The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: Call Sign Reaper Read Online Free

other out to the hover van they had rented. She asked them if they wanted medical attention and that they would take them to the hospital. The captain replied that they could take care of themselves back at their ship. On the ride to the space port, the major asked Gunny for the travel safe and the combination.
    She sat down, punched in the combination and opened it up. Inside was a stack of credit chips, all in Sols — ten, to be exact, at a thousand each. The van arrived at the ship and the doors automatically opened. They all were moving slow and two of men got on either side of the big guy to help him up the loading ramp and onto their ship. The woman and the skinny spacer got out next and walked away, and the captain exited the van last.
    The captain paused, keeping the door from closing, and looked at the major. He had that hateful smile on his face. After a short silence, he told her, “I think I’m going to kill that guy. I’m not under contract to you now that we’ve been paid and I know my crew wants his hide.”
    The major returned his stare with one of her own. “Captain, I would not advise that if you don’t want to orphan your ship,” she replied coldly. “You didn’t threaten him tonight, even after that skinny asshole pulled a knife. If you go back to that bar and start anything, you may not come out alive. Those people are his friends.” She paused for a second. “It will go very bad for you and your crew if you go back there. I can’t stress this enough to you.”
    “And what about you, Major? What are you going to do?” he asked.
    “Right now, Captain, in his eyes I am no better than you. However, my people are much better suited to deal with him,” she said. “Tomorrow I’m going to get him to join my team, and then you will have to go through us to get to him.”
    The captain snorted and walked away with their money under his arm. The major held the door and watched him. He was shaking his head and talking to himself. He probably didn’t believe her, and he was just enough of a cocky fool to get his whole crew killed. He had been warned. The door slid shut, and she told the sergeant major to take them back to the hotel. 0700 was in four hours and a little sleep would be nice.

Chapter 3: Workout
     
    The major’s alarm went off at 0600. She showered, then sat down and logged into a secured net to see if there were any messages from the general’s office. There was only one, wishing them luck on the mission and hoping the asset could be signed up and secured in the least amount of time possible. The major replied with a report of the first day’s events. She left out only one thing in her report. As far as she was concerned, it was an isolated incident and there was no reason to mention it.
    She met her men for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. They planned to fly out to the farm first and look around again. She thought she might talk to the Vander Hoyts, tell them she was an old friend and find out if they had heard from Ben. They lifted off at 0730 and retraced the route from the night before, from the space station hotel complex to Gus’s and out into the country. The major put on a sundress and some soft-sole flat shoes. A designer purse and sunglasses rounded out her outfit for the day. She did not want to draw attention to herself or make people less willing to talk to her.
    She drove the hover car herself to keep the illusion of being alone. Matt sat in the front passenger seat while Bill sat in the back, listening to audio from the bar the night before. There was nothing much at all to hear until the fight broke out.
    They had been sitting outside with a directional mic, recording for hours, until Ben left and made his walk home. Matt and Bill had decided not to tell the major they had the mic and infrared recording the whole time she was confronting Ben on the side of the road. They had seen her knock him down and laughed at the scene. They could do nothing but stare as she