Children of Scarabaeus Read Online Free PDF

to make her sleep. She lay listlessly, her mind dull as minutes and hours ticked by. She saw Finn, a lifeless body in a cryo capsule, now a coffin, his skull blackened by the bomb. Blood splatters dripping down the window.
    Her logical mind clicked back into place, overshadowing the emotional turmoil: Finn was frozen. No dripping blood.
    Could the bomb detonate when it was frozen?
    She didn’t know its specs. The Crib had put it there. No reason to believe it wouldn’t work in freezing temperatures. But the rovers had modified the bomb trigger with biocyph—circuitry that required a biological interface. It was embedded in his brain—and his brain was frozen.
    Edie yelled for help until someone finally came to see what the fuss was about.
     
    It took a few minutes for them to track down West. While she waited, Edie listened to the sounds around her. This wasa small ship, judging from the engine noise and the proximity of people passing to and fro on the other side of the screen. If not for the restraints, she would have explored it on foot.
    The scratch down West’s cheek that Edie only vaguely remembered inflicting might have had something to do with his wariness when he finally returned. She’d explained about the leash and the bomb to anyone who would listen, and somehow her garbled ranting had made it back to him in a fairly coherent form.
    “I understand you want us to turn this ship around,” West said, “and pick up an escaped convict from the Lichfield ?”
    “Yes. Right now. Before he wakes up and dies. If you don’t fetch him—”
    West shifted uncomfortably. The young man clearly did not relish the assignment he’d been given as liaison to a runaway teck.
    “This is the serf who kidnapped you from Talas Prime Station thirteen months ago?”
    Edie stared at West. Thirteen months? Assuming they’d woken her up as soon as they’d retrieved her capsule, that meant she’d been in cryo for a year. The revelation disorientated her, momentarily dislodging her thoughts of Finn.
    “You guys are slipping. It took you a whole year to track me down?”
    West grimaced. “The Peregrine ’s a border patrol vessel, ma’am. Our assignment in tracking you down, as you put it, started only nine days ago.”
    “This is a Crib vessel. Milits. You’re all the same to me. Do you know how many treaty points you contravened by crossing into Fringe space and boarding a commercial courier ship?”
    “Not something you need to worry about. We had authorization from the highest—”
    “I don’t care,” Edie interrupted. Only Finn mattered. “First of all, that serf didn’t kidnap me.” That wasn’t exactlytrue, but there were extenuating circumstances. “He was tricked by rovers into the whole thing. And second, if you don’t bring him back here alive, I won’t cooperate. I know Natesa’s plans for me and I won’t do it. If you force me, I’ll sabotage everything.” She’d done as much once before, for what now seemed like a far more trivial reason.
    “You can’t expect the captain to turn this ship around and waste ten hours for a serf. He’s dead either way, you know.”
    Edie stilled, her blood pounding in her ears. West was right. She was safe in Crib hands because they needed her. No one needed Finn or cared about his fate. He’d be charged with kidnapping, or escaping at the very least, and shot.
    And refusing to cooperate with Natesa probably meant little to West. It was likely he knew nothing about Project Ardra, anyway.
    “Let me speak with the captain.”
    “Uh—no, ma’am. That’s not going to happen.”
    “Then let me speak to Natesa.” She could hear the defeat in her voice.
    “That I can arrange. As a matter of fact, she’s been requesting permission to speak with you ever since we informed CCU of your recapture.”
    The acronym sent a shiver down Edie’s spine. The Crib Colonial Unit had been Edie’s self-appointed benefactor since she was ten years old, her employer since