Under Shadows
The third instalment in the wondrous sci-fi Dome Trilogy by Jason LaPierOnce a dome operator, then a fugitive, Jax Jackson is now ready to go home. But he is stopped when, from out of the shadows his greatest nightmare ambushes him, and drags him back to a deep-space lair.Now a public relations officer for the profitable Modern Policing and Peacekeeping, Stanford Runstom still thinks like the detective he longed to be during his years of service as a law enforcement officer. Violence between space gangs and ModPol is on the rise, and if Runstom is going to find out why, he will have to defy authority and enlist the unlikeliest allies.Skilled assassin Dava was taught to survive by Space Waste boss Moses Down, so when he’s captured by ModPol, she goes on the warpath. Her trust issues are an asset when sniffing out traitors in her gang, but will she be able to control her rage and become the leader needed to stop the sabotage of an ark carrying a thousand sleeping Earthling refugees?
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Under Shadows
JASON LaPIER
Book Three of The Dome Trilogy
HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2017
Copyright © Jason LaPier 2017
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017.
Cover images © Shutterstock.com
Jason LaPier asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Digital eFirst: Automatically produced by Atomik ePublisher from Easypress.
Ebook Edition © July 2017 ISBN: 9780008121853
Version: 2017-06-07
For Jennifer
Table of Contents
There was no doubt Jax had seen more in the past year and a half than heâd seen in his whole life, but in spite of all those new experiences, it seemed there were even newer sights waiting for him throughout the galaxy. Such it was that afternoon, when inside a half-constructed domed city on the third planet out from the star Epsilon Eridani, he found himself in a venue that was both a library and a bar.
âWelcome to the Bibliohouse.â The greeter was a pink-skinned young woman with a small smile and brown hair long enough to be tied into a tail. She wore a navy-blue suit that matched the color â and gloss â of the floor tiling. âIs this your first visit?â
Jax found it hard to speak as he gawked around the space. It was large and circular with a central bar that curved around for dozens of meters. The ceiling rose a good ten or twelve meters above his head, and along the outer walls stretched high shelves dotted with scores of books. Real, paper books, though the shelves were far from full.
His partner, Stanford Runstom, Public Relations representative for Modern Policing and Peacekeeping, answered the waiting question with an affirmative grunt.
âDelightful,â she chimed. âAre you here to write or to read?â
âUm, we just wanted to have a drink,â Runstom said.
âWell, naturally, sir,â she said with a cock of her head.
âWhat is this place?â Jax managed to blurt. âIs it really a library? And a bar?â
She smiled. âNew to EE-3, arenât you? Yes, the Bibliohouse is a library. Iâll put you in the reader section and set you up with the introduction.â
They followed her to the central bar, which Jax could see curved around in a full circle, but was only seated on the front half by well-padded stools. Every few seats there were short walls, like dividers, and affixed to these were page-sized datapads on thin, bendable arms. Past the bar, he could see the back half of the space was occupied by long tables, and seated sporadically at those were men and women of various backgrounds, tapping at keyboards, faces lit blue by screens.
Once they took a seat, the hostess tapped at a small wrist-pad and the screen next to Jaxâs head lit up. He pulled it to get a better angle on it and started skimming through a document titled âWelcome to the Bibliohouseâ.
âWhen youâre ready to order,â the hostess said, âjust tap the icon at the bottom of the screen there and a bartender will come by.â
âThank you,â Runstom said for both of them.
Jax was already nose deep into the intro. With all the new construction going on across the planet, it was important for everyone to document their work. Evidently, some visionary higher-ups also wanted stories collected as well, so that someday in the future, when some wealthy Double-E-Threer wanted to know the rich history of their world, theyâd have a massive repository of materials to draw on.
Therefore, a percentage of every workday was dedicated to writing: either more formal documentation around the plethora of projects, or the informal recitation of interesting stories, tall tales, legends, and anecdotes. Workers were encouraged to do their writing wherever it felt comfortable, and the owners of this particular library thought some would find it comfortable to make their recordings in a place where they could access any information â technical, historical, biographical, and even fictional â about EE-3 as well as imbibe a well-crafted libation.
