Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer Read Online Free Page A

Lycra dress hugged her small rounded body, showing every curve in excruciating detail.  It wasn’t the most flattering thing she could have worn, but given her business, and considering the message she was trying to send, the dress worked just fine.  He followed her up the stairs to a second floor room where she used a master key to open his door for him.  Walking past her into the room, he took a moment to take in the lodging.
    “Is the room okay?”  She asked.
    “The room is fine,” he replied as he set his bag down on the bed.
    While he was looking over the room, she pulled down the top of her dress so that it was just barely covering her nipples.  “Please let me know if there is anything else you need.  By the way I’m also a trained masseuse, and I give a really killer backrub.”  She sauntered closer to Marcus as she altered her voice, trying to sound as sexually persuasive as possible, “and even better front ones.”
    He cracked a smile at the girl’s blatant attempt to gain his business.  Marcus had never been with a woman outside of an operation, but now that he was self-retired, he wasn’t sure what it would be like to do it for fun.  Fun, there was a new concept for him, one that he was going to have to get used to now that he was calling all the shots in his life.  For a few seconds he contemplated having a little sampling of fun right then, but with a growling rumble, his stomach reminded him that although he might have momentarily forgotten his hunger, his stomach certainly had not. 
    He turned to her and took her by shoulders , looking into her eyes, and said, “Dorothy, it is Dorothy right?”  She nodded in the affirmative.  “You really are sweet and maybe later I might take you up on your offer, but right now I’m tired and hungry and I would like to get a good meal.”
    Her shoulders slumped a bit, but she still managed a smiled, “I understand.  Well, let’s see,” she put her finger on her cheek, “the best place in town to eat would be Bob’s.”
    He raised an eyebrow, “I saw that place from the space port, it looked pretty run down.”
    She laughed, “Everything in this town looks run down, this whole damn rock is run down, but the food is really good.  Carl, the guy who runs it, had been some big wig chef on Earth before he came here.”
    So, I wasn’t the only person to think this was a good place to disappear, he thought. “Thank you, I may call on you later.”  He tipped her a large credit note, it was more than she would have made even if he had partaken, then he ensured he had his room key before heading toward the door.
    “Oh thank you Sir you’re too kind.”  She beamed as she left the room, in a hurry to go show off the note to the other girls.  
    “Oh that was smart, now every girl in this place will be after me for a tip.  Ah, what the Hell.  I’m sure they don’t make much here, and what am I going to do with money on a rock like this anyway?”  He said to himself.
    Marcus left the room and locked the door behind him, but before leaving, he turned and placed a very thin length of wire across the doorway.  It was so thin that you would not see it unless you knew it was there.  After he was satisfied that the room was taken care of he went down the stairs.  In the lobby, he found all the girls waiting for him.  They were all “oohing” and “aahing” for him.  He just pushed on past their sexual advances, and headed out the door.
    On the street he noticed the few people that were walking about would stop and stare at him.  He must have been a sight to look at .  At six feet tall and dressed all in black with a long black coat, he looked like a gunfighter from the late 1800’s and strangely fit into the look of the town, wearing his large black brimmed hat that covered his jet-black hair.  If someone were to look close enough at him when he was walking, they might even catch a glance of a pistol, one strapped to each of his