Redoubtable by Mike Shepherd Read Free Book Online Page B

truck cab between himself and Kris’s Marines. Did he really think something that thin would do him any good if it came to a fight? Now he was talking to a cluster of youth.
    Kris was about to order a nano spy over to get a listen when one kid pulled his dirty white shirt over his head and started trotting toward Kris’s battle line. Every couple of steps, the shirt got waved.
    “I think they want to talk,” Kris said.

6
    The youth stopped halfway between Kris and the boss man’s truck. He squatted down, occasionally gave the shirt a wave . . . and waited.
    “Looks like they insist we meet them halfway,” Kris said.
    “You are not going out there,” Jack said, and moved to put himself between Kris and any chance of her going farther down the road.
    “I had no intentions of doing so,” Kris answered.
    “Besides,” Penny slipped in, “princesses do not negotiate with street urchins. It’s unseemly.”
    “Thank you, Miss Protocol,” Kris said.
    “She does have a point,” Jack insisted.
    “Who do we send?” Kris asked.
    “How about me?” Sergeant Bruce said on Nelly net. “After all, I work for a living. No skin off my nose talking to a kid.”
    “You listening in on us now, Sergeant?” Captain Jack Montoya asked with a bit of sharpness underlying his voice.
    “No, but I think Chesty is, and he brought me up to speed when it looked like you needed the helping hand of a workingman.”
    “Nelly?” Kris said.
    “My kids are curious. They can keep track of a lot more than you humans can,” the computer said with one of Abby’s sniffs.
    “You’ve got the computer,” Kris said to the Marine sergeant. “Use it as you see fit.”
    “But don’t let your skipper fall out of the loop,” Jack said in defense of the chain of command.
    “And you be careful,” Abby put in from orbit, proving that Jack and Kris’s conversation had a whole lot of gawkers following it.
    “I will, honey. Now, Captain, would you mind putting a request in to Lieutenant Stubben about me and your assignment.”
    “Ain’t it the truth. The poor working boss is always the last to know,” Jack said.
    “You could give him an upgraded computer,” Nelly suggested.
    “No way,” came in unison, from both live and on net.
    In the back of Kris’s head, Nelly felt very poutish. Kris left her to stew in her own computing juices.
    Jack said a few words. Lieutenant Stubben said a few words. Then Sergeant Bruce said a lot of words. Some were directed at his LT, accepting his assignment. Others were to his squad, arranging for a corporal to take over. Finally, he spoke to his fellow sergeants as he passed through their sections of the line on his way to the road.
    “You mind if I take a bag of biscuits?” he asked as he reached Kris’s team. “That kid out there looks way past hungry.”
    “Might put him in the mood to listen to us,” Kris said. The sergeant drew a bag of famine rations from the pushcarts that had come up behind Kris. He slung it through his web gear, made sure it did not interfere with the swing of his rifle, and ambled out to meet the kid.
    The youngster kept squatting in the dust until the sergeant paused ten meters from him. Then he stood up. He couldn’t take his eyes from the biscuit sack, but he had his script, and he remembered it.
    “The boss says for you to get out of here,” the youth shouted, waving a hand for emphasis. Sergeant Bruce sent back a high-res picture of the kid as he talked. Kris got to look at every lick he gave of his dry lips. Every time his pupils expanded or contracted, Kris got the picture. And the running commentary from Penny and her Mimzy.
    THIS KID IS SCARED. SCARED AND STARVED. READING HIM WILL NOT BE EASY. IT IS VERY LIKELY HE BELIEVES WHAT HE IS SAYING, Mimzy reported.
    “The boss says that this is none of your business. This is none of Kris Longknife of Wardhaven’s business. This is Greenfeld internal affairs. Buzz out. You ain’t wanted.”
    THE KID BELIEVES ALL