Cowl

  ‘This is a week after the moment of our departure,’ he said. ‘Are you sure this is where we want to be?’

  ‘Aconite wanted us to establish a base in this time,’ Polly replied, her expression distant.

  Tack turned to her. ‘Her idea of “this time” covers about a thousand years—she thinks on a different scale.’

  ‘Now is good enough,’ said Polly.

  He watched her run her hand over her new tor. Their travel by tor was limited by dangers of which they were both now well aware. But still they could travel in time.

  ‘I don’t see what’s so great about this … now,’ Tack said.

  ‘It’s convenient,’ said Polly. ‘Nandru told me certain bank codes, and where to locate certain chipcards. And with fifty million euros available, establishing Aconite’s base won’t be so difficult.’

  Tack nodded. When he first met her, she would have been ecstatic to be able to lay her hands on such a sum. Now she merely looked ruminative.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked.

  She gestured at their surroundings. ‘It’s here. It’ll always be here: layers and layers of it, millions upon millions of years. We’re so small.’

  ‘That’s called perspective.’ Tack then nodded towards Maldon Island. ‘Let’s go.’

  TOR BOOKS BY NEAL ASHER

  FROM TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES

  GRIDLINKED

  THE SKINNER

  COWL

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.

  COWL

  Copyright © 2004 by Neal Asher

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book,

  or portions thereof, in any form.

  Edited by David G. Hartwell

  Originally published in Great Britain in 2004 by Tor, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd.

  A Tor Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  www.tor-forge.com

  Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

  eISBN 9781429910415

  First eBook Edition : April 2011

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Asher, Neal L., 1961—

  Cowl/Neal Asher.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 0-765-31512-2

  EAN 978-0765-31512-0

  1. Life on other planets—Fiction. 2. Assassins—Fiction. I. Title.

  PR6101.S54C69 2005

  823’.92—dc22

  2004062899

  First U.S. Edition: May 2005

 

 

  Neal Asher, Cowl

 

 

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