've you girls come from?' asked Gray.
    'Holstein,' said Jez. Ellie glanced at her and Jez made an 'oops' face. Why the freg did she just come out and say
Holstein
? That planet was populated by religious retro-nuts who all liked to dress old-earth style in straw hats and linen bonnets. Plus they talked funny; a coarse rustic accent that neither of them was going to be able to mimic easily.
Great choice, Jez
.
    Of course, that's why. Ellie remembered Jez had been watching something on the ship's toob a couple of days ago; some syrupy roma-dram with a dimwitted, straw-chewing farmer from the planet falling in love with a sophisticated dome- chik from Celestion.
    Crud. Talk about say what you see, Jez
.
    'Oye,' said Jez trying to ease in a hint of the accent. 'It's a proper dull place. Just fields n' fields n' more fields.' Neither young man queried her bad accent.
    'Don't they cultivate modified bovarines there?' asked Gray. 'For, like,
real
meat?'
    Ellie had to recall that gloopy dram. Yes. The opening scenes had featured those huge lumbering hairy, dull-eyed creatures grazing on endless fields of stalky things. Just waiting to be slaughtered and rendered into