13 Degrees of Separation Read Online Free PDF

someone willing to take them off your hands!”
    “They wouldn't be sick if you'd done your job right,” George
growled. He'd been more of a pain as the trip had progressed, pissing and
moaning about the state of the animals.
    “Now look, I warned you, these here critters aren't meant to be
cooped up for long periods of time. Developing muscles need wide open spaces to
run about to stay toned and fit. They need fresh air and light, not this
artificial stuff. Same for food. You know this, you've got the records, you
know we haven't lost a single head!” Annie said with some heat, eyes flashing.
    Wendy poked her father. “Dad, knock it off,” she said in an
exasperated tone of voice. “Annie's done wonders, we haven't lost a single calf
and you know the odds of that.”
    “Yeah but still...”
    “Perfection is a nice thing, but it ain't ever going to happen.
Doesn't mean I'm going to give up trying, but I ain't going to kick my own ass
and feel sorry for myself when I ain't got there either. Just work with me
here,” Annie said. Wendy nodded and dragged her father away before he could say
anything more.
    ...*...*...*...*...
    As they transferred the pick of the herds to the port, she knew
something was going to go wrong. It never failed, always something would
happen. They'd gone on too long without something blowing up, it was building
up steam. She was tense, her expecting it was making her look over her shoulder
a lot. “This is going too smooth,” she told Ricardo, the lead hand at the
Syntia port.
    “Don't jinx it gal,” he said, shaking his blocky black manned
head. He had an off sounding voice due to the crook in his nose. It looked like
a broken nose that hadn't healed properly.
    “I've just got that feeling,” she said stubbornly. They were old
friends, they'd known each other for over thirty years.
    “Well, fortunately for you, this is the next to last shipment
going up, so just go with it.”
    “Right,” she drawled. So far everything had gone well. They'd even
found a runty white bison in the herd, it had been so dusty during boarding she'd
overlooked it. White bison were prized on some worlds for some reason. On New
Texas they were culled, their albino nature was a clue to health maladies down
the road. She'd tried to cull the little bastard, but she'd been over ruled by
the 'I know what I'm doing' Veraxin assistant cargo master. Apparently he'd
known something she hadn't and had convinced George to pay extra for the
wretched thing.
    She clenched her jaw. She'd signed on for the next leg, but the
way things were shaping up it was going to be some trip.
    “We're bound to have some trouble with the animals sometime you
know, it ain't ever gone this smooth. I mean ever ,” she said, waving a
hand to the shipment of animals in the holding pens outside of the port.
"Getting too old for this," she muttered. "Get along
there!" she called, swatted with her brown felt hat to move the beasts on.
A third of the beasts had been sold before they'd even made planet fall.
Another ten were being negotiated. George had worried about having to bring more
animals down, but there wasn't interest in the other nine animals. Of course
they were all the sickly ones. With the sun, wind, and fresh grass they were
already perking up.
    Annie knew the drill, she knew the buyers were waiting until the
ship was about ready to leave. They'd wait for the price to drop, banking on
the desperation of the crew to be rid of the animals. What they didn't know was
that another fifty head were still on board, and the ship was restocking its
provision hold to keep them in better health. George was determined to keep the
herd in good condition, going so far as to go aboveboard on the rations and
storing them who knows where. Hopefully he knew when it came time to use them.
So the nine might very well end up back on the ship if the cargo master didn't
get his price.
    An idiot local hand wanted to see the animals to show them off for
his