Fool Me Once by Jamie McFarlane

Author:Jamie McFarlane [McFarlane, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fickle Dragon Publishing
Published: 2014-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

OH, THAT'S GONNA LEAVE A MARK

“I’ll check in with you as needed this week,” Tali said. “I mostly need to do some computer work. Expect a few hundred in expenses. I’ll need to pay a nerd or two.”

“Hah. Okay.”

“Do you need a ride anywhere?” she asked.

“No, I’m good. Thanks for dinner, love this place.” I said.

I watched her walk across the courtyard to the grav-bike. She walked gracefully, with no mind for just what those black pants did to college boys. I smiled as each boy along her path turned to catch a glimpse as she passed. It was hard for me to understand how someone that beautiful could also be Special Forces, but she didn’t seem to be the sort to make things up.

It was getting late and I didn’t have a place to stay yet. I walked outside and sat under a tree to do a search for lodging – maybe something that rented by the week. I wanted to see about the cases I had in storage. If the search took longer than a couple of weeks I would run out of money pretty quickly. My big concern was Alexander somehow tracking the cases and intercepting me when I got to them.

I found a furnished dive that rented week-to-week for two hundred a week. It was just outside the Open Air District in an area known as The Skeg. From this location it would be handy to get to where the cases were stored. As the cab approached my destination, I noticed that contrary to the other parts of town, this area was pretty sketchy. The buildings weren’t particularly well maintained and some were crumbling. Given the wealth of the rest of the town, it was surprising a place like this would exist. But, I'd already paid for a week and I had a weapon.

The front of the building was in bad shape. At two hundred a week I had expected better. I should have left, but didn’t have money to burn. It took the building super ten minutes to show up and grant me access to the building.

“Three-E. Make sure you're out by the end of a week. Anything left in the apartment is mine if you don't renew.” The little man was dressed in a worn shirt and black jeans. He liked his position of authority and probably made a small amount of money selling the possessions of the inhabitants who had the bad fortune to forget his rule. As it was, I owned nothing that I wasn’t already carrying.

The inside of the apartment wasn’t as bad as the outside of the building had led me to believe. It was spartan, but clean. They probably had a cleaning bot to keep the units looking nice between visits. I noticed with a certain glumness that the shower didn’t come with free shampoo, soap or a towel. I'd need to pick up those things, but not until tomorrow. I was beat.

Sometime in the middle of the night I felt a crushing pressure on my chest.

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