Guardians (Caretaker Chronicles Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

regular work, it’ll be a while yet.”
    Marcos briefly considered, as he did every time
they had this conversation, making the ship Cayle’s full-time priority, but
Cayle was the best mechanic they had, and pulling him off the mine equipment
would raise too many questions. He shook his head quickly.
    “Keep working on it. And,” Marcos glanced around
briefly, “keep your mouth shut.”
    “I always do, boss.”
    Marcos left the shop, crossed the liftstrip, and
walked through the high, glassed-in entryway of Saras headquarters. He stopped
to glance at the rows of windows. They were green with little patches of plants
growing along the edges. These plants were showing up everywhere in Coriol. Marcos
barked at the receptionist to get the cleaning staff in here and make a note to
dock them two hours’ pay. Perhaps that would get them to take a little more
pride in their work. Missing the windows in the front lobby? Sloppy.
    He slipped a sweet, hard gar fruit candy in his
mouth and hoped his screens were set up in the office. He had an Interstellar
Communications System recording coming online, and he’d be expected to get his
response to it out within ten minutes after seeing it. And then he had to meet
with Veronika and Theo before this RTC meeting his father had gotten him into
with the Coriol Defense Committee. Marcos walked a little faster.
    The screens were set up, and the ICS recording
was just beginning when he sat down in his Earthleather chair in front of the
wide windows that looked out over the heart of Coriol, his city.
    The recording was routine. It requested
comprehensive Yynium output numbers for the last quarter. As he entered the numbers,
Veronika opened his office door and leaned in.
    “I’m back,” she said.
    He nodded. “Get Theo and come back in five
minutes.”
    He finished the numbers quickly. It was vital to
keep the UEG happy.
    Checking the clock, Marcos saw he had just enough
time to fill Veronika and Theo in before the Defense Committee meeting.
Veronika entered first, and she came behind the desk, as she always did, to
lean against it. Veronika had little use for personal space. Marcos leaned back
in the chair as Theo came in.
    Theo always gave him plenty of space. This time,
he gestured the VP forward a bit so he didn’t have to shout the plan down the
length of the office. It didn’t take Marcos long to explain the idea that would
win them the land grant bonus. Theo, as usual, was resistant.
    “You want to blast a shaft down from our legal
land and tunnel under the Karst Mountains? We don’t even know for sure what’s
down there. We only have the core samples, which were illegal, too, by the way.
Why would we risk it?” Theo asked, the tone of authority that Marcos hated
sneaking into his voice.
    Marcos felt Veronika’s hand on his shoulder. She
had moved behind him, to face Theo. “Because he knows that not doing it is a
bigger risk. If someone else gets the grant, then we might as well get on the
P5 and go home now. There won’t be enough Yynium left to support a third of
this city. The veins we’re mining are running out right now.”
    “But don’t you see that if we’re caught we lose
it all anyway?”
    Marcos scoffed. “The UEG isn’t going to shut us
down for a little bad behavior. We’ll be fined, sure, but we’ve got the scrip
to cover whatever they can impose. The veins we’re in now are so sparse that we’re
pulling a lot of rock with the Yynium, and it’s possible that we’re not getting
all the rock out when we refine. We’re not on Earth, with the best of equipment
and plenty of it. This is the frontier, and you know as well as I do that we’re
making do as best we can. Still, purity is way down, and we can’t win that
grant with dirty Yynium.”
    Marcos stood and walked around his desk to where
Theo leaned against a cabinet in the corner. Marcos put his hand on the older
man’s shoulder and felt the jab of bone through his jacket. “I’m not saying