Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 0: Tanya Read Online Free Page A

uncivilized were forced to come to these places to practice their vices.
    Tanya knew that this place was different, that there were also many other such places as this just on Marvo alone and that these kinds of places could be found on most worlds, but she only knew of this through eavesdropping on people who didn't know she was listening. She had never been out of the tax-free zone since she had arrived, and she could barely remember that time. It was part of another life. It was said to be almost impossible to get out unless you were a tax-payer. Tanya wasn't. Her entire world could be measured in a twenty block radius, and the ghetto was far larger than that. How large Tanya did not even know.
    Tanya was ignorant and uneducated, little more than an animal living in a burrow, but when she looked at these thugs she now saw something else. They took what they wanted. They killed if you got in the way of their taking. They had things; food, weapons, clothing and even money. They had fancy cars and shiny jewelry. Tanya had come to the inescapable conclusion that the only way to get anything out of this life was to take it. Take from the only ones who had enough to take from. She would not steal from the good people who inhabited this place . They were her own kind , as she saw it , and she would not take from her own kind . That only left one other option. Take from the strong.
    Tanya tried to hold the memory as long as she could as it slowly slipped away, but it faded completely and she was once again left with only a brief addition. Instead of trying to delve into and fully remember it now, she put it out of her mind. That was the easiest way she knew to remember things; put it out of your mind and when your mind had something to offer, it always let you know. In any case, she knew she wouldn't be able to remember any more now. Her attempts to see further into the past had brought only frustration.
    She had spoken to no one of her resurfacing memories, but then, Tanya was entirely without friends. In most senses she did not much like the human race of which she was a part. If she needed a man she went out and used one, but she didn’t bring them home, and never got close. She most certainly never saw the same man twice, though Tanya was anything but promiscuous. Human needs were h uman needs and occasionally had to be fulfilled.
    The only person she was at all close to was her handler, who was called Handler when the need to address him personally arose, or Mister Handler when contacting him through his Organization. She was only close to him through work. Of her work itself she had few complaints. Most of her targets were politicians, and since most politicians were swindling low-down skunks who would sell their own sisters for a trinket it didn’t bother her at all to rid the Universe of them. Another would pop up to take that one’s place, as she saw it.
    Tanya's goal in life was wealth, and if a few politicians got what they deserved along the way, so much the better as far as she was concerned. Her concern was wealth, maybe retirement. Where she wanted to retire, New California, they did not accept the merely rich. They only accepted the super-rich.
    Tanya's new target was going to be one of th e hardest jobs ever . The target was an actual Senator; a very powerful man and under the protection of Federation Security Forces. The Feds shot first and asked questions later. It was their job, among other things, to protect the Elected Body of the Federation and they took their job very seriously. To compound matters the Senator lived in the country in a nearly inaccessible region. Easily accessible by air or spaceship, but not so much so if you needed to get in without bei ng noticed. Of course, if he lived in space it would have been even more difficult, probably impossible, so she had that to be thankful for.
    The Senator's home-planet was Mordalin. A Senator had to spend a certain amount of time each year on his or her