Giles Kurns: Rogue Instigator: Age Of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Confessions Of A Space Anthropologist Book 2) by Ell Leigh Clarke & Michael Anderle

Author:Ell Leigh Clarke & Michael Anderle [Clarke, Ell Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2018-02-21T07:00:00+00:00

Within the Royal Settlement

Giles carried the last of the cases Arlene had commandeered for their short stay in the Royal Settlement. “Fuck, Arlene! What have you got in here?”

Arlene came through from one of the bedrooms. “Just a few supplies we might need . . . clothes, training equipment . . . weapons.”

Giles tried to catch her eye, but Anne ambled in, clutching her drawings. “Weapons for training?” he qualified.

“Uh huh,” Arlene confirmed, ambling back into the bedroom with an armful of stuff she’d brought from the Scamp Princess.

Giles suspected she was telling him what he wanted to hear. “Well, it’s a good thing you don’t have pods,” he muttered, plonking the case down.

“Why’s that?” Anne piped up.

“Because,” he said, his eyes softening as he looked at her, “your Auntie Arlene has a jonesing for some action.”

“Not her aunt!” Arlene’s voice called from the other room.

“Not a baby!” Anne stated without missing a beat.

Giles wiped his face with one hand as he straightened up.

Anne grinned. “You’re afraid Arlene will hurt someone, aren’t you?”

Giles nodded grimly. “Multiple someones, as it happens.”

Anne pursed her lips, and with an air of a wisdom beyond her years, she nodded sagely. “I can see that.”

Giles, now adequately bemused and concerned, traipsed out toward the ship. “Ok, Scamp, I think we’re ready,” he said into his holo connection.

Scamp activated the takeoff sequence, calculating the delicate maneuver to get the ship out of the compound without destroying all the wood cabins around it.

“Ok, Anne, stay safe and please do what Arlene tells you,” Giles said turning to Anne, who’d seemingly become clingy, as she followed him closely up to the boarding steps at the side entrance.

Giles glanced down. She looked sullen, and then . . . emotional. She flung her arms around him. “Take me with you! I’ll be good, I promise. Just please . . . take me with you.”

Giles tried to peel her off, but after his second rather firm attempt, he gave up and hugged her back. “Now, now . . . the whole reason we’ve just unloaded and arranged this vacation palace for you two is so that Arlene can keep you safe. Right here.”

Anne didn’t let go. It was moments like this that he wondered how young she actually was. Height-wise, her head came up to his chest. She had the sass and wits of an older teenager. But she’d probably seen much trauma, and familial bonding was unlikely to have been stable.

He knew leaving her here was the right thing to do, yet . . .

“Anne, listen to me,” he said, peeling her up off his chest so he could look at her. He pulled her hair out of her face. “It’s going to be ok. I promise. I’ll be back in a jiffy, and in the meantime, you can get going with your training and have some new stuff to show me when I get back.”

A tear escaped her eye. Giles brushed it away.

“And look,” he continued, “when you’re older and you’ve got your Estarian voodoo badassery going on, you’ll be able to come and save my life.

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.