The Genius Asylum: Sic Transit Terra Book 1 by Arlene F. Marks Read Free Book Online

Hub are testing sites. As the station manager, you were going to find out about it anyway. Besides, let’s face it, we all have a snowball’s chance in hell of being recalled to Earth or reassigned, so why add stress to the situation by worrying about hypothetical threats to security? If a real one actually arose…? I’d say we’re equipped to handle it ourselves.”
    For the second time in ten minutes, Drew forgot to breathe. So the Rangers were exiled out here, just like the crew of the Hub? An image flashed before his mind’s eye of a man left stranded on a landing deck as the bay doors opened and the Meniscus Field generator kicked in. Perhaps because someone had discovered that he wasn’t a bad apple like the rest of them, and that he could, in fact, be recalled and reassigned, and therefore posed a security threat?
    The suspect list was growing by the minute. Earth Council itself might be involved; or, even worse, the Nandrians. And what about the man beside him, the patronizing lech wearing a Ranger’s uniform? Drew was reasonably certain there were no criminals on Daisy Hub. What about the bad apples on Zulu? How bent did a space cop have to be to end up there?
    “…desk boy.” Pulled back to the moment by the sound of Bonelli’s voice, Drew noticed that the Ranger was pointing at the screen of the overhead monitor. Someone was debarking from the short-hopper. It was time to return to the landing deck and meet the pilot from Daisy Hub. Bonelli had already thumbed the hatch control. The door was opening with agonizing slowness. With luck, the luggage would be transferred over quickly and they could depart Platform Zulu without delay.
    “There now, that’s better!” The voice and energetic footsteps approaching behind them belonged to Teri Mintz. No, Drew corrected himself, this was Teri Martin. Her hair now fell in thick, shining waves to her shoulders, her eyes and lips had been emphasized with makeup, and she was wearing a striking green outfit, a skirt with matching sequined vest over a filmy pale green blouse. There was sparkle all over the blouse as well. It looked like a stage costume.
    It was a stage costume. Drew cursed under his breath. A wildcat he knew he could handle, but a singing star? On Daisy Hub, where his mission was to get everyone working together as a team?
    All the way from Earth, Drew had done his level best to convince her that the showbiz phase of her life was over, that this posting was an opportunity for her to reinvent herself. Teri had listened attentively to him, frequently nodding agreement. Conning him, he now realized. Making him think he was getting through to her. And all along, she’d just been biding her time until she could make her grand entrance on Daisy Hub and be a star again.
    Bonelli turned at the sound of her voice and looked her slowly up and down, the wolfish grin on his face making Drew wish he could have brought his own sidearm along on this mission. And — was that a fresh bruise under the second Ranger’s left eye?
    “Stevie-boy!” called another voice, a rich, full-bodied female voice, from the direction of the landing deck.
    Bonelli lurched like a charging pit bull that had suddenly run out of leash. “Hey, Ruby!” he cried, making hasty repairs to his smile as he spun to greet the new arrival. “I wasn’t expecting you to come all this way yourself.”
    “I know,” she replied. Ruby McNeil was a tall, rangy woman in her late sixties, Drew guessed, with a cap of smooth gray hair, a stern mouth, and a devilish twinkle in her eyes. Not a mom so much as a mischievous grandma. She obviously had Steve Bonelli’s number, for she continued, “You figured I’d send Ozzie and Sky, and the three of you could drink and play cards for a few hours while these weary travelers cooled their heels. Sorry, kiddo. Not while one of them’s the new station manager and the other one is a woman.” Ruby paused and stared expectantly at Bonelli, who finally,