Shattered Under Midnight by Dorothy Grant

Author:Dorothy Grant [Grant, Dorothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sedgefield Press
Published: 2018-06-20T22:00:00+00:00

19

Raina woke up to an alarm chirping on her slate, and rolled over to shut it off. The holo flashed bright red, warning her to be up to report in, in less than an hour. She was on her feet before she looked around the room, the sun streaming through translucent curtains, and started grinning. With a laugh, she flopped back on the bed. It was Monday, and she was half a world away – she'd never have to report in again.

She picked up the slate, and swiped it open. “Information query: Planet of Kivalina.” Given the thing had to connect through the household computers and two anonymizers, it was going to take a while. Worse, she couldn’t exactly start an immigration request or visa application without triggering far more flags than was wise, precautions or no. She got back up, and sorted through the small pile of donated clothes, some fresh-bought yesterday in the bazaar, and laundered last night. Everything else, that she'd so carefully picked through and agonized over taking or leaving, was all gone by chance and chaos. It made her laugh at the absurdity of worrying about clothing again. She wouldn't need to replace it anyway, not if she was going to be trading it in for shipskins and other Upstairs clothes soon.

Once dressed, eyebrows and lashes carefully darkened to deep brown, darker than the freckles on her nose hidden under foundation, hair hidden under a housecleaning rag that any woman might throw on for the market, she looked like any other housewife in the city. It made her laugh, and make a few faces at herself in the mirror before heading out to find what the new day had in store.

Ekaterin served up leftovers and information. “Your man's already headed back out, looking for information. What did you want to do? You're on vacation!”

“There's all the things I ought to do, like a new ID...” She paused, and gave an impish grin. “Or we could go have some fun. Care to be a native guide?”

“I still have cleaning to do!” Ekaterin held up her hands, and Raina laughed.

“Let me help! I need some normalcy in my life right now, and a round of dishes and laundry, and fruity drinks when we're done, sounds about right.” There was no room for dead bodies or worrying about the future when spraying down stains, mopping floors and sorting underwear, not when they were busy arguing over music and men and laughing as they flew through chores.

When the place was sparkling and a meal was waiting for the boys in the hotpot, they raided Ekaterin's closet ruthlessly for gauzy dresses and put on sparkling jewelry, giggling through the makeup. It had been too long since Ekaterin had a kid-free night with her hair down, much less Raina, and they left behind an amused Illyan to go dancing in a bar not that far from the Old Souk.

Parking was easy up in the edges of the tourist trade, but Ekaterin waved her toward the waterfront.

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