Parasites Read Online Free

from it then turned back to her. “You talked me into it.”
    Her lips curled into a thin smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Jeremy noticed and felt himself tense up. This was more than just taking a break, she had an agenda. His stomach fluttered as he realized she was probably done waiting for him to explain the inconsistencies in his past. Almost a week since they’d landed. Deciding to take the initiative and, hopefully, control the damage, he asked, “So what’s up?”
    “I’m not good with electronics but everybody’s picked up on what you’d noticed on day one,” she said. “Things tend to break here. A lot. I’ve been through three personal assistants already and most of our gear in here hasn’t even been fired up but the diagnostics when we bring them online show problems.”
    He nodded. It seemed Vitalis, the name that the buoy in space had been transmitting, wasn’t friendly to technology. The buoy had marked it as a salvage claim for someone named Klous Hildebrand, captain of a small transport ship named the Black Hole. The ruins of what they all assumed was the Black Hole were several miles away. It had landed or crashed on a secluded beach. Inland their orbital images had shown a deep jungle but both the jungle and the beach were surrounded completely by mountains.
    “Have the Marines found any survivors?”
    Jeremy narrowed his eyes slightly at the question. “How would I know?” He said defensively. “You’re on the need to know list, not me.”
    “I just wondered if you’d heard anything from that Marine. Kate, wasn’t it? The corporal.”
    “Lance Corporal Kate,” he corrected. He felt a flash of irritation at Dr. Rice’s ignorance. “Fiona is her first name, not Kate.”
    Dr. Rice’s eyes widened for a moment. She recovered quickly. “Mr. Sinclair…Jeremy. This is silly. We’re going to be working together for a long time. Maybe longer if they can’t get the second shuttle fixed. When it’s just us let’s drop the formalities, okay?”
    He nodded. “That’s fine, but Synnamon is quite a mouthful.”
    She smiled. “I’m sure we’ll manage. Tell me about yourself. We need to get to know each other if we’re going to be relying on each other. Obviously our dossiers don’t have a full picture.”
    Jeremy’s shoulders tensed and his stomach cramped. She was good, she’d distracted him then brought it right back around to him. “I think they did a pretty good job.”
    She smirked. “No mention of a Navy past for you. Or is that just another cover story? Are you an agent for some Coalition government agency? Or maybe a private business slipped you in? Is the story about your daughter true, or just something crafted up to win me over based on some psych profile?”
    Jeremy took a step back, shocked by her sudden intensity. He’d been prepared for it but even the best of plans could go up in smoke and he knew it. He’d lived it, in fact. “Doc— Synnamon, no! It’s nothing like that. Jasmine is real. I’m real – this is who I am. I did a lot of stupid shit when I was younger, it’s behind me and I don’t like people thinking poorly of me because of it. That’s all.”
    “Well whatever it was there’s no record of it,” Synnamon went on. “So either you covered your tracks well or it wasn’t as bad as you think it was.”
    He shrugged. The more talking she did the less he had to. The fewer lies he had to tell the easier it would be to get out of it.
    “You promised me an explanation though.”
    Jeremy groaned. He had promised her. He hadn’t killed anybody, and it had been over a decade ago. Military crimes had no statute of limitations though, even if his hadn’t been treasonous. He opened and closed his mouth, then let out a sigh. “I—“
    A banging on the door of the lab interrupted him. It was Private Palenko. “Jer, Doc, there’s a situation in the yard!”
    The private was gone just as quickly. Jeremy looked to his boss and saw her frown. “To