Drifters' Alliance, Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

already picture the hole accidentally punched into the cargo bay, sucking everything not bolted down out into the Dark, never to be seen again.
    Baebong has his serious look on as he gestures to the first item on his right. We could be in a boardroom full of investors, the way he’s presenting his products. “Here you’ll find a plasma ray cannon, with a range of five hundred meters and a kill diameter of five.” He pauses for me to drink in that fresh horror. “And just next to it you’ll find our de-animation blaster — I call it the de-animator.”
    “I’m afraid to ask,” I say, staring at it, hoping it doesn’t do what I think it does.
    “No need to be afraid.” Baebong grins and every single one of his teeth are showing. That’s never a good sign.
    “Unless it’s pointed at you,” Gus says, obviously very impressed and feeling quite badass. Apparently, anything invented by Baebong is now something he can claim for himself, being a fellow engineer. Not that Baebong is officially one of those. He never went to school for the things he does; he just knows this stuff like he knows how to put one foot in front of the other. He was born to do it.
    “The concept is simple,” Baebong says. “You point it at anything running electronic feeds, and it shuts it down. Interferes in the transference of signals from one point to another.”
    “It works on ships, you’re saying?”
    “Ships, stations, whatever. It might actually work on people, too, but I haven’t tested it.” He looks at Gus for several long seconds before Gus looks up and finds himself under scrutiny.
    “Hey, I ain’t no crash test dummy, man.” He points at the weapon and then backs away from the table a little. “You aren’t hitting me with that bad boy. No way. Use Rollo if you need a test dummy.”
    “Clones are expendable,” Baebong says. “No offense.”
    Tam’s mouth drops open. “Clones? You calling my brother a clone?”
    Baebong shrugs. “How else do you explain it? Two gingers? Twins? Gotta be clones. Come on, fess up. We won’t share your secret.”
    The twins look at me. “Tell him. Tell him we’re not clones.”
    I laugh. “How the hell do I know you’re not clones?”
    Tam points at his brother. “He showed you his neck.”
    I shrug. “All I saw was dirt. Like you said, he could be hiding a tattoo of a battleship on that thing.” I pause and narrow my eyes as it clicks with me. “I didn’t see you offering to show us your lack of a mark.”
    He tips his head back as he scowls. “Take a look, then.”
    I don’t see a blue cloning mark, but I do see a scar there. It looks like someone tried to cut his head off with a laser knife.
    “Damn, who hates you that much?” Baebong asks, seeing the same thing I did.
    Tam puts his head back down. “Shut up.”
    Gus lifts his hands. “Hey! Are we here to talk about weaponry or clones? Because I, for one, would prefer to get on with the process of loading these up. It’s going to take a while, and we’re going to be really vulnerable out there during the process.”
    He’s right. We can save the cloning and the someone-hates-you-enough-to-try-and-cut-your-stupid-ginger-head-off conversation for another day. “Fine. Talk to me about these other things.” I point to some flat objects resting next to some other cannon-type weapons that don’t need any special explanation; they’ve already blown some of my stuff up before.
    “Those are reflectors,” Baebong says, barely containing a smile.
    “And they reflect…?” I lift a brow, waiting for his coup de grace. He’s very proud of himself.
    “Rays. Plasma and otherwise. Bounces ‘em back.”
    I shake my head. “No way. You’re lying.” He’s trying to sell me the stuff of fairy tales. A weapon like that could revolutionize our universe. It would literally take away anyone’s firepower, making them just a transporter and nothing else. The OSG would hate it. No, not hate it … they’d confiscate it for