Fortune's Pawn (Paradox Book 1) by Rachel Bach

Author:Rachel Bach [Bach, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780316221092
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2013-11-04T23:00:00+00:00

I spent the rest of my shift playing the scene with Ren over and over on my camera. I’d caught everything—her crazed expression, the static lines, Rupert’s incredible feat of strength—but I didn’t know what any of it meant. I knew Ren was important, though not how or why. I also knew she was dangerous in a way I could not understand, and that frightened me more than I liked to admit.

I continued to patrol, but I didn’t look at Ren again unless I had to. This was made much easier by the fact that she never looked at me either, or moved at all. As for Rupert, he acted like the whole thing had never happened, and I was happy to act right along with him. But the incident had put a sourness in me. I don’t do well with puzzles in general, and this one seemed to be missing half its pieces. The whole mess was driving me up the wall, and my body itched for some good, old-fashioned, completely nonmysterious action.

Luckily, I was about to get my wish. Our next jump was to the Recant, an asteroid field that was well inside the hunting grounds for Reaper’s Fleet. I had no idea what kind of death wish drove Caldswell so near the xith’cal tribe who’d proclaimed him their sworn prey, but I wasn’t about to complain. This far into xith’cal space, there was no way we could avoid a raid, and I was more than ready to take out my frustrations with some nice, visceral xith’cal slaughter.

My longing for battle must have scared them away, though, because the next few days were depressingly calm. The mining station we were headed toward was deep inside the Recant, where the asteroids were thick. Good for mining, bad for coming out of hyperspace. Because of the rocks, the gate had dumped us four days away from our actual destination, and after three days of getting dinged by space rocks without so much as sighting another ship, I was starting to feel like a caged animal.

“Relax, Morris,” Cotter said, glancing up from the pistol he was cleaning as I entered the lounge on patrol. “You keep making that face it’ll stick that way.”

“Shut up,” I growled, stalking past him to glare out the window at the rocks I was starting to hate.

We were speaking King’s Tongue, but I guess the tone was clear enough, because Rupert chuckled. I turned my glare to him. He was sitting on the couch beside Ren with his long legs resting on the low table in front of him, reading something on his ledger and looking far, far too relaxed to suit my mood.

“I’m sure the xith’cal will be here to eat us soon enough,” he said without looking up.

I was thinking up a good comeback to that when Caldswell’s voice crackled over the com. “Security, get to the bridge.”

“Come on, Cotter,” I said, hurrying out the door, my anger forgotten in the thrill of potential action.

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