Stolen Valor by Kal Spriggs

Author:Kal Spriggs [Spriggs, Kal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sutek Press
Published: 2019-06-05T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13: I Piss Off My Not-Girlfriends

My opportunity came a full week later, when the instructors had us conducting one on one training on the parade ground. Shadow had identified areas where the security monitors weren’t as prevalent and where she could interfere by increasing the pickup of ambient noise so that Kiyu and I could talk without being overheard.

As we rotated over, she and I squared off against one another. I figured I didn’t have a lot of time, so as we squared off, I began, “I saw something interesting down in the Underwarrens on patrol.”

She didn’t answer. The instructors ordered us to begin and she drove in a kick at my stomach that I barely blocked. Before I could begin to react, she drove an elbow in at my ribs and caught my arm, swinging it around and forcing me to the ground. “Talking is dangerous, we’re being monitored.”

“We can talk freely at the moment,” I told her.

“So you think,” she breathed in my ear, releasing my arm and stepping back. We squared off again and this time she waggled her fingers at me. “Come at me, Vars.”

My shoulder was hurting from how she’d torqued me to the ground and my ribs hurt from the elbow. I’d been raised to be respectful of women, but I’d also had an older sister. I didn’t hold back as I went at her, driving a couple wild-swinging punches at her.

She sidestepped, though, and drove a kick into my stomach that took all the wind out of me. As I dropped to my knees, she got on my back, wrapping her legs and arms around me, trying to choke me with her arms and holding on with her legs.

I could barely breathe, but I managed to keep a hand tucked under her arms. She wasn’t trying at her full strength, so I was able to gasp out, “House Mantis is down there. Slipping something out of the Heart. Crates coming out, crates coming back in from the spaceport.”

“They’re pirates, slavers, and smugglers, they do all kinds of slipping in and out of the city,” she answered, her voice calm. But her grip loosened enough that I could breathe and the force of her legs squeezing my stomach eased. She was listening.

“But what do the Erandi want to smuggle out of the city?” I asked as calmly as I could manage.

She went totally still. That was all the confirmation I really needed. They were aliens and she knew it. I used her surprise, breaking her choke hold on me and spinning out of her hold.

I came to my feet only a meter or so away from her. Her expression was troubled and her green eyes were dark. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Armstrong.”

The fact that she’d used my actual name meant I had definitely got her attention.

One of the instructors noticed we’d paused and barked at us and I dove at her in an awkward swing. She caught me as I came in, though, doing some kind of twist that left me face down on the pavement.

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