City of Pearl
Chapter One
I will be honest in all my dealings with others.
I will avoid experiments on feeling life-forms wherever
possible.
I will safeguard the environment.
I will not plagiarize or hinder the work of other scientists,
nor knowingly publish false research.
I will put the common good before professional pride or
profit.
The Da Vinci Oath,
popularly known as the Scientists' Oath,
amended 2078
Mars Orbital
April 25, 2299
I'm going home.
"Good morning," said Shan Frankland, and held up her
warrant card. "We're from Environmental Hazard Enforcement.
Please, step away from the console."
She loved those words. They cast a spell. They laid bare
men's souls, if you knew how to look. She looked around
the administration center and in three seconds she knew the
man at the desk was uninvolved, the woman marshaling
traffic was surprised by the intrusion, and the man lounging
against the drinks machine ... well, his face was too composed
and his eyes were moving just wrong. He was the fissure
in the rock. She would cleave it apart.
I'm going home. Five days, tops.
"Inspector McEvoy," she said, and motioned her bagman
forward. "Over to you." She put he ... read full excerpt from: City of Pearl ebook
