Satan's Forge (Star Sojourner Book 5) by Jean Kilczer Read Free Book Online Page B

and swung a leg over the bike. “Coming?”
    I shrugged. “Why not?”
    I found out why not when she slammed open the throttle and the bike leaped ahead like a racehorse out of the gate. If it wasn't for the gear bag and tank behind me I would've been left on the pier.
    I made a grab for her and found that I had a handful of breasts. “Sorry. Excuse me.” I lowered my hands to hug her narrow waist, and felt her chuckle.
The little bitch,
I thought. She'd done it on purpose. She wanted me to hold her. Turned out, I didn't mind so much.
    * * *
    A light drizzle shined the cobblestone boulevard, crowded now with night traffic, and reflected the street lights. I waited by the bike while Sophia went into the Roman Forum to sell her crusties. I turned up my collar and trotted to an overhang on the building's passageway. I was in shadows when a Love Mine patrol car cruised by. Before I could get to a doorway, their spotlight swept by and pinned me in its glare.
    “Shit!” I froze, there among strolling Terrans and aliens. It's harder to see an object when it's still. The light swung past me and I ran to the bike. The light swung back. I jumped on the bike and started it. This time the light nailed me. I leaned forward and cracked on the throttle.
    “Stop!” I heard the patrol car's speaker demand as I tore down the boulevard between vehicles in heavy traffic. “Stop or I'll shoot!”
    I flattened over the tank as a hot beam of light flashed above the surrounding vehicles. Behind me sirens wailed. Vehicles swerved to open a path for the pursuing patrol car. I heard a crash of metal and emergency alarms as two vehicles collided.
    The street was littered with paper cups and plates. I avoided them as I leaned into a right-hand turn around a corner and down a lit walk between shops. The stones were slick with rain. People leaped aside as I tore by.
    The bike's left foot peg hooked a string of lights from a stall of melons. The bike wobbled as lights dragged behind me. Smashed bulbs flew out from under the back tire like a spray of broken, colored flowers. Melons rolled. I heard the flimsy stall crash down amid screams. I kicked off the strand of lights around the foot peg and raced through the walk between stalls.
    A Kubraen with a pushcart tried to get it out of the way, then left it with a shout and ran, his straw hat caught by a breeze.
    I gripped the handlebars tighter as the front tire clipped the cart and sent it spinning under an umbrella of cheese mounds that spun out like missiles. The Kubraen cursed. I gritted my teeth as the bike's back wheel fishtailed, but the gyro kicked in and the bike steadied.
    I headed for a dark alley at the end of the marketplace and slowed to turn into it.
    “Dammit!” The headlight picked up a dead end.
    I skidded the bike around, and tore back out as people ran to watch. They backed away as I raced onto the walk and turned left, toward a deserted warehouse area.
    What was that?
    The whine of an engine, and lights sweeping the ground from above.
    Hovairs! Two of them. They paced me as I raced out onto a sandy ledge overlooking the ocean. The road bike skidded through soft sand and I turned onto a gravel road, not knowing what was ahead. The hovairs lowered. “Jules!” a speaker called. “Give it up now and live!”
    “Fuck you, crotemunger!” I called back and tore down the road between tall, stark buildings.
    No way to go but ahead.
    But ahead, a wire fence. And no way to break through it. To my right, the ground sloped up into a dune, high above the fence. I skidded the bike through the soft sand of the dune as I turned it to face the fence, and cracked on the throttle, full bore. I lifted off the seat as the bike vibrated with a surge of power. Wheels threw a fantail of sand as I approached the fence.
    Then I was sailing through the air. The bike whined. The back tire spun. I saw the fence rise up to meet me. I wasn't going to make it!
    The bike crashed, breaking wire strands and