Nexus Talks to Aliens (Nexus Space History Mysteries Book 1) by Ginger Booth

Author:Ginger Booth [Booth, Ginger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

ORACLE

Alqamar, Luna

Nexus tried smiling at yet another Loonie at the final tube up to the Oracle office. As with the others, including a half dozen cops, the woman looked away, brow like thunder.

Towing a floating immobilized body, and clutching a pillowcase, it hadn’t taken Nexus and Caio long to realize they stood out like a neon beacon. They had no choice but to follow the croc directions to return to the oddly-named embassy. Or rather, they didn’t have any better ideas, because they couldn’t pass inspection before boarding the stalk elevator. Now back up on the breathable levels, Nexus thought to stow his angular pillowcase of weapons and contraband digi sentient into his gandy-suit rucksack. Towing Dev Saad on a leash was the more eye-catching problem in the halls.

How were they going to smuggle Angus back to safety on Gondola 67? And what should they do with Dev Saad? Yes, he was a thief, and a grievous one. But that wasn’t a capital offense. Fortunately Catalina decided that question. If the crocs didn’t want him for something, they must bring the culprit back to the train for prosecution – on Mahina, where his blabbing couldn’t do Angus and Kiran any harm.

The group carried too many secrets.

And the crocs seemed exactly the wrong people to clarify matters. Jorge at the front desk bounded to his feet, and nodded wary respect. “I’ll tell them you’re here.” He spared a glance at their wafting body-on-a-leash, but tactfully neglected to comment.

Nexus had popped one of the suspected money ingots into his pocket. He waited until Jorge was finished announcing their arrival to his superiors, then asked, “Excuse me, do you know how to turn this into real money?”

Jorge accepted the mini-chocolate-bar ingot with further deferential head-bobs. Nexus wasn’t clear what he’d done today to merit respect from the front desk. Perhaps getting any response from the crocs was a rarity.

Jorge’s eyes widened as he read the brassy fine print. “There are banks. Not the ordinary banks. They’d convert to luan. This is a ten million chit!”

He said this in awe, Nexus’s clue that the figure was a lot. He was good at math, but when lunch cost 800 thousand luan, and the gandy suit 4.3 billion, he found tracking luan a challenge. His usual monthly salary equaled his annual salary at zero. Caio admitted to the same problem. Neither bothered to count the shiny chits.

In net, Nexus made the only obvious call. “Keep it.”

“Wow, thank you! Oh. No, I can’t. That would be a bribe.”

Nexus sighed loudly and pocketed the chit. Caio chuckled at him.

And two crocs emerged from the door behind Jorge, proving his wisdom to turn down anything that could be construed as a bribe. The taller croc, a handspan shorter than Nexus’s 175 cm, was dressed like the familiar croc guards. The second was dressed like the ambassador, or perhaps oracle, at a good 50 cm shorter than Nexus – a young one, perhaps the ambassador’s apprentice.

Shorty raised a claw as though reaching for the ceiling.

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.