allies and enemies 02 - rogues by murphy amy j

Author:murphy, amy j [murphy, amy j]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2016-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

44

Coffee.

Pancakes.

Strawberries.

Waffles.

Rachel pondered the mental list of foods she had decided to no longer take for granted if she ever got back to a decent Earth colony. Coffee had been the hardest. Nothing so far in the Reaches held a candle to it. And some of the things these people drank and ate were downright disgusting.

But coffee. That would be heaven.

She held out no real hope that there was a coffee equivalent in Tintown. Selto did not strike her as the benevolent-host type. Dinner had been some sort of pre-packaged C rations. She doubted they’d offer an omelet station for breakfast.

Rachel stretched her neck and arms. The mattress on the bunk had not been the best, but at least she’d not woken up with her throat slit. She rose and pulled the upper portion of her flightsuit back over her arms. Mid-yawn, she checked the upper bunk.

Empty, the covers undisturbed. Where’d she go?

Worried, she rushed into the common room. The knot in her chest loosened. Erelah lay asleep on the sofa, curled into a tight ball in its corner. Rachel contemplated waking her so she might stretch out on a proper bed, but decided against it. The girl felt secure enough to sleep here. Compared to this wide-open space, the bunk alcove probably felt like a cage. A protective anger washed over Rachel. Someone had really done a number on her. She hoped they rotted in hell for that.

Mallorid, the guard, stood near the doorway silent as a statue. The linebacker hadn’t moved, but Erelah had discovered that the “he” was actually a “she.” Go figure.

“Mornin’, sheriff,” Rachel drawled.

As expected, there was no response, only a curious tilt of the head. Rachel suspected the guard didn’t like her much. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“I don’t suppose there’s a place to get a decent Americano around these here parts?”

The guard’s shoulders lifted in a barely perceptible shrug.

The door opened and Korbyn staggered in. Moving in a relatively straight line, he made his way over to the sofa and rolled across its back to sprawl on the cushioned seat. His booted feet narrowly missed Erelah, who didn’t even stir.

“And what sort of hour do you call this?” Rachel propped her hands on her hips.

He was wasted.

Selto strode in with his guard dog, Ceric, in tow.

“Rachel, yes?” Selto smiled. For some reason she thought of a reptile.

She gave a cautious nod.

“You introduced yourself as a healer yesterday. We have been without medical help for some time. May I ask your assistance?” Selto used the same cattle-appraising stare he’d employed at the landing site yesterday. But this felt different; there was some calculation going on behind it now. The price of the cow had just gone up.

She suspected Korbyn had had something to do with that. She made a mental note to castrate him.

“If you might join us at the med bay?”

Rachel looked from Selto to Ceric, then back. The request felt more like a demand.

Behind her on the sofa, Korbyn let out a lusty snore.

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.