The Terran Privateer Read Online Free Page A

purchase agreement and offer provisional contracts to the Nova Industries personnel aboard. My aides have been drafting our offers on the way over.”
    The admiral pulled a flimsy—a thin, flexible display that could link into a portable computer or hold a small bit of information itself—from his uniform jacket and laid it on the table.
    “This is the offer we put together for you,” he said quietly.
    Annette didn’t even look at it. She glared at Villeneuve. Part of her wanted it—wanted to walk back into the United Earth Space Force and grind the Captains’ faces in what their attempt to suppress research had created, along with their rejection of her. The rest of her had no interest in going back to the people who’d betrayed her people’s trust and cast her out for seeing justice done.
    “My contract with Nova Industries is more than sufficiently remunerative for me,” she replied, her voice very cold and precise. “It also contains penalty clauses for early termination.”
    “I will waive those clauses,” Casimir said instantly. “Hell, you’ve got six months left on your contract, Annette—I’ll pay it all out.”
    “And if I want to stay with NI?” she asked, suddenly afraid.
    “We’re building an entire flotilla of survey ships—ones that the UESF will not be commanding,” Casimir noted with a glance at the Admiral. “They could use a Commodore. But…Annette, please. At least hear the Admiral out.”
    Villeneuve glanced at Kurzman and then at Casimir.
    “Elon, Mister Kurzman, can I speak to Captain Bond in private, please?” he finally asked.
    Annette had a momentary urge to refuse, to kick the man out of the room and off of her ship—for about another eight hours, she had that authority.
    “Of course,” Casimir replied before she could give in to that impulse. “Pat, with me, please.”
    Before the Captain could object, her XO followed their boss out of the room, leaving Annette Bond alone in the room with the man who’d done nothing to save her career—and the piece of electronic paper bringing her back to the Space Force that had betrayed her.
     
    #
     
    Admiral Jean Villeneuve waited calmly for the two Nova Industries people to leave the room, taking advantage of the moment to study the woman across from the table in the dark blue merchant uniform. Her wearing that uniform instead of his own dress whites represented one of his greatest failures as the head of the UESF.
    “Are you at least going to look at the offer?” he asked softly. He knew he’d failed Annette Bond once. This was his chance to make it right and do right by the Space Force at the same time. If he played his cards right, the coterie of Captains who’d driven her out, undermined the Force’s research and development, and almost covered up John Bowman’s crimes wouldn’t survive the game.
    “Why?” she replied flatly. “I’m not coming back, Admiral. You don’t have enough money.”
    “Commodore of a survey flotilla?” Jean observed. “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to miss that either. Elon is supposed to be helping me, the little brat.”
    Bond glared at him in silence. Jean had been glared at by heads of state who had less weight behind their anger than she did, and he sighed.
    “You are , I should point, a Reserve Space Force officer,” he pointed out gently. “You’ve taken the deposit every month for five years; we pay that so we can recall when we need you.”
    “That’s meant for war,” she told him. “Peacetime is just a financial penalty.”
    “And one Casimir would probably pay for you,” he agreed. “Hear me out at least, Captain Bond? I’m asking . You don’t owe me anything.”
    “No,” she confirmed. “I don’t. But Casimir clearly wants me to listen, so talk.”
    She obviously had no intention of even looking at the flimsy, so Jean drew it back to himself and glanced down the text, making sure he remembered the offer correctly.
    “We both know you’d have made Captain at