Conviction Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t check in, he either waits or starts searching. What happens then is well beyond the boundaries of any plan we could conceive of at this point.
    “Aly,” he comments, “maybe it’s best if we all go. Getting split up could just make things harder.”
    “I hear what you’re saying, but this ship is the only collateral we have. If someone isn’t here to guard it, we’re fucked.”
    “We could be fucked either way.”
    He lowers us into the patch of shadow beneath several spires of rust-red rock that rise a hundred meters or so from the ground. By the time the landing gear clunks down, Soltznin has her own equipment tight and right.
    “Just guard it the best you can,” I say. “See you soon, brother.”

    On our walk to Iron Downs, I’m encouraged by the sight of a landing field with at least fifteen spacecraft docked on different tarmacs or simply on the earth, from transports to intra-planet hops. This is one of the most frequented non-citizen trading ports in the quadrant, and I’m sure we’ll be able to take our pick of hooligans willing to deal in contraband goods like the Hammer ’s shuttle. The Obal planets’ laws are only applicable when someone, usually someone in a sharp suit and with a lot of armed backup, is here to enforce them. The non-cits of the Algol system make their own laws and are very, very inventive when it comes to enforcement.
    “Soltznin, how much time have you spent planet-side since you’ve been in the Corps?”
    “Maybe half my term.”
    “Good, so you’re familiar with this type of trader’s post.”
    “You don’t have to worry about me, Erikson. I think our biggest concern will be making sure we don’t get grabbed by any slavers. Dramma Sdutti doesn’t have a reputation for tolerating the type, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t around. They’d be disguised as merchants or smugglers of trade goods, not necessarily out to buy hot Corps ships, so we shouldn’t have too much trouble avoiding them.”
    She delivers the comments in a dry tone that I have a hard time reading. Maybe she doesn’t appreciate the implication that I’m questioning her judgment, but I relax a little anyway, knowing she’s not going to need her hand held. My six years of active combat duty have put me in the mix with locals, both citizen and non-citizen, enough times to have learned quickly how to judge friend or foe. But, more importantly, I’ve learned a little about the criminal enterprise side of things, so I’m confident— enough —that I can interpret the language, both verbal and non, used by the black marketers we need to find. Still, a faraway voice in my head is telling me I should have gone into spook ops and learned the arts of integration and lying instead of navigation and infantry when I’d had the chance. Unfortunately, subtlety has never been my strong trait.
    The outpost is a small city, which by my estimate and based on the limited information found in the evac craft’s reference database has a fluctuating population averaging around five thousand inhabitants. Most of the buildings are constructed from the local stone, few rising more than two stories, and generally topped by domed roofs. An abundant aquifer of mineral-heavy water lies beneath it, providing the basis for the location, but the area doesn’t have any other appealing features that I can see. People come and go to pick up or drop off whatever’s profitable, but few put down roots. This transient lifestyle, more than anything else, will help us blend in as just another couple of here-today–gone-tomorrowers.
    That is, once we get out of these uniforms.
    Between what David, Soltznin, and I had in our pockets, we may have just enough currency to make that possible. As she and I step into the city proper, I experience the first real moment of relief since the Hammer ’s explosion. Vendors, many hawking simple, cheap textiles and clothes, dot the main thoroughfare linking the northern and southern