Thrill-Kinky Read Online Free

Marl.
    It wasn’t making immediate efforts to gain on them, but hey, someone who had jewels worth stealing could afford a Fiero and personal security. And why else would Mr. or Ms. Rich be in the industrial park during a planetwide holiday, when only hospitality grunts, unlucky cops and off-worlders on a deadline were at work?
    Maybe an unlucky upper-management type stuck having a holo-conference with someone off-planet?
    She turned randomly to test this hopeful theory.
    The Fiero followed.
    Double marl.
    She pushed the floater’s speed up a notch and turned down an alley. It would have been fun, she thought, under other circumstances, pushing the floater’s limits this way.
    Actually, she admitted to herself, it was fun now. Insane, scary and stupid—but fun. The kind of adventure that had lured her into being a spacer in the first place, and then convinced her to join the Malcolm instead of one of the established, steady cargo or passenger lines.
    “It’s not just the police interested in you, is it?” she said.
    “Not exactly. No.” Good work. He had answered the question she’d asked, just evaded giving any actual information.
    Handsome or not, hurt or not, amazingly good kisser or not, that was annoying. “Who the hell are you anyway?”
    “Drax Jalricki, at your service, although at the moment you’re more at my service. Thank you again.”
    She had to learn to ask more precise questions, because she’d really meant, “What have you done to get into so much trouble with the locals?” But at least she had a name for her gorgeous maybe-criminal. Drax Jalricki. “Rita Anteres. Ship’s mechanic and back-up pilot on the independent freighter Malcolm . Plus whatever else the captain needs me to do—we have a small crew. Today, for instance, I was collecting cargo.”
    The Fiero, unfortunately, had caught up with them again. Apparently realizing it had been spotted, it was no longer content to hold back and follow. It was pushing its speed, trying to gain on the floater. And of course, succeeding, because floaters were designed to, well, float, towing loads at low speed, and Fieros were top-of-the-line sport models.
    “Dump the slag!” Drax barked.
    “And lose the most lucrative contract we’ve had in eons? No marling way!”
    Something whizzed past them.
    Wonderful. Now they were being shot at. This day just kept getting more like an overblown, holo crime-drama. Exciting to watch. A little too exciting to experience firsthand. They were still out of range of the Fiero-occupants’ guns, but not by much.
    “Dump the slag,” Drax urged again. “It’s just going to be recycled, right? Someone will clean it up.”
    “The Blemondians are paying us about a bazillion credits for this slag, but only if they get the full load by tonight.”
    Drax grabbed her wrist. “Blemondians? Who?”
    She shrugged. Drax was obviously agitated, but between trying to make a fully laden floater respond like a sport flyer, dodging laserpistol shots, and watching to see if anyone was playing sniper on a rooftop or otherwise joining in the fun, she couldn’t spare a lot of synapses for him. “Captain made the deal. He said it was two Blemondian business types, a man and a woman, and a San’balese woman who didn’t talk much. Mik figured she was a rent-a-bodyguard in case the deal went south. I know the male Blemondian was good-looking and buff for a suit, because that’s the kind of thing my captain reports on, not their names or anything useful .”
    “Any idea why they’re paying so much for industrial by-products that obviously aren’t in short supply?”
    “Wondered about that myself, but they said they’d pay a premium because they needed to get their shipment loaded up and off-planet during Kenu Aram and local workers wouldn’t do it. They’re doing a big push with those new neurorelays, I guess.”
    Drax cursed. Funny how curses were instantly recognizable as curses, even if you didn’t know the language.