Vin's Rules (Outer Settlement Agency) Read Online Free

follow my lead.”
    “Why should I? You led us here,” she hissed back.
    “Fair point, but you weren’t supposed to follow. Let’s fight about who’s more right later. This place—it’s like they’ve all—”
    “Regressed?”
    He for doggone sure couldn’t think of a better way to phrase it. He was also fresh out of words to explain what waited on the other side of the wall.
    A damned paradise.
    The steel and gray of the town gave way to colorful trees that kissed against buildings and well tended mini-gardens. Buildings made of actual wood lined the streets and swinging wooden signs swayed above each door.
    A barber.
    A school.
    A woodshop.
    It was something out of an Earth History lesson, complete with women covered neck to knee in blue sheaths working in the gardens. Though none of them looked up despite the commotion caused by his and Allie’s arrival.
    Allie whipped out her omnitablet and started taking photos. She maybe got two or three before one of their guides ripped it from her hands. “Not allowed.”
    “What?”
    “Hush, Allie.”
    More freakish nods of approval from the men were thrown in his direction. Creepy as hell. Their murmurings stopped as they entered a two-storied building that looked like an old-fashioned and multi-level farmhouse.
    People milled around them, but only those dressed in tan met his gaze head on. Ladies in blue scrubbed floors cleaner than any plate he’d eaten off of. Two of the tan wearing soldiers walked with a woman dressed in green between them. She smiled. Sort of. It didn’t quite reach her eyes.
    Tan. Soldiers.
    Blue. Workers.
    Mental note: none of the people wearing tan were female.
    He was sure he’d spotted at least two males wearing blue.
    On creaking floors, they walked to a large door at the end of the hallway, where they were soon abandoned.
    “Come in.”
    Allie sucked in her bottom lip. Vin tapped his own and shook his head. “Toughen up, Ert’zod. You got this.”
    “I know.”
    And he almost didn’t hear the shake in her voice.
    “Let me do the talking.”
    “We’ll see.”
    With one last warning look, Vin stepped to the door, but it didn’t open.
    He waved his hand over the round handle.
    Nothing happened.
    “The hell?” He wiggled fingers above his head, standing on the tips of his toes, but no sensors pinged.
    A grinning Allie elbowed him and twisted the knob. “I’d remind you that we’re in an archaic house with archaic machinery, but as per your equally archaic rules, I’m not allowed to speak. After you.”
    She had spirit. Good. She’d need it for whatever came next. That she found a moment of levity in this gave him hope. They’d make it through this just fine.
    Not too much would happen.
    Probably.
    You’d have to be an idiot to harm OSA personnel on purpose. Yet the both of them would need all engines on full blast to maneuver through this strange place.
    He’d half expected a man with a crown atop his head, surrounded by a bevy of naked women on the other side of the door. Instead, he saw the epitome of normal.
    A man in simple trousers and a white shift greeted them from behind the desk. He slightly bowed and hooked his thumbs around old-fashioned suspenders. “Guests. I must say, you caused quite a stir. Welcome to Appleton. I’m Graham, a mayor of sorts. Please have a seat.”
    Vin swallowed down his shock at seeing the man hold out Allie’s chair for her.
    “Bet you weren’t expecting that, were you, ma’am?”
    Vin silently willed her to shut up and stick to the plan.
    “Can’t say that I was.”
    Damn.
    And of course, she kept on talking. She was so busy running her mouth that she probably missed what Vin found impossible not to see—the tense twitching above Graham’s left eye each time her mouth vomited the words “OSA” and “regulation.” They were fucked, and the way she was going, Graham was going in dry. 
    Graham slicked back a few of the gray strands at his temples. His fingers scratched the