Dreamer by Steven Harper Read Free Book Online Page B

Heller. Wouldn’t let us call him Ben. Whatever happened to any of them? I never heard.”
    In a split-second, nearly thirty years fell away. Claxons blared again. The eerily calm computer’s voice announced the hull breach. Benjamin shouted in frantic surprise.
    “I don’t know,” she said. “I fell out of touch.”
    The man behind Ara pointedly cleared his throat. Chin Fen took the hint.
    “Maybe we can have dinner later and catch up,” he said. “What can I help you with right now?”
    Ara drummed her fingers on the countertop. “Information. I’m selling chocolate, and I hear Rust is hurting for it.”
    “We are,” Fen said with a small laugh. “I can’t remember when I last tasted the stuff. But we don’t carry trade info here. You want the Commerce Chamber.”
    “I’m not worried about my current cargo,” Ara replied. “It’s the future I’m looking at. I have a couple of standing contracts for slaves, and I need to know more about Rust’s regulations. I tried to access the public terminals, but they won’t let me in without a code. The error message said I could get one here.”
    Although it would be relatively easy for Ben to hack into Rust’s nets again, Ara saw no point in risking arrest over information that could be gotten legitimately with proper paperwork. Best to save Ben for the high-powered stuff not available to the public.
    Fen’s face cleared. “Access codes I can help you with. I’ll just need to download your papers. And there’s a forty kesh charge.”
    “Forty kesh?” Ara yelped. “I could open my own store for that.”
    “Not on Rust,” Fen replied. “Sorry.”
    Making a big show of grumbling, Ara paid the fee and let Fen download from her computer pad the identity papers Ben had forged for her. In the interest of keeping everything simple, he had used their real first names and falsified last names.
    “I adopted my grandmother’s name after she died,” Ara breezed when Fen asked about the discrepancy. “I wanted to honor her memory.”
    “Did you ever marry?” Fen used a small scanner to verify her retina and thumb prints.
    “No.” She laughed. “Running a merchant vessel doesn’t leave time for romance.”
    “It must be more interesting than working here.” Fen’s fingers flicked over his terminal. “All set. If your crew wants access, though, they’ll each have to come down here themselves. Tell them to bring a good book.”
    “And a small fortune,” Ara groused.
    Fen leaned across the counter. “I’m supposed to go on break soon. Let’s get something to eat, hey?”
    Ara’s initial instinct was to make excuses. She’s have to watch every word she said and remember every lie she told. A moment’s thought, however, told her that this man was a friendly contact in unfriendly territory.
    “I’ll wait in the lobby,” she said.
    Chin Fen’s face lit up like a puppy in love, and suddenly Ara wasn’t so sure she’d made the right decision.

CHAPTER FOUR
    PLANET RUST, CITY IJHAN

The arm of coincidence is long indeed.
    —Silent Proverb

    Kendi Weaver wandered from stall to stall, pretending to browse and trying to keep the memories at arm’s length. Voices, colors, and smells swirled around him. He wanted to run all the way back to the Post Script. But the Silent on Unity worlds were slaves, and Kendi’s knack for worming his way into the underworld made the illegal slave market his most logical assignment.
    The black market for slaves was, as usual, hidden in the red light district. On Rust, just like elsewhere, it was easy for black marketeers to tell inquisitive authorities that their merchandise was only for rent, not sale, and to pay the fines—or bribes—for violating anti-prostitution laws. It had taken two hours to find Ijhan’s red light district and four days of “shopping” to get a feel for who was selling what. During that time, he’d picked up rent boys from three different places, thumped some illegal dermosprays, and