Death World (Undying Mercenaries Series Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

strange ones. My mom did her damnedest to keep a smile fixed upon her face. I could tell she all but wanted to shout at Della, demanding to know what she’d been thinking when she’d left her baby behind on some hellish desert planet alone. Managing to control herself, she kept her cool and worked every bit of charm she had on this newcomer who had her granddaughter’s life in her hands.
    The whole thing made me feel a bit bad. I’m not the kind of man who’s a worrier. I go with the flow most of the time, and if the world isn’t bothering me, I don’t bother it. As a case in point, the women in my life had never dominated my thoughts. I’d always floated from one to the next, not taking any relationship too seriously.
    But things had changed. Knowing I had a kid living on a rock circling a distant star was even working on my mind, I could feel it. The knowledge was affecting my parents, too.
    “So, Della,” my mom said, moving in for the kill after ten-odd minutes of beating around the bush, “what do you think about the idea of us all going out to visit the little darling?”
    While she said this, Mom stretched out a hand to pour each of us a fresh cup of coffee. I could tell Mom was nervous. Her hand shook a bit while she poured. For all that, she didn’t spill a drop.
    Della hadn’t touched her cup as she wasn’t from Earth and she thought coffee tasted like used motor oil, but that didn’t stop my mom from topping her off.
    “I think it’s workable,” Della said in a neutral tone.
    That was classic Della. Dust-Worlders weren’t the type to run around doing a happy dance when they met a friend or a relative. They were an impetuous, somewhat paranoid people. I guess they’d spent too many decades watching the sky for slave-ships to be celebratory as a group.
    Still, my mom was pleased by Della’s answer because it wasn’t a flat “no.” Mom gave us both a big smile.
    “It’s a plan then,” Mom said. “When do you think you’ll be going back?”
    “I hope to do so after the arrival ceremony at the spaceport. Legion Varus members are required to attend.”
    My mom gave me a frown. “What ceremony?”
    “I meant to tell you about that,” I said. “It must have slipped my mind. The whole legion, including Winslade’s cohort of dragons, is going to stand on the parade grounds to welcome the first freighter back from Machine World. They’re bringing in a load of titanium as I understand it—thirty thousand tons. Can you believe they got that much metal out of that mountain in a few short months?”
    “It’s the worker machines,” Della said. “They work for metal, but they mine much more than they eat. Did James tell you about them?”
    My parents gave her baffled looks. My dad leaned forward. “James likes to keep the details of his campaigns to himself.”
    Della nodded and looked at me, impressed. “Be sure, be safe,” she said, quoting a Dust-Worlder proverb. “Even at home, you keep secrets? I’m learning from you still.”
    That was the perfect example of how conversing with Della often went. She didn’t always get what we meant, and we didn’t always know what she was talking about, either.
    The real reason I’d neglected to fill in my parents on the Machine World campaign was because it had been bloody as Hell and…well…downright weird. But Della had assumed I’d stayed quiet out of a paranoid sense of caution and secrecy, as she might have done.
    I decided it was best not to correct anyone and switched the topic instead.
    “Are you guys going to go?” I asked my parents. “To the ceremony at the spaceport, I mean?”
    “We’d love to,” my mom said before my dad could do more than open his mouth. He closed it again and looked glum.
    “It will be quite a drive,” he muttered.
    “No problem at all,” Mom insisted. “Della, I didn’t see any vehicles out front…?”
    “I was given a ride by a man from Atlanta,” she said. “He repeatedly requested sexual