Free Revenger 9780575090569 by Alastair Reynolds

walls, all neat and clean and organised. ‘That’s what all this hardware is for. And it’s a Bone Reader’s job to send and receive those imprinted messages. The skull won’t work for everyone. Doesn’t even work for me some days. But you have the lamps for it, I think. Ready to try?’
    I was about to answer, but Adrana said the word first. ‘Yes.’
    ‘Behind you. That apparatus hooked onto the wall. Slip it over your head.’
    It was a bony metal contraption, halfway between a crown and a torture device. She settled it over her scalp, pushing hair out of the way. A pair of metal muffs folded down over her ears, and there was also a kind of visor that could be pulled down over her eyes.
    ‘You too, Arafura,’ Cazaray said.
    I unhooked my own apparatus and fiddled it onto my head, not as prettily as Adrana had done.
    ‘That’s the neural bridge. None of this works without the bridge. To speak to the skull you have to mesh with its expectations. The messages come through almost subliminally – it’s like catching a whisper on the wind. The bridge is the focusing device, the amplifier.’
    ‘I don’t feel anything,’ I said.
    ‘You’re not plugged in yet. Draw the contact wire from the bridge. Reel it out, all the way.’
    The wire was an insulated spool, running into the left side of the bridge. It ended in a little nub.
    ‘You can hook the wire into any of those probes on the skull, or you can splice onto one of those wires. Gently does it. Normally one connection is sufficient, but you can hook into multiple contact sites if you’re chasing a weak signal. There’s a splitter on the wall.’
    Adrana was bolder than I, but even she hesitated to make the final connection. I shared her misgivings. I could not help but feel there was going to be some kind of psychic jolt, like an electric shock, as soon as the contact was made.
    I thought of Garval, tied to her bed.
    ‘It’s all right,’ Cazaray said gently. ‘Just do it. No one gets the full rush the first time. What happened with Garval . . .’ He shook his head, clearing the thought. ‘You’ll be lucky to pick up anything, even if you’ve got the talent.’
    I picked a probe near the open eye socket and clicked the wire home. Not caring to be second, Adrana made her own connection almost simultaneously. The skull bounced lightly on its springs for a few seconds, before the motion ebbed away.
    We looked at each other across the skull, daring each to feel the first twinge of contact.
    ‘When we’ve had a little more experience, when you know where the probes lie, you’ll prefer to work in darkness. Now, empty your minds. Let your senses drift. I’ll be silent.’
    There was nothing.
    I guessed there wouldn’t be any sense in holding my breath – I couldn’t have kept that up for long – but still I tried to become quiet in my head, ridding my mind of everything, becoming a room with an open door.
    I did the only thing I could think of, which was to wait.
    Adrana was waiting as well. Our eyes were averted, looking down, but every now and then one of us couldn’t resist glancing at the other, to see how they were doing. Once or twice our eyes met, and the silliness of that moment made us glance quickly away, until the impulse to look built up again and we ended up doing exactly the same thing.
    After a couple of minutes of that, I resolved to jam shut my eyes, and not care whether Adrana followed suit.
    Cazaray was present, but he made no sound, no observation. Still there was nothing, no whisper on the wind, not even a hint of that wind. Just silence, and the absurd, slowly forming idea that this could and would never work.
    I do not know how long it was before Cazaray spoke.
    ‘Disconnect. Try different probes, a little closer to the base.’
    We did as he suggested, this time disturbing the skull much less as the probes went out and in.
    I still felt nothing. But for the sake of showing my determination, I floated with my eyes closed,