Ellie Quin - 04 - Ellie Quin in WonderLand by Alex Scarrow

wasn't it?'
    Shelby nodded. 'Hmmmm. Yes, indeed it was. I've left everything as it was. The products are beginning to decompose by the way. It's getting quite smelly in World Three.'
    Gray shook his head apologetically. 'You're right, man, it was my turn to clean up. I'll get onto it.' He turned to to Jez to answer her question. 'Once every few months me and Shelbs use World Three for, like,
war games
. It's not just us goofing around you understand? It's a chance for us to do a routine check on the terrarium's material matrices, to make sure the environ systems are all functioning optimally.'
    'Hmmm…now that's the first time in quite a while you sound like someone with a modicum of education.'
    Gray ignored Shelby. 'Our brief's to keep this place ticking over. I guess the corporation are kinda hoping to dust it off again sometime in the distant future.' He shrugged. 'Anyway, we make it a bit of fun….okay,' he grinned at Jez, 'so we goof around a bit.'
    'You goof,' said Shelby. 'That's your problem. I, on the other hand use it as an opportunity to further my understanding of historical battlefield tactics.' He tossed a fork laden with bimmel sprouts into his mouth and crunched down on them noisily. 'I see it as an opportunity to rerun historical skirmishes and analyse how and why generals of the past made their decisions-'
    Gray laughed. 'That's a load of fap, man. You're just getting a nerd-on for all the guns and uniforms.'
    'Oh, puh-lease!' Shelby looked appalled. 'Please excuse him. He can be such an uncouth oaf at times.'
    Gray grinned.
    'I have a fascination with the military history of Old Earth. The war games give me a chance to explore various hypotheses and theories I have been developing about the art of warfare. Unlike Graham, who seems to spend all day and every day in his world indulging in vulgar fantasies.'
    'Why the hell not? If you can be king of your own little world?'
    'Fantasies?' Jez chuckled. 'Like what?'
    'I'm a guy….what do you think?'
    Jez nearly choked on her food. 'You…don't…actually….?'
    'Look, we can design and grow pretty much
any
life form we want. We can programme their organic minds to be as intelligent as we want, and we can even upload personality templates into their minds, memories…life histories.' He nodded at Frasier as he emerged from the doorway with a watering can andstarted tending to some baskets of hanging flowers. 'Frasier, for example, he's one of Shelby's designs.'
    'Why did you make a monkey?' asked Ellie.
    Shelby pondered that a moment then shrugged. 'I like monkeys.'
    Jez seemed keen to get back onto the subject of Gray's biome. 'Don't tell me you've gone and made some kind of, I dunno…some smutty pervo world?'
    Gray laughed. 'No! But hey…it's….pretty, how do I describe it…pretty
intense
.'
    'Pretty intense, huh?' She turned to look at Ellie and winked. Ellie knew exactly what that wink was.
Shall we go see?
She wasn't going to wait for an invitation though. 'So Gray, why don't you show us around your place?'
    He narrowed his eyes. 'Weellll….'
    'Hey, I'm pretty hard to shock, you know,' said Jez.
    Ellie nodded. 'That's true. She is!'
    Gray looked at Jez, then her. 'What about
you
, Ellie?'
    She pressed her lips. 'I…uh, I suppose I've seen a thing or two.'
    Shelby sighed. 'I must warn you ladies…stepping into his world is like stepping into his head. Messy, and unpleasant.'
    Gray sat back in his chair and stretched his arms. 'You know, you have a real winning personality, Shelbs.'
    Shelby nodded. 'Thank you. I think so too.'

CHAPTER 12
    'Okay, I'm just gonna come right out and say it…'cause I know we're both thinking it,' said Jez. She looked at Ellie, who seemed, at least to her, to be considering the exact same thing.
    Jez wandered across the warm tiled floor towards open shutter doors, out onto the balcony of their hillside villa. She leaned against the ornate iron railing and inhaled the intoxicating scent of night-blooming jasmine. She