Destiny's Song (The Fixers, book #1: A KarmaCorp Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page B

your assignment or something, and you had to get us all to cooperate?”
    I’d punch bully girl in the nose, but since someone in charge hadn’t done that already, I had to assume she was filling a purpose. I smiled at the class in general and hummed three quick notes.
    The trainee in the back with the trills and the extra dose of Talent laughed. Everyone else stared at her or me, mystified.
    Then tats girl put a hand on her belly as stomachs all over the room growled. “The heck? You made us all hungry?”
    I grinned. And made my final point. “I stopped a ship’s mutiny that way once.” I waited for that to land. Anything can be a tool if you aim it well enough.
    I left to scattered applause, whispers, and a couple of Singer trainees trying to replicate my three notes. They were missing, but not by much.
    I grinned on my way out the door. Most of them would forget me in an hour, but a few were thinking. And one or two might remember something I said when they faced down an angry revolt or a power-hungry politico someday.
    My version of small ripples. A gift to a pond I deeply believed in.
    Not bad for an afternoon’s work.

5
    I t was totally strange having a sendoff while still travel lagged from my previous assignment. I eyed the contents of the lime-green beaker in my hand—it probably wasn’t going to help with the travel lag any.
    Sendoffs were ritual, however, and one the four of us took very seriously. You never knew when a Fixer might not return.
    I looked around at the bodies draped over gel pillows on our tiny living-space floor and grinned. If I was going to die, these were definitely the people I’d want to see last. The four of us had been tight since the first week we’d arrived. The first year of trainee school had been hell, and I’d survived purely and solely because of the lunatics who had chosen to befriend the feisty, angry, blonde-haired demon child who’d been plucked out of a mining colony and everything she’d ever known and hated every molecule of the idea that she was now KarmaCorp flotsam.
    I scowled and took a sip of my brew—whatever was in it was already making me maudlin. Being KarmaCorp flotsam had turned out to be a pretty decent gig.
    Imogene, far better known as Iggy, poked one of her toes into my thigh. “You don’t get to start brooding already, girl.”
    I moved my thigh out of her reach—Dancer toes are crazy strong. “I’m not brooding. Half my brain’s still stuck on the tin can that brought me back here.”
    “Fast turnaround, huh?” Iggy reached for a Renulian grape, her contribution to the night’s food. “That’s what you get for being the best Singer in the quadrant.”
    I amused myself by watching the artwork on her face wiggle as she talked. She and Tee had been decorating each other again. “Right. That’s why they’re sending me to make sure a couple of healthy adults get all kissyface with each other.” That was treading a fine line on the Ears Only deal, but they’d keep it quiet.
    Tee’s eyes danced. “They should have sent Iggy—she’s got the kissyface thing totally down.”
    Clearly life hadn’t stopped while I’d been gone on my last gig. “Romeo finally got his act together, did he?”
    “Nope.” Raven, our foursome’s resident Shaman, grinned as she reached for the bowl of grapes. “A new guy swooped in and stole all the action.”
    “He did not.” Iggy waggled a suggestive eyebrow. “I did the swooping, thank you very much.”
    I debated between grapes and chocolate-dipped chilies. “Man, I missed all the good stuff.” I eyed the other two of our crew. “You guys checked him out, right?”
    “Did.” Raven took one of the chocolate chilies. “He’s solid.” She grinned at her roommate. “And full of sexy energy.”
    Iggy just rolled her eyes. “Like you needed to read the airwaves to figure that out.”
    Shamans read all kinds of shit none of the rest of us understand—but if Raven thought this guy was good