The Kassa Gambit by M. C. Planck Read Free Book Online Page B

clumsily through the snow.
    But she slipped out of the lock, alert and aware, her eyes scanning the horizon carefully, looking up to make sure nothing had crept onto the ship above them.
    As tired as he was, he found himself grinning. They should have hired a better actress. Instead, they’d sent a special operative to make sure he did whatever it was the League wanted him to do out here. She was good at her job; too good. She’d given herself away with her industrial-strength wariness, the trained habits of the professionally suspicious.
    He’d do whatever they wanted, play his part to the hilt. He had to: she wouldn’t let him get away with anything less. He just hoped that they wanted something other than him dead.
    Gripping the mag rifle, he reflexively glanced at the magazine indicator, checking it again.
    They spread out into a short line and struggled ahead. She’d given the handheld locator to Jorgun, so they all followed his lead. At first Kyle had thought that was rather coldhearted of her to put the dumb guy in front. But now he saw why. Following him, she could watch over him while still searching for any threat. If he was behind her, trying to keep track of him would just be a distraction.
    She managed her crew like a well-trained team. Which surprised him, given that they clearly weren’t operatives themselves. The big one might be putting on an act, pretending to be stupid, but the other one, Melvin, was just plain clueless. Nobody could act that vacuous.
    Jorgun was going too fast. The giant plowed through the snow, his eyes locked on his locator unit, unaware that no one could keep up. Kyle flipped up his faceplate to yell at him, but the wind whistled in and drowned his shout. He pushed harder against the snow, but the giant was leaving them behind.
    Kyle started thinking about breaking radio silence. It would be better than losing anyone out here in this blizzard. The suits were rated for the cold of space, but that was when they were insulated by the vacuum. He could feel his feet going numb as the clinging snow leached the heat out. A few hours out here would be fatal.
    Something flew past him. Instinctively he dropped, spinning to see where it had come from, bringing the rifle to his shoulder.
    Prudence was making another snowball. She glanced at him curiously before throwing it. This time her aim was better, and it hit Jorgun in the back of the head.
    The giant turned around, and Prudence made a very simple hand signal. Kyle could guess it meant “slow.”
    It was too simple. No operative would have such an obvious combat signal. No self-respecting soldier would have charged off without checking on the rest of his team in the first place. It was almost like they were just ordinary people, just a ragtag crew under a young but fiercely determined captain.
    Kyle had not survived this long by taking things at face value. There was always a hidden catch, always another angle. There had been a time when he trusted people, but then he’d become a cop. Now he just assumed the hook was there, and didn’t stop searching until he found it. So far, he’d never been disappointed.
    He looked back reflexively, checking behind, and froze. They couldn’t have gone more than fifty meters, but the ship was already hidden in white-flecked gray emptiness.
    Rapping the rifle against his helmet made a metallic clink that carried through the wind. Prudence heard, glancing over to see what his problem was. Pointing the way they had come, he shrugged a question.
    She waved a hand, dismissing his fear, and kept moving.
    Damn, but she was a cool one.
    Up ahead, Jorgun had stopped. He stood like a tree, the most visible element in the landscape. Melvin floundered up to him and stopped, at the edge of a crater, staring down.
    Prudence came close enough to touch helmets, the old spacer’s trick. He could hear her through the vibration of her faceplate on his. “Looks like they found something.”
    Even through the