Star Risk - 01 Star Risk, Ltd by Chris Bunch Read Free Book Online Page A

didn't do his homework adequately. He generally hit targets that were easy and, just as important, on worlds where his punishment would be fairly light.
    "Not so on Tormal, which has some fairly barbaric laws.
    "They've quickly condemned him to death, which will be by slow strangulation.
    "He now languishes, all appeals denied, in his death cell, to be killed within the month."
    "I think I see where this is going," Riss said.
    "As do I," Grok said.
    Jasmine smiled.
    "I love working for people who are intelligent. It would seem to me that all you would have to do to win Reg's, and hence Transkootenay's, undying love and gratitude, would be to break Chas Goodnight out of prison."
    "Lovely," Baldur muttered.
    "Plus," Riss said, "you notice how it's suddenly become 'you' instead of 'us?' "
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    EIGHT � ^ � Tormal may or may not have been colonized peaceably, but at one time in its past it must have had some formidable enemies.
    The great fortress, now Tormal's maximum-security prison, sat atop a mountain crest like a great spider.
    Friedrich von Baldur looked at it dubiously as their hired lifter approached.
    "Guess we can give up the tunnel idea," he said.
    "Sssh," Jasmine King said as the com crackled on.
    "Unknown aircraft, this is Tormal Citadel," an obviously synthed voice said. "You are entering a forbidden zone. Identify yourself. Over."
    Baldur scrabbled for, found a microphone, keyed it.
    "Tormal Citadel, this is lifter, uh�" He saw the vehicle ID on the dash, read it back. "Two passengers, from Alliance Prisoners Aid, cleared by the Alliance Consulate and Tormal Corrections Authority."
    There was a pause, and Baldur busied himself with a camera as they closed on the fortress.
    "This is Tormal Citadel. Landing approved. Your controls are now under our direction. Do not attempt to make corrections, for fear of being fired on by automatic devices, now tracking your ship. Clear."
    "Very good," Baldur said with satisfaction. "Did you notice, not one single real person talked to us?"
    He smiled sharkishly.
    Jasmine looked bewildered.
    "Condemned Row�" the speaker blared. "Prisoner Goodnight, Chas. You have visitors. Cell door coming open."
    And the door to Goodnight's cell slid open. A small, wheeled robot buzzed down the aisle, stopped at his cell. A green light atop it began blinking.
    "Who's visiting me?" Goodnight wanted to know, but the robot just blinked.
    "I'll be dipped," he said, and bounded out.
    The other prisoners on Death Row came to their cell doors, which appeared to be unbarred glass, with an opening along the top.
    "Guess the real truth is coming out, boys, on just how bleedin' innocent I am," Goodnight said as he followed the robot.
    "Prob'ly gonna geek you early," someone came back.
    There were boos, some cheers, a lot of grins. Goodnight had taken care to make himself popular since he'd been condemned to death. No one who's ever been in jail makes enemies out of his fellow cons without good cause.
    The robot took him to a lift, and he dropped calamitously downward. Prisons don't much care about whether or not inmates' stomachs get unsettled.
    Death Row was on the top level of the fortress, and the prison's entrance/exit was on the ground floor.
    He was escorted by the robot into a room with a plas wall down its middle. On either side of the wall were tables and chairs. A microphone and pass-through were in the middle.
    Set unobtrusively in two walls, high up, were two monitors.
    On the far side of the wall was a silver-haired man who could have been a diplomat, and the most beautiful woman Goodnight had ever seen.
    Goodnight looked at them, and hid his disappointment. He didn't know who he would have wanted to see�maybe his brother? No. What would Chas have to say, other than confess failure to Reg? That'd be hard, since Reg had always looked up to him, he thought, even if the two were always competing.
    "I don't know