Lucky Bastard_Lucky's Marines Book Eight by Joshua James

Author:Joshua James [James, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down7media llc
Published: 2019-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

27

“Come to think of it…” Jiang said ponderously.

“What do you mean?” Malby asked.

“Did you see a single Cardinal Order PP rifle?” Lucky asked. “Or an Alliance slugslinger? I saw plenty of Empire pulse rifles.”

“I thought I saw an Asiatic plasma rifle,” Jiang offered. “I think.”

Lucky shook his head. “And the combat gear? Anybody see anything that wasn’t our side?”

The hold was silent.

“What the hell does that mean?” Malby asked.

“It means that pirates wear what they steal,” Lucky said. “But these guys were only wearing Empire gear.”

“And it didn’t look stolen to me,” Dabs said. She chuckled. “At least, not from any ship I was ever stationed on. That gear looked new.”

“So what?” Jiang asked. “You think somebody’s supplying them with gear?”

“I think we have some questions for our team,” Lucky said.

“Too bad we can’t ask them,” Jiang said. “April sent that message expecting us to reach out when we got to the Jamestown. But that link was clearly blown the instant that Crad came aboard.”

“And who knows what else he knows now,” Dabs said. “With those access codes? If he could fool the Jamestown into opening their doors, who else could they seduce?”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Anna said.

They all turned to her.

“What do you mean?” Lucky asked.

Anna had been privy to danger alerts, the same as her father and mother. The Principate was almost as powerful as the Emperor’s Triumvirate, after all, and they were responsible for all the embassy worlds. They had daily danger alerts.

“I’ve never heard a thing about Crad. I assumed he was just a local creep. Even after we saw the Smoke drug ring—and then whatever they’re doing down there with these hybrid things,” she said, using air quotes and looking over at Lucky as she did. She didn’t believe for a second that the reason he was such a murdering scumbag was just some alien influence in his head. But it was clear that Crad thought so, which she supposed meant this Admiral Salders that he’d captured and tortured did, and so did this Brotherhood that Salders was part of. “If he was a known threat, I’d have heard of him.”

“Unless somebody was covering it up,” Lucky said.

Anna snorted before she could catch herself. “Please. It’s not some giant conspiracy.”

Lucky snapped his head over to look at Anna. His eyes were practically red laser dots. Anna was surprised to find herself leaning back. She’d stared down noblemen and kings, leaders of the largest human factions in the universe, but there was something savage behind Lucky’s eyes that made her ass pucker.

“Well, somebody’s hiding something. And I’m sorry if this is news to you, but those of us lower down the food chain aren’t fortunate enough to believe that what filters down from the top isn’t covered in bullshit.”

Anna was stunned by the cynicism. “But that—”

Lucky spun around in his seat, finally pulling his hot gaze from her and sweeping over the rest of the team in the main hold behind the cockpit.

“Those stealth weapons

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