Prisoner of Earthside: A Novella (STRYDER'S HORIZON Book 2) by Daniel J. Kirk Read Free Book Online

think that job could’ve been pawned off on some one lower on the food chain?”
    “Well, no one is going to help me now. Everyone thinks I killed someone.”
    “They might not help you, but I know a few people who they might be willing to help. So my question is, who’s likely to let someone meet with Crisp?”
    “No one. If you’re right then they’re all suspect, right?  But I’ll do you one better. I know what floor of the Templar’s Stairs that they are keeping him on. You’d be crazy to try and break in there, but who am I kidding you look like a bat out of hell.”

11.  WINGED RATS AND WORSE
     
     
     
    The easiest way into Earthside is, of course, the most expensive. But my credits were pretty taxed by posting Alice’s bail. The second easiest wasn’t the most comfortable.  It was also pretty damn chilly if you ask me.
    Alice’s chattering teeth were louder than my own, and therefore making the trip a bit more annoying than clinging inside a cargo haul would normally be.
    The one thing Earthsiders had to have that Burnside was full of was Kirmine, a booze so potent and frilly that it could only be considered a classy way to be intoxicated. I was never a huge fan of it, but it served its purpose. Deliveries were so regular that it wasn’t long before we could sneak onboard a shipment and trespass back into Earthside.
    I didn’t bother to get permission from the company. They’d appreciate that later when they didn’t lose their distribution license. 
    I left Randall Nehalem with Gregor. Gregor was paranoid and took him elsewhere as soon as we left. Gregor, after all, was a known cohort of mine and surely the Colonial would come looking for him when they couldn’t find me.
    I was feeling like that snowball again. Ice cold with the stress of the situation growing and growing. There was a tiny voice in my head saying I could make it all work out. I could fix it. But the rest of my mind was loudly proclaiming that I was screwed.
    Alice’s teeth stopped chattering. My first thought was that she had frozen stiff. But then I realized she was trying her best to be silent. There was a new echoing sign in the cargo haul. Some one was inspecting the Kirmine.  They had soft steps, but it was hard not to miss them on the metal grates just over our head.
    Alice looked at me for permission to attack. I appreciated the thought, but I was really hoping we wouldn’t have to commit any more crimes en route to proving our innocence.
    The steps stopped.
    They had to be close, but I couldn’t get a good view. I just hoped we’d worn the appropriate attire and were blending in with the darkened pipes running beneath the cargo haul.
    The feet turned and walked straight over to where we hid. My heart raced as I bit down on my lip hoping to stop my own set of chattering teeth.
    “What is it?” asked a voice not belonging to the pair of feet overhead.
    “I thought I heard something,” the feet said.
    “Turn a blind eye, buddy. Jeff said we had rats last week. Meant to have them exterminated, but you know, they got me running double shipments. Where’s the time for that?  We aren’t due for a health inspection for another month so forget about it.”
    “Rats, I hate rats. How the hell did they follow us to this planet?”
    The steps moved away.
    Alice let out a sigh.
    A sigh like thunder.
    The metal grates above our head went completely still.
    “Air release,” said one of them.
    “I don’t think so,” said the other.
    It was so cold I thought of ending the charade and revealing myself and asking for a bath in hot cocoa. One can control a lot of things, but sometimes that one chatter of the teeth is unstoppable.
    “Rats.” He told the other one again.
    “Remember the crap they gave us when they thought the Dessup Gang was sneaking in and out of Earthside because of us?”
    “Leave it be, buddy-boy.”
    I could feel the tension swelling between the two men.
    “What are you hiding?” the suspicious