Breakeven by Michelle Diener

Author:Michelle Diener [Diener, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eclipse
Published: 2018-10-07T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Sebastian left with a crowd on his heels, but Laschka stayed behind.

Dee watched her turn with the group and then slow walk to the door. She stopped, one hand braced on the door frame.

Dee took the last sip of her jah, one leg crossed over the other as she leaned back against the counter and waited.

“You and Sebastian seem close.” Laschka kept her voice even as she pinned Dee with a hard stare.

Dee said nothing. She put down her mug and the silence stretched out between them.

Laschka made a sound of frustration. “I'm watching you.” She pointed a finger at Dee then stepped away from the door and closed it with a bang.

Dee lifted Fluffy from her shoulder and scratched the top of her head. “I don't know about you, but I think she's suspicious of me.”

She herself had been very suspicious of Leo's girlfriend, Sofie, so she understood the instinct.

She sighed, and then put a hand to her stomach as it grumbled.

“I can't wait for lunch.” She rounded the counter, opened the cooler, and found it empty. Sebastian had not been lying about needing to shop.

“Let's do some exploring.” She lifted Fluffy into the bag, sliding a few of Rina Fattal's ports into an outside pocket before she stepped out of the house.

She had been too tired, and it had been too dark, for her to work out the lay of the land last night. Now she stood in Sebastian's doorway and found herself on a twisting thoroughfare that wound its way through the forest. Huts and shanties were set right on the road or just beyond it, nestled beneath trees so big, she gawked in wonder at them.

This was nothing like the low, thorny scrub of Garmen.

The path was well-worn, although unpaved, and a spluttering, battered hover coughed its way past her, going slowly as it passed pedestrians.

Most of the people were headed to the right, the same direction Sebastian had gone with his entourage.

She had a vague memory from last night of stumbling out of the rough shack built over the tunnel entrance into a central square, with actual buildings, rather than makeshift wooden huts, and the massive screen that she'd caught a glimpse of from the alley in Dar Raca had dominated the skyline.

She sniffed the air and headed in that direction herself, certain she could smell some open-fire cooking.

The road meandered, and she turned a corner to find the number of buildings on either side of the road had increased. They stretched back from the path, two, three, even four structures deep rather than the single line of dwellings that was the pattern where Sebastian had his house.

The sound of a chair scraping back caught her attention, and she peered down a narrow pathway to find a tiny square set behind the first row of houses, and people sitting hunched over small tables with steaming bowls in front of them.

A group of ragged children stood watching as those seated at the tables ate in quick, almost guilty bites.

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