Salvaged Destiny by Lynn Rae Read Free Book Online Page B

imagine Trixie Rupti out there in the dust, toting
a bag of gear all day?” Trixie was a mutual friend, electronics officer for security,
and as Detective Chin very well knew, utterly incapable of existing without
close access to clean bathrooms and coffee bars. Chin grinned at the idea and
took another drink of his ale.
    “No. Trixie would have a blister in about ten meters and
become dehydrated in about thirty.”
    Chin grinned wickedly, enjoying a large swallow of Lazlo’s
last beer. He began to look through the ropes, coiling them as he separated
strands. “Are you going out alone?”
    “No. I hired a guide—well, actually she’s a subcontractor
with security now, so not technically my guide.” Lazlo wondered why the
detective was so interested in what he was going to be doing, but Chin was a
curious person, which was what made him a good investigator and someone from
whom Lazlo could learn a lot.
    The commander’s edict to tell no one about the real reason
he was going out weighed on Lazlo. Surely it wouldn’t be wrong to confide in a
fellow security officer. But orders were orders and Major Sekar had given him
no reason to doubt it.
    Chin flexed some titanline and grinned again. “She, huh? That
has some potential.”
    “No it doesn’t. I’m not getting involved with anyone here,
no matter…” Lazlo trailed off, not wanting to talk about how much he was
starting to like Del Browen and how he was looking forward to tomorrow for some
different reasons. Reasons that he shouldn’t. She was working for him—well, with him—and thinking about her in any personal way would not enhance the potential
for success in this mission. In fact, it would create problems and he needed
success, not another inappropriate entanglement with a woman. Even if Del Browen
was strangely fascinating in her gruff and tough way.
    “Casta, wake up!” Chin interrupted Lazlo’s musings with a
sharp voice. “What’s distracting you? Message from Serra, I bet. Still the star
of her own melodrama?” Chin was entirely unsympathetic with Lazlo’s history
with the woman. He’d heard the bare essentials about Lazlo’s situation the
first night they went out and had been very harsh in all of his subsequent
advice about the relationship. Detective Chin was a walking fount of wisdom
when it came to women, addicts, liars and abuse and rightfully so, since those
were vices he dealt with every day.
    “She’s still addicted to unhappiness and I’m sure lots of
other things,” was Lazlo’s dour update. “She messaged me again.”
    “Tell me you didn’t reply.”
    “I didn’t and I’m not going to either. That makes three
times now, Chin, so will you admit that I’m learning?”
    “Good. Now we just need you to find someone else, someone
pleasant and short-term to break you in again and you’ll be good as new.”
    “And where exactly on Sayre would I find such a woman? Everyone
here is at work or asleep,” Lazlo shot back as he started to stack the absolute
essential items next to his pack. Maybe he was the only one at this port who
spent all of his time working or sleeping. The detective always seemed to have
someone to meet later for drinks, unlike Lazlo.
    “Right. You need someone who is awake, has some free time
every few weeks and is not covered in weird fungal growths. I’ll find someone
for you, someone sweet and sexy who is looking for a big guy like you. I’m sure
there are a few women out there who prefer hulking fellows to refined specimens
such as myself.”
    * * * * *
    Yawning, Del waited for Lieutenant Casta behind a line of
date palms along the road heading south, away from the port and toward their
search area. It was early and she tried to look inconspicuous but there were
still plenty of ag bots and human workers in the fields and on the road,
continuing with work that had begun before the sun emerged that morning. The
air around her smelled of fertilizer, dust, compost and above all, living and
growing