The Secret Weapon by Bridget Denise Bundy Read Free Book Online Page B

cabin, and Coraset swiftly walked over to him with Rudy in tow.
    Getty was really pl ump with an unshaven, ratty, grey beard littered with the crumbs of past meals. Large blue green eyes twinkled with a sort of joy that Rudy had pictured on a certain jolly elf in red from his childhood.
    “Cora, ” the big man cheered, arms spread wide as he swept her up in a hug, causing Rudy to snicker in amusement.
    “Coraset…” she ground ed out in half-hearted annoyance. The man was far too cheery for her to ever stay mad at for long, and besides that, she was too tired to even put forth the effort.
    Getty released a long, hearty laugh, dropping Coraset onto her feet and reached out his hand to Rudy. “My name is Getty Solomon, and you are?”
    “ Rudy Remald,” he said as he gripped Getty’s thick, calloused hands.
    “Good to meet you, Rudy. ” Getty turned quickly to Coraset, pointed to Rudy with his free hand and asked, “New boyfriend?”
    “No,” Coraset and Rudy said at the same time.
    “It’ll take time, son. You’ll be with her soon enough.” He said as he threw an arm around Coraset.
    Rudy looked at Coraset, and she shook her head as she grabbed the bridge of her nose.
    “Getty, can we get going, please?” She asked impatiently.
    Motioning for the two to follow, he hastily walked towards the cab of the truck. The two entered Getty’s vehicle first and moved over so he could take his seat at the steering wheel. He shifted and turned to find his comfort, and then he buckled in.
    “ Alright, I hope you’re ready for a haul?”
    “ You are headed to Barat, right, Getty?” Rudy asked inquisitively as he crawled in the back area of the cab.
    “ Yes, sirree! I drive a load to Las Vegas at night, and in the morning, I take another load back to Barat.”
    Getty shifted his way out of the gas station and unto the empty highway. The truck’s slow roll began its steady ascension to 70 miles per hour. Coraset watched as the landscape sped by in a mixture of yellows and reds. The farther they got away from the Mojave Prison and old Baker, the better Coraset felt. Rudy’s exhaustion caught up with him, and he was asleep before they got ten miles down the road.
    Getty lit a cigar he had started the day before and settled in for the next destination of Victorville, another truck stop for the Erato Federation tractor trailers.
    He asked, “How did you end up in Baker?”
    “In a very roundabout way,” Coraset answered as she avoided eye contact.
    “ There are only three ways you can end up in Baker. You work at the Mojave Prison, you work as an Erato Federation diesel gas station attendant, or you’re a truck driver.”
    “ I think you know the answer,” Coraset remarked.
    “ Did you break out of prison?”
    “No, but I did steal something I wasn’t supposed to.”
    “I’ll turn on the computer for alerts.” Getty said as his fat fingers reached for a grey box on the dashboard. With one push of the button, a list of announcements was scrolling upward on the screen. “We’ll be able to find out something from the computer if they’re looking for you two.”
    “ Hopefully, they won’t be,” Coraset answered.
    “If they’re not, I’ll take you directly through the gate at Barat.”
    “Thank you, Getty.”
    “ So, Coraset, when was the last time you spoke to your father?” He asked as he gripped the huge steering wheel near his legs.
    “ It’s been a while, over a year and a half.”
    “When was the last time you saw him?”
    Coraset answered somberly, “The same amount of time.”
    “How did you end up in prison anyway?”
    “ I was blamed for a murder I didn’t commit.” She answered.
    “ Well, that’s strange. You were convicted of murder and not put to death? I’m not trying to be funny or anything, but that’s unusual. The Erato Federation doesn’t let those kinds of things go unpunished.”
    “ I know they don’t. I really can’t explain how I didn’t get the death penalty,