Haze by L. E. Modesitt Jr

Author:L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2009-12-29T16:00:00+00:00

18

25 LIANYU 6744 F. E.

Once he’d returned to the FSS on Friday afternoon, Roget had explained his early return because of a bout of dehydration. Sung had given him a lecture and let it go at that. Roget had thought about sending another encrypted linkburst report to his controller, then decided against it. He didn’t want either dehydration or delusions on his record. He had kept monitoring his internals, but once he’d increased his fluid levels, they continued to indicate he was normal.

Even so, on Saturday morning, Roget slept until close to ten. When he finally woke, he realized just how exhausted he’d been the night before. When he was alert enough to check, he found that his internal monitors indicated that he was in good shape. But then, they hadn’t given him any warning on the dehydration/delusion induced by what ever charming Marni and her compatriot had done. His shoulder wasn’t sore, but he thought he could see the faintest hint of a circular patch of redness in his upper arm. That would fit with some sort of nanojector, but why were there no other signs? And what had Marni had in mind? She wasn’t the type to do something without a purpose.

After eating a leisurely, if not particularly appetizing, replicated breakfast, cleaning up, and dressing, Roget carried a case from the bedroom out to the main area. There he laid out the gear he had available on the table that doubled as desk and eating space. When he finished, he glanced toward the projection to his right. He couldn’t help smiling at the little black dachshund with the tannish brown patches over her eyes. “You are something, Hildegarde.”

He knew that the dachshund was only an image, but who else could he talk to in St. George? Besides, she did remind him of Muffin.

“You made a lot of people happy, I’d bet, little dog.”

Hildegarde didn’t answer, but Roget imagined that she bounced a little and wagged her tail as he turned from the image to the gear on the table. He finally decided on the wrist dart gun, a waist-pak that contained various tools designed for circumventing security systems and locks, and, just for emergencies, a small explosive and incendiary device. He had been in St. George for two weeks. That meant he no longer was restricted to mere observation, and he was getting tired of being a target.

Once he arranged the gear, he went back to the bedroom closet and ran a check on the nightsuit, a dark gray, long-sleeved singlesuit. When activated, the special threads and sensors created the image of what ever was behind the suit—from all angles. If Roget slipped the hood over his head and face, even in bright light, he merged with the background, and in darkness, he was close to invisible.

The next step was to use his personal monitor to access certain information and dig out what he could about his putative targets for the evenings ahead. That would take more than a little time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.