Carnelians by Catherine Asaro Read Free Book Online Page B

barely managed to twist out from under him. Heaving in breaths, her hair straggling in her eyes, she stood there with her arms hanging at her sides. They were in the basement of one of Harindor’s “palaces” where his customers injected, inhaled, or imbibed his wares. She and Tide had been working for an hour, doing every whacked out exercise he could think of, and she’d had her fill.
    Tide straightened up, huge and looming, and grinned at her. “Getting worn out, girl?”
    “Don’t call me a girl, vomit breath,” Aliana muttered.
    “Why? You a boy?” He was amused rather than tired, which just annoyed her more.
    “Where’d you learn to fight so well?” she asked, curious despite herself.
    His smile vanished.
    “What?” she asked. It seemed a perfectly reasonable question.
    It was a moment before he responded. Finally he said, “I used to be a Razer.”
    Aliana stared at him. “Flaming crap.”
    He laughed. “That sounds unpleasant.”
    “You were secret police? For Aristos? ”
    He shrugged. “It’s nothing.”
    Like hell it was nothing. “Why aren’t you a Razer anymore? I thought it was for life.”
    “My line malfunctioned.” His face had become neutral, impossible to read. “So they decommissioned all of us.”
    Malfunctioned? It made him sound like a machine. “You mean there are more like you?”
    “I don’t know if any of the others are left. But yeah, there used to be more.”
    “How’d you malfunction?” She asked. With a smirk, she added, “You going to go psycho on me?”
    He stalked over to her. “Listen, byte-babe, shove a mesh-mole in it.”
    “A what?”
    He touched her nose. “Mesh-mole. It’s a noxious piece of code that crawls around your mesh system puking its innards all over your pristine modules, until your system is so mucked up, it can’t remember the last time you went to the crap-shack.”
    Aliana tried not to laugh, mainly because it would interfere with her attempts to glare at him. “That’s disgusting, Tide. You’re the one told me you went haywire. So what’d you do?”
    “I didn’t do anything. It was another Razer in my line. I don’t know what he did. He’s dead. All I know is his name. Hidaka. Sam Hidaka.”
    “I thought Razers didn’t have names. Just serial numbers.”
    He regarded her sourly. “That’s why my line was decommissioned.”
    “Oh. You were too human.” That was nuts. She liked him this way, not that she would ever admit it out loud. He wasn’t bad looking, either, especially with that impressive scar that ran down his left cheek. He must have taken the injury after he stopped being a Razer; otherwise the Aristo he guarded would have had the scar fixed. Aristos hated imperfection. They were gods, after all. Though if her stepfather Caul was any example of their progeny, she sure as shingles didn’t see anything godlike in what they sired.
    “You have a name,” she pointed out.
    He lifted his chin. “Damn right.”
    She knew she should be afraid of him, but had to be one of the most interesting things that had ever happened to her. A Razer! “So how come you call yourself Tidewater?”
    Now he seemed self-conscious, quite an accomplishment given that usually he looked either emotionless or ready to kill someone. “I liked the tide outside the mansion of the Highton I served. The oceans on the planet Glory are crazy like you wouldn’t believe. It’s because the planet has so many moons. I loved it when the tide came in. The waves crashed and tore up the beach.”
    He loved it. Everyone knew Razers had no emotions. No wonder they had decommissioned his line. Not that she would call an ability to act like a human being defective.
    “Listen, Tide,” she said. “I like you this way. So screw whoever decommissioned you.”
    “I thought you hated me.”
    “That too.”
    He smiled. “You’re a piece of work, Zina. But listen, don’t ever say ‘screw whoever decommissioned you.’ The decision was made by an Aristo.