Star Risk - 03 The Doublecross Program by Chris Bunch Read Free Book Online

about sixty hours per local week. You need more time off."
    "Sixty hours is what's on the clock, about right," Ells said. "They get pissy when we bill what we really do."
    "That'll change," King said. "From now on, straight time bills� or we can flip you all to salary."
    "Salary," the man said in wonderment. "Just like the sojer boys and girls what wear the pretty suits with all the rank. My, my. I'll have to talk to my people."
    "Get back to me," King said. "Now, a question, or maybe the start of questions. What's your biggest complaint about the Khelat?"
    "Well, they're likable enough. But they're rock stubborn. And, well, I can't say they're lazy. But they seem to have the opinion that some god decided they didn't have to work. Especially not when it comes to manual labor.
    "Which is why my team's so damned big. We're supposed to be training them to do their own wrenching, their own electronics design and such� But we're the boys and girls who do the work, most times. And if there's any kind of error, and one of us is anywhere close, it's our fault.
    "They're brave enough, I suppose. As long as things are going their way, and then it's fanny bar the door and get out from under the bugout.
    "Or so I've been told. I keep myself away from what should be called the front lines. Not that there's been a whole lot of real fighting in the year I've been on this contract."
    Jasmine nodded slowly.
    "I just wanted to show up, introduce myself, and give you a new indent number for anything you need� And I'm a hell of a system analyst, I should warn you."
    "Lady� sorry� I've never padded a contract. At least not yet. Although these Khelat have made me think about it."
    "Very well," Friedrich von Baldur said. "We have rid ourselves of the deadwood and figured out, tentatively, who we'll be keeping."
    The team had taken up quarters, at least temporarily, in a wing of the Rafar Arms.
    "I might add that Jasmine has discovered our contract cuts almost equal what we're charging these Khelat, so that should make them happy.
    "It appears that it is now time to show our employers that we have another set of teeth. We should be committing to something a bit spectacular, somewhat lethal, and, needless to say, not purposelessly hazardous.
    "And then it shall be time to hire some competent underlings of our own."
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    EIGHT � ^ � Target, target, gimme a stinking target," Riss chanted as she scanned the seven lit screens set up in the hotel suite.
    "I'm having trouble believing this," King said. "The Khelat have been at war with the Shaoki for at least five generations, so you think they'd keep close tabs on their enemies, right? Wrong. I can't find anything that looks interesting to take out that'll irk the Shaoki and knock the socks off the Khelat that's not based on data at least five E-years old. Even here in the outback, people move their assets around� especially once they've been scoped."
    "Lemme see the old stuff," Riss asked.
    "Well� up there, screen C� I'll throw this up."
    The holo snowed a rather ornate building, block-wide, in the center of a city.
    "This is a still of a high-speed run a recon ship made just about five years ago in the Shaoki III system on the fourth world, which is Irdis, the Shaoki capital, over the planet's second city, and military capital, Berfan."
    King touched buttons.
    "If you look carefully, you can see two antiaircraft sites on the roof� Plus down here, on all four corners, armored lifters on standby, which suggests a possible target of importance."
    She keyed another sensor, and the recon's record ran, blurring passage over a very large city with towering buildings.
    "The Shaoki build close together," King added as an aside. "Not nearly as much money as the Khelat. Or maybe they're just friendlier.
    "That recon ship had a Khelat pilot, but I suspect he was the front man and some for-hire sort was the real