(eng) Lindsay Buroker - Fallen Empire 09 by Cyborg Legacy

Author:Cyborg Legacy [Legacy, Cyborg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Walking out into the hot, dry air of Dustor was like stepping into a sauna. Jasim wore his combat armor, but he hadn’t yet donned the helmet, so he felt the heat. The gazes of hard-eyed, rough people raked over him, men and women walking through the docking area. Maybe he should put on his helmet. None of those people looked like they had a love for cyborgs. What was new?

Jasim checked the blazer rifle he wore across his armored torso in addition to the smaller weapons integrated into the arm pieces of his suit. In a utility belt, he carried a knife and a few tools for thwarting locks and energy windows.

Leonidas stepped through the hatch after him, ducking his head to do so. He, too, wore his armor. Jasim did not comment on the childish stickers adorning it, one on his calf, one on his back, and one on his shoulder.

From what Jasim had seen of the kids, he could easily imagine them enjoying dressing Dad up. For some reason, the thought made him feel wistful. He’d never considered the idea of children of his own, figuring teaching would be the closest he could get, but maybe he should ask Leonidas for the name of that doctor he mentioned. He wished he hadn’t chickened out halfway through asking his other questions. He’d been hoping that Leonidas had found a way around his reputation as a super soldier and a killer to find a job that didn’t involve killing or roughing people up, but if he’d originally been hired as a security officer, then he hadn’t. People had seen him the same way they saw Jasim. Even the woman who had become his wife had in the beginning, it seemed. Still, Leonidas appeared to be well connected, a rare thing for a cyborg in the aftermath of the empire’s fall. Jasim wouldn’t mind asking him for help or maybe a reference. But that would be presumptuous. Jasim didn’t think Leonidas liked him or respected him. Why would he want to vouch for Jasim in any way? He was here to help out the old unit, not Jasim. Earning his respect seemed an insurmountable obstacle.

“I’m ready,” Leonidas said, perhaps wondering why Jasim was standing in the walkway without moving.

“Me too.” Jasim headed away from the ship.

Their plan was to visit their old colleague Corporal Banding before heading to the address McCall had given them, but that colleague hadn’t answered Leonidas’s message, so they didn’t know what they would find. His pawnshop was reputedly still open, so he hadn’t locked up and gone off on a trip or vacation. Jasim hoped they weren’t heading into the city to find another body. The killer wouldn’t skip to B-surnames before he’d finished the A’s, would he?

“I see Dustor is as hospitable as ever,” Leonidas said, his gaze scanning the docks and the buildings beyond, many of the old walls adorned with graffiti. People in ragged clothing sat or lay in out-of-the-way nooks along the cracked sidewalks.

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