Lana's Comet (Outer Settlement Agency) by Lyn Brittan Read Free Book Online

dots on the screen, there was just the one – Lana’s.
    Lana peered over. “She ripped her chip out?”
    “Not unless she did it in the last three seconds.”
    “I wouldn’t put it past her.”
    He threw up his hands in total fucking surrender. “I’m done. We’re heading back to base.”
    “But I didn’t get the tablet yet.”
    “Have you seen an OSA prison? I’ll add it to your training rotation.”
    “But we’re already here. We might as well get what we came for.”
    “We? I got what I came for. Now, you want me, an OSA training officer to walk into a criminal’s den—”
    Lana crossed her arms and shifted from one foot to the other. A half smile crossed her face, then a few of her fingers wiggled from side to side. “On the scale of complicity, I’d say you’re already screwed.”
    “Sonofabitch.” The missing girl had to be reported – security had been the one to alert him in the first place. That would lead to questions about Lana and a report on... damn. “Give me your omnitablet.”
    “Why?”
    He didn’t answer other than an outstretched hand and wiggling fingers. When he got it, he stacked his atop hers and shoved them in the branches of one of the synthetic trees so popular in the area. Its color shifted to a muted orange – a strange thing trees of Earth were said to do. Why they didn’t retro terraform the whole damned planet he’d never know.
    “I never figured you one for nature.”
    “I’m not,” he said, stepping back to look at his handiwork. “If it goes south, they can at least track these.”
    “Can’t they track us the same way you tracked me?”
    “As recently discovered, there are ways around it; in which case they’d need these to identify the pieces. I’ve timed a message to my brother. If I’m not here to counter it, they’ll send the cavalry.”
    “It won’t come to that.”
    “Hope you’re right.”
    “C’mon. Let’s finish the deal and get the hell out of here.”

Chapter Seven
    ––––––––
    H ow to tell him that she had no clue what to do next? Her sole contribution to the plan was to provide hard currency, while Michi handled the rest. The girl had an ex in the business willing to help, but that was the extent of what Michi let pass her lips. Even the place where this exchange was meant to go down hadn’t been revealed. But they’d come too far to turn back. She wasn’t expecting a flashing sign or anything, but if they kept going, they ought to run across something . How many shady omnitablet dealers could there be in one quadrant? “I think it’s this way.”
    “You think?”
    And then there was him. Twice now, chance had granted him the opportunity to ruin her scheme and yet twice, he had – he was – helping her out. “Why are you doing this?”
    “If what you’re saying is true, Lana, it is a threat to OSA,” he said, without a hint of inflection in his voice.
    He didn’t give to blinks about her, just his job. It didn’t shock her, but she couldn’t deny the twinge of disappointment either. A partner, a true one, would have made this a lot easier. But at least she knew where he stood now. This whole Meash mess had taught her one thing – words meant nothing. Only motivation could tell where something would lead. If she stayed on the right side of OSA, she’d have his support. He wouldn’t share this information and that had to be enough. Cyprus was the type of guy to make sure everything was in order, every record triple checked, least he embarrass himself. And in the big view on things, that was all very much needed and for the best.
    “Michi planned to go inside. She never asked why I needed the omnitablet, but she was adamant that I shouldn’t risk being caught on their surveillance. Since she was leaving anyway, she didn’t mind being recorded. What will you tell them back at command?”
    That he didn’t answer should’ve been a heads up. The man had a snarky response to everything. All the time.