Invasive Species (A Slice of Harmony) by John W McIntire

Author:John W McIntire [McIntire, John W]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

31

As the last person he was sharing the carriage with exited the train, Zach spread out and sighed. It turned out that an afternoon drinking in Kalki's bar learning about until recently extinct flowers was exactly what he needed to keep his mind away from everything that had been going on in his life.

Pleasant as it was, he was glad to be alone now. Anisa had decided—probably through the courage of too many floral flavoured drinks—that she wanted to spend some time exploring Mars Side. He had balked at the idea of leaving a half drunk woman who had never been there in Mars Side—he would have reacted the same for anybody—but Kalki talked him down, assuring both of them that she would make sure Anisa found her way around safely.

Having had no desire to stay longer than he needed, Zach had made straight for the train platform and boarded the first one that arrived. Now past anywhere anyone else wanted to be, he was alone and happy for it.

Able to think straight—and partially sobered up—Zach couldn't believe the events of the day. First, there had been the surprise meeting with Jesshun that came with the knowledge that the project was starting soon. That was enough to temper the excitement he had felt in the days prior. It didn't help that Jesshun hadn't offered any new information. Zach was just as in the dark as he was before.

That part was believable.

It was the afternoon with Kalki that was surreal. Of all the thousands of places to get a drink in Mars Side—no, in the whole of the Two Systems—that they could have walked into, how did they manage to find the one with smuggled plants from Mars? Smuggling from the planet happened all of the time, but it was such a difficult enterprise with such a low success rate that it wasn't reliable. Whoever Kalki knew that could provide her a steady stream of plants, they were well connected. It was ridiculous enough that Zach started laughing to himself. It was a good thing he was alone.

Scoffing, Zach closed his eyes. In a matter of weeks, he had gone from living an uneventful, solitary existence to living one of the most exciting lives he could imagine. Yet, somehow, it was only going to get crazier from here. The only thing he could hope for at this point was not to meet anyone else with obvious connections to organised crime.

The Lev Train's doors opened at another stop. Knowing that he hadn't been on board nearly long enough, Zach didn't move. That was the beauty of the agricultural decks. They were a long, long way away from anything anybody was interested in.

Zach's mind drifted to the logistics of Jesshun's projects. He was still in the dark about what was involved, but that didn't mean he couldn't guess. He felt a twinge of sadness knowing that at least half of his current crop were going to be ripped out and probably disposed of.

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