The Mandala Maneuver by Christine Pope

Author:Christine Pope [Pope, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Valentine Press

Really, she was kicking herself for not tuning into that comm in the first place. But done was done, and they seemed safe enough here for now. Lirzhan watched her expectantly but remained silent.

She hadn’t operated one of these comm units for a while, not since her college boyfriend had taken her out joyriding in the smaller, less sophisticated version of a skimmer that he’d owned. But the principle should be the same: There were numerous bands available, depending on the strength of the signals from the towers in the area. Etiquette generally required that you find your own channel, one that no one else was using but was still powerful enough to reach the other skimmers in the area if you needed to open a comm channel with them. She hadn’t noticed any towers near the mining facility, but then again, she hadn’t been looking, either.

Letting her finger rest on the touch pad, she let it seek through the bands, searching for the one carrying other voice traffic. A few crackled in and out, but she could tell that was just background noise. Then:

“…heard anything from the team?” The voice was male, and definitely Gaian. She thought she even detected a Midwest twang to it.

“Not a peep. Should’ve been back hours ago, but maybe it’s taking ’em longer to dig a couple of graves than they thought.” The second voice was also male and Gaian, but she didn’t recognize the accent for sure. She supposed it really didn’t matter. Gaian was Gaian.

She glanced up at Lirzhan, and his cool green eyes met hers. It didn’t take a theoretical physicist to figure out whose graves the two strangers were talking about.

“Are you going to send anyone out to look for them?”

“Hell, no. We’re shorthanded enough as it is. They were hired because they’re professionals — I’m not going to babysit them. Besides, Ono will have my ass in a sling if we’re behind on our quota this week.”

“Got it. I’m heading back in. I’ll check again in a half-hour.”

“Roger that.”

The transmission ended, and Alexa sat there for a minute, processing what she’d just heard. Too bad the two strangers hadn’t referred to one another by name, but you couldn’t have everything.

“It looks like you were right,” she told Lirzhan. “Whoever’s running that base sent those mercenaries specifically to kill us. Loose ends, I suppose, since we weren’t obliging enough to get blown up with the shuttle or burn up on reentry.”

“I am not all that happy about being right,” he replied grimly. “But that doesn’t explain what is here that they’re willing to commit murder to protect. Yes, it is clearly some sort of mining facility, but one wouldn’t think such a thing would be that sensitive.”

“I supposed it depends on what they’re mining.” She reached up under her messy braid to rub the back of her neck, which was feeling more than a little tight. Not enough sleep and too much hunching over the steering wheel of the skimmer, she supposed.

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