Fatal Blade (Decker's War#3) Read Online Free PDF

targeting sensors, just for shits and giggles?”
    “That’s probably not a very good idea.  We might show that we’re stronger than we look.”  She glanced at her screen.  “Besides, we’ll be jumping out sooner than you might think.”
    “Aren’t we still twenty or thirty minutes away from the hyperlimit, even in this little tub?”
    “Only if we follow Navy rules.  You can jump a lot closer to a gravity well than is generally assumed but it’ll take years of usable service off a ship’s lifespan if you do it too often.  We don’t have to follow those rules.  The sloop behind us does, and only a life or death situation would warrant breaking them.”
    “They’re becoming insistent,” he said, “but I get the feeling they’re not really trying hard to catch us.  Their rate of acceleration is pretty anemic.”
    “Ah.”  Her face lit up with understanding.  “A little misdirection then: anyone watching will assume we’re not exactly honest if the Navy takes too great an interest.”
    “I hope that you’re right.”  His jaw clenched.  “They just fired two rounds, and they’ll graze us enough to feel real.”
    Bright balls of plasma streaked by on the starboard side and a voice on the radio warned them that the next shots would be aimed at their engines.
    “A few more seconds,” Talyn said, “though we’re still a tad closer than I like.”
    “In that case, keep your hand right on the controls, ready to punch it in.  The moment I see their gun barrels begin to glow again, we need to be out of here.”
    “You sound a little stressed, Zack.”
    “I have a healthy dose of paranoia to work with, and I don’t like being shot at, sham or no sham.  The last time I was on the receiving end of a few salvos, my life went to hell.”
    “Understood,” she replied, remembering the chain of events that had brought Decker back into the Corps as an intelligence operative.  “But the Navy won’t sell you into slavery, you know.”
    “I’m already in a state of servitude, thanks to you, what with my involuntary recall to active duty.”
    “And here I thought you were happy.  Goes to show you how ungrateful some folks are, eh, chief warrant officer?”
    “Was I complaining, commander, sir?  No.  I was merely stating a fact.  And they just fired again.”
    Talyn’s hand came down, and the universe went sideways, forcing Decker’s stomach in the opposite direction.
    “Tell me I didn’t just break something,” she said once the jump nausea had passed.
    “Nope,” he said a few moments later.  “Everything seems to be working the way it should.  How long are we on this leg?”
    “I figured we’d do about ten hours, to see how she handles.  I don’t want to find out that they forgot to tighten a widget when we’re five light-years from the nearest left-handed spanner.”
    “Lunch?”  He asked, putting the systems console on automatic before rising to stretch his massive frame.  “And then a game of strip poker?”
    “Lunch and no strip poker.  We need to spend some time crawling through the ship so we can memorize where everything is.  Studying schematics and fooling around in the simulation tank for two days just doesn’t cut it.  We can play grab-ass when that’s done.”
    He gave her a mock salute.
    “Aye, aye, Captain Bligh.”
    “You can have a drink with lunch.  One bottle only, though.”
    “Do you really think they were kind enough to stock the booze locker with good stuff?”  Decker rubbed his hands in anticipation.
    “You do know that you’ve developed quite a reputation in the intelligence branch, right?”
    “You make it sound like that’s a bad thing.”  He put on a mock-wounded face at her acerbic tone.
    “Perhaps not for you but for me, seeing as how I’m your partner and the one who brought you in.”
    She led the way aft to the small saloon, which now looked nothing like the luxurious salon it had been when Chimera still sailed under the