Rich Man's War (2014) by Elliott Kay

Author:Elliott Kay [Kay, Elliott]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Military, Science Fiction, Coming of Age, Action & Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9781477830840
Google: KBNVrgEACAAJ
Publisher: Amazon Pub
Published: 2015-06-29T12:00:00+00:00

* * *

“Listen, I’m in Salvation on Raphael right now ‘cause I have to go to the stupid Annual Address, and I never found a date. You got plans tonight?”

“Oh, fuck, did Ordoñez put you up to this?” asked Sanjay. The holocom screen showed him laying on a couch in his barracks room in casual civilian clothes. “She’s still pissed off that I saw that guy first? Man, I told her, I’m not usually into men, but anyone would have taken him home—!”

“What? No!” Tanner’s palm smacked against his forehead. He stood alone in his dress uniform while crowds of people filled up the other side of the wide street. Senators, celebrities and other VIP guests—as if any guest at the Address was not, by definition, a VIP—made their way through a red-carpet gauntlet of journalists, lobbyists and security in both uniform and plain clothes. The extra lighting and buzzing camera drones only added to the glitzy aura of the scene.

True to Tanner’s expectations, he had yet to see anyone approach the steps alone.

Sanjay continued. “I mean, that’s nothing against you, I just wouldn’t have expected—”

“I’m not into men, Sanjay,” Tanner sighed. Way to put your foot in your mouth, Malone.

“Then why are you calling me up asking me if I want to go to a fancy date thing with you?” Sanjay frowned. “You’re weird, man.”

“It’s not a date, okay? I already ran through all my ‘date’ options and came up dry. I’d be happy to just have someone to hang out with at this point. Last year I had Andrea Bennet showing me around when I was a news story. This year I’m back to being nobody, which is fine, but I’m still stuck here. This place is crawling with celebrities and powerful people, but that also means it’s basically a party full of strangers. Who wants to go to those alone?”

“Seriously? You couldn’t find a date for that?” Sanjay snickered. “I know girls who’d murder their mothers for that ticket.”

“Look, I reported aboard Los Angeles five days ago and the captain told me I had to come for the pride of the ship or some such. You wouldn’t believe what a pain it is to find a date for this thing. Every woman I know from the honor guard is actually working here tonight and every civilian I’d ask is either at a university on another planet or tied up with something else. The girl I took to my senior prom is on some geological survey for school, for Christ’s sake.”

“You’re on a cruiser and you couldn’t find one woman to take to a thing like that?”

“I just reported on board! They’ve been busting my ass with getting me qualified for this, that and the other thing. You think I’ve had time to socialize with anyone? I haven’t met half of my own department yet. And I’m not gonna take a blind date to the Annual Address. What if she gets drunk and throws up on the President? Or calls him a fascist?”

“You didn’t ask Ordoñez? She’d go.

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