Close Contact by Katherine Allred Read Free Book Online

so I had no idea what she planned to do with it, except gloat like a miser over his gold.
    “Are you ready?” Lillith’s question interrupted my attempts to forget we’d reached Madrea and I was about to be dumped in the mountains, in the dark, surrounded on all sides by raw, uninhibited nature. Let’s face it. Being created for the Department of Protocol and raised in a crèche with other GEPs of the same bent just doesn’t prepare a gal for this kind of thing.
    “No. Not that it makes any difference.” I gave my image one last glance in the mirror. Not bad, if I did say so. The pale beige skirt was just thin enough to give a hint of legs and just thick enough to conceal all the pertinent parts, including a close-fitting weapon sheath attached to my calf. The material swirled around my ankles every time I moved, soft and sexy.
    A wide, lemon-yellow belt of soft leather nestled low on my hips, showing off my belly button and stomach. The silky halter top matched my belt, and also served to hide the Imadei, which I’d tucked beneath the silk. It nestled between my breasts, a warm, living stone. The gold bangles on my arms and ears jingled when I walked.
    “Are you absolutely certain they don’t have the technology to spot your landing?” I asked Lillith.
    “I’m sure. Remember, the original colonists signed a charter shunning any form of technology they couldn’t make with their own hands. They wanted a strictly agricultural world. Now the king keeps all the Federation’s toys away from Madrea, so there’s no detection equipment capable of spotting me. The only ships that land here belong to the black-market scum whose main business involves selling information. And even the black marketeers are few, since they have to get by the Federation outposts without being stopped and searched. The only way to get close is to jump right into the system the way I did, which is very dangerous for ships that don’t have an artificial intelligence in control. Most black marketeers can’t afford AI ships. But to be safe,I just did a scan and there are no ships currently in the area, so no detectors.”
    Suppressing a shudder of anxiety, I picked up the artificially aged leather pouch from my bed and tossed a cloak over my arm. “If there are no detection devices, why can’t you drop me closer to the city?”
    “Because, even with my lights off, there’s too much risk of someone seeing me closer to the city. I’ve scanned the area where I’ll drop you and there’s no one around. It’s not that far a walk, so stop griping.”
    “What if I get lost?” I made my way to the command deck with Peri following. “Seriously, one tree looks pretty much like another to me.”
    “I’ll be right above you in a geosynchronous orbit, tracking you through your transmitter chip. If you start going the wrong way, I’ll tell you.”
    Nervously I lifted a hand to touch the tiny scar behind my right ear. This particular type of chip was nothing like the biochip used as ID on Centaurius. This one had been implanted shortly after Alien Affairs bought my indenture, and it served as a voice transmitter, receiver, and tracking device for my ship. I’d been heavily trained in its use. Learning to communicate through subvocalization had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done, but now I was thrilled I’d mastered the ability. Being able to talk to Lillith without anyone knowing gave me a sense of security. Sort of.
    At least it would allow her to locate my cold, lifeless body when some huge beast had me for breakfast. Or a small beast. Or a bug.
    “What if my chip breaks?” I fretted.
    “Echo, it’s not going to break. It’s too small to break. And if it were going to fail, it would have done so long before now.”
    “If I die, it’s your fault,” I muttered.
    “I’ve handled first-time agents in conditions a lot worse than this and they survived to tell about the experience. Besides, you’re a Gertz GEP. The only way