A Brother's Debt by Karl Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

thugs who had attacked him in the station facilities the previous day only in the clothes he was wearing. The Grejlon and his companion had been dressed casually, while the man before him was dressed in a suit, which had the casino’s logo on the jacket pocket.
    “I’m Velkin,” Step answered.
    “Please follow me, sir; Miss Carboni has instructed me to escort you to her.”

 
    Chapter Eleven
     
     
     
    “Are you sure you know how to pilot this thing?” Crezia asked from the co-pilot’s seat.
    “Yes, it’s just a little less responsive than what I’m used to,” Step told her as he steadied Gambler’s Luck on its passage into the atmosphere of Jum Palt, the primary planet of the system Hanratty station had been built in. Not only was the cargo ship less responsive than the fighters and scout ships he was accustomed to piloting, it was slower, and had a harder time punching through to the planet’s atmosphere.
    In his fighter it would have been like slipping a needle beneath skin, and the scout ship he had flown for the Mulnoy navy would not have been much different. In the cargo ship he was piloting just then, it was like trying to push a spoon through mud.
    He had not been impressed with Gambler’s Luck from the moment he set foot on board it, less than an hour after being met in the lobby of Temptations Galore.
    From the lobby he had been taken to Crezia, who in turn took him to her father. Ettore Carboni accepted Step’s decision to take the deal being offered to him as if he had expected no other outcome from his night of contemplation. He then informed Step he already had a job for him, two jobs actually, though one was far more important than the other.
    “Sorry,” Step apologised when he landed with a heavier bump than he intended in the bay assigned to him at Mitest space port.
    Crezia gave him a look that spoke volumes, but made no comment on the landing, despite only staying in the co-pilot’s seat because the safety harness kept her there. All she said was, “I’ll be back within the hour.” She was gone before Step had even finished powering down the engine.
    While Crezia left the ship to fetch the package he was to deliver to Onegal 3, Step made his way down to the cargo bay. It didn’t take long to get there since Gambler’s Luck was not a large ship, though it was large enough that he would have preferred not to be flying it on his own. At the least he would have liked to have an engineer, someone who could keep the engine running. His one quick look in the engine room had revealed it was in serious need of maintenance and repair.
    Unfortunately for Step he couldn’t afford to hire anyone.
    He was being paid ten thousand credits to deliver the package Crezia was fetching, a price that strongly suggested the contents were either illegal, or dangerous, and probably both. He wasn’t too happy with the thought of breaking the law, but since he couldn’t change his circumstances he did his best not to think about it.
    Of the ten thousand credits, seven and a half thousand was being held back and deducted from the debt he had inherited, leaving him with two and a half thousand to cover current and future costs. One thousand credits had already been paid to him, while the remainder was to be paid upon delivery of the package to Carboni’s associate on Onegal 3.
    In addition to the payment he was receiving for that delivery he was being paid seven hundred and fifty credits for a second delivery. The second delivery was actually his first, at least in terms of when it needed to be completed. Before he reached Onegal 3 he was to detour to Barth to deliver two cargo containers of leather goods.
    The two containers, according to what he had been told by Carboni, would take up roughly half of his cargo bay. That was good news to Step since by his reckoning the profit from the two deliveries he had been given would last him no more than a month, and that would depend on how careful he was with