Exile to the Stars (The Alarai Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page A

eyes.
    “You’ve
answered any questions I might have concerning your ability. That was a
consummate display of fencing skill, Jeff. I’m also impressed by the restraint
you showed. Given the provocation and that young woman’s presence, another man
might have seriously wounded Hathwaite or even killed him.”
    Jeff
shrugged morosely. “It hasn’t come to that yet.” He laughed bitterly and thrust
the door open. “Another night like this, and who knows?”
    Outside,
Jeff and Carl walked George to his car. As he slid inside, a chorus of wailing
sirens knifed through the rain. Jeff and Carl turned to listen, but George
looked down at the pavement and muttered, “Goddamed city.” He enabled the fuel
cell and rolled the window down. “Watch yourselves going home, fellows. This is
not a good night.”
    “We
will.” Carl patted the car’s roof. “Be cool, George.”
    “Yeah.”
    The
parking lot of an all-night restaurant near the university was busy with
vehicles entering and leaving when Carl eased the Ford into a slot. Showing
identification to the armed guards out front, they stepped into a box-like
entry. Following an electronic scan, the door snapped open.
    They
ordered a big meal and ate in exhausted silence. Watching Jeff fight, Carl
decided, had been one of the most emotionally draining experiences he could
remember. He signaled the waiter for a fresh cup of coffee and smiled crookedly.
    “One
hell of an evening, buddy.”
    “Yeah,
you could say that,” Jeff replied. “I’ve been wondering, though, whether this
is the end of it. I’ve got this feeling that something has been started, not
finished. Everything that happened tonight has a sense of the inevitable about
it. First Gado, then Sarah and Hathwaite. I must have replayed the whole thing
a dozen times, but it still comes out the same. There simply was no way to stop
that duel short of walking away.”
    “Five
years ago you could have walked away from it, Jeff. If you had done that this
evening, you might as well have kept walking right out of town.”
    “I
know that!” Jeff slapped his hand on the table in frustration. Several
customers spun in their seats to check it out, another ducked.
    A
guard sitting at the counter looked at Jeff with narrowed eyes. “Keep it quiet,
or leave.”
    “I
will,” Jeff acknowledged, and dropped his voice to an urgent whisper. “I do
know that, Carl. That’s one of the things that really irritates the hell out of
me.” He was morosely quiet for a few moments before continuing. “Nothing to be
done about it, nothing to do or to be done that would change one damn thing.”
    “Want
to talk about it?” Carl inquired while closely searching his friend’s features.
“Maybe you better. These last months, you’ve reminded me of someone about to go
over the edge.”
    “That
bad?”
    “I’m
just your average Joe Psychologist,” Carl said with an expressive shrug, “but I
get the sense that if someone poked you with the right needle—boom!”
    Jeff
grimaced and nodded. “Like tonight.”
    “No,
not like tonight. I agree with George. You showed remarkable restraint.”
    The
waiter stopped by with a carafe of coffee. He kept a wary distance from Jeff
while pouring. Taking a long drink, Jeff sat back rubbing his forehead.
    “If
showing restraint means that I didn’t kill him, then you’re right.” Shaking his
head, Jeff held his hands up as if framing a picture. “Jeff Friedrick, Cultural
Anthropologist.”
    “Yeah,
so?”
    “It
was that close. Maybe that’s the only reason I didn’t kill him. I tried to turn
my head off and do him, but my training wouldn’t let me.”
    “That’s
serious shit, Jeff.”
    “More
than serious. It scares the hell out of me just thinking about it.”
    After
a period of silence, Carl said, “And?…”
    “Twenty-seven,
Carl. Twenty-seven years old and I don’t have a clue. I used to believe that I
could make life what I wanted it to be by hard work and desire. What