Jungle World by B. V. Larson

Author:B. V. Larson [Larson, B. V.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Iron Tower Press
Published: 2023-01-20T00:00:00+00:00

-26-

All my feelings of wellbeing and contentment ended early the next morning. It was the women who got me in trouble, and I should’ve seen it coming. I really should’ve.

At 0600, I was yawning awake and scratching myself in front of a fire with a hot cup of coffee in my hands.

Dawn, that was when the 31 Orionis was at its best. The mornings were cool and relatively bug-free, and today I dared to think the place was tolerable.

But then my tapper started going bananas on my arm. In fact, it started talking to me all by itself.

“James? James!” It was none other than Galina Turov.

“Hey there, Imperator,” I said. “I thought you guys were off on Scorpio having a little sightseeing tour at the far end of the star system.”

Galina gave me an unpleasant look. “I’ve been talking to Centurion Thompson.”

I winced, and I grimaced. I tried to produce a smile and a nod, but it just wasn’t in me. When there were secrets in the air, some of us just aren’t built to contain them within our own skulls.

“I see by that guilty look on your face that you know this already,” she said.

As a matter of fact, I hadn’t known that Galina was speaking to Centurion Thompson, but it made good sense that she would. Years ago, Galina and Evelyn had an unholy pact together. The primary goal of which seemed to be prodding and spying upon one James McGill.

“Hey,” I said. “That’s a good thing, right? Catching up on old times with Evelyn…?”

“Hell no,” Galina said. “There are no good times to catch up on between that woman and I, but she did tell me that you and she had gone on an investigatory mission and made critical discoveries. Why wasn’t I informed of this?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said, lifting a big hand between me and my offending tapper. I managed to partly block out the glaring visage of the imperator. “That’s not how things went at all. I helped her, yes. She asked for an escort, so I took her on a hike. I escorted her through the dangerous jungle, so she could get her samples. If she’s done some fantastic scientific mumbo-jumbo that’s got nothing to do with me. You know me, I barely got a C in high school biology, and the only reason I passed at all was because the girl sitting next to me—”

“Shut up, McGill,” she said, interrupting me. “I’m not in the mood to listen to another one of your bullshit stories. You should have informed me about this. Evelyn should have informed me about this immediately . I can’t believe I’m hearing about it a day late.”

“Well, don’t get mad at me,” I said. “I can’t make heads or tails of all these spectrographic genetic charts and stuff like that.”

She continued to glare for a few moments, but then her face softened. “Yes, of course. Of course, you have no idea what she discovered—but you were there. You were out there, and we talked to Abigail Claver about this on Scorpio .

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