The Englor Affair by J.L. Langley Read Free Book Online Page A

deciphering the message Trouble had confiscated. His brain hurt.
    At least he hadn’t had to worry about the personnel on the base seeing what he was up to. His desk faced the door, with his computer out of eyeshot to anyone unless they came into the office and stepped up behind him. There wasn’t even a window at his back that he had to worry about—it was to his side at the end of the office—so he’d elected to www.samhainpublishing.com 37

    J.L. Langley
    leave his door open hoping to pick up on some gossip. Unfortunately, he also spent the time before lunch pretending not to notice all the impressive men in uniform passing his open door. It was hard not to wonder about every one of them. Did they think his genetic makeup perverse? How many of them pretended to be fine with Nate but really weren’t?
    He shook himself out of his musings and got back to work. They knew Caldwell was an IN spy, thanks to Nate. If Payton could get into the Intelligence files, he might be able to see what Caldwell—or whatever his name really was—was doing on Regelence.
    It was twelve fifty and Nate wasn’t back yet. If it weren’t for feeling so out of place among the musclebound, studly men, he’d go get his own lunch. He was getting a headache and his stomach was rumbling.
    It was almost humorous. Here he was without a chaperone with all these super masculine men and not a one of them would want him. Not that he had any intention of compromising himself—he had been raised better than that—but even if he wanted to it wasn’t likely to happen. He was having a hard time not gawking since he’d always had a liking for large men and men in uniform in particular. Hell, he’d been raised to have a preference for men in uniform. It was in his DNA, just as it was all the other lords on Regelence. It was disconcerting to say the least. He’d never had to hide who he was.
    Even on Regelence he’d been allowed to admire from a distance, with a chaperone of course. Now he understood why he wasn’t assigned a chaperone here. He didn’t need one.
    Shaking himself out of his musings, Payton changed screens. While the program he’d designed continued to mask his presence and get into the Intelligence office, he’d copy surveillance vids and dog-tag registries to his com-pad. In the files was everything he could possibly want to know about everyone on the base, including their working hours and what they did. Every building had a registry which automatically tallied military personnel’s presence by their dog tag. The program he’d set up to retrieve messages while he was still on the Lady Anna had turned up nothing. He’d yet to find any messages to Colonel Hollister, but he wasn’t giving up. Maybe he’d find something 38
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    The Englor Affair
    out by watching surveillance videos. At the very least he should be able to find Nate on the videos from this morning and see what Colonel Hollister looked like.
    When he typed in “S”, several S names popped up. The “I” narrowed it down further, Sidell, Silsby and several Simon’s. There were about twenty of them. Dust, Simon was a popular name on Englor. He finished typing in the “M”, “O” and “N”, then scrolled down to the H’s he found Hollister in the building registries. Several buildings popped up. The mess hall, the Englor Marine building, the gym. Oddly, the building where the officer’s quarters were located wasn’t one of them. According to the registry, the Englor Marine office building and the gym were the two places the colonel frequented the most. Perhaps a trip to the gym was in order. Galaxy knew Payton could use the exercise.
    “At ease.” Nate’s voice drifted into the office.
    Payton glanced up to see Nate coming his way. He started to stand, but Nate shook his head and closed the door behind him, looking around the room.
    Payton grinned, knowing exactly what his brother-in-law was asking. “There is no video or audio