Hunt the Heavens: Book Two of the Shadow Warrior Trilogy Read Online Free PDF Page A

if somebody ever came looking for them and asked me to explain a hole in space. Although now I’m getting a little concerned for some of my confreres who don’t have the well-developed sense of survival I do. As I said before, there’s a lot of available warships out here in the Outlaw Worlds.
    “You know, Joshua, people with a goddamned mission in life who know what I should be doing better than I do make me nervous. Especially when they start buying guns.”
    “You and me both,” Wolfe agreed. “A small suggestion — keep your back against a wall for the next few forevers. These Chitet don’t seem to handle rejection well.”
    “So I gather. Fortunately, my cowardice genes are well developed.”
    Cormac got up from his desk. “ ‘Tis a parlous world,” he said. “I guess the only option for honest folk like you and me is to have a drink. C’mon.”
    • • •
    “What were you looking for when the FI robot got pictures of you on Sauros and put me in motion?” Wolfe asked.
    “I had landed on several of our homeworlds already, looking for any data that might give me a clue to the Mother Lumina,” Taen said. “I hoped to consult certain files, I think your word is, from our Farseeing Division, what you call Intelligence.”
    “Hasn’t FI already seized those?”
    “They think they have,” the Al’ar said. “But there are other copies, available for those who know where to look.”
    “What data did you specifically seek?”
    “What I sought, I never found. Mention of the Mother Lumina, mention of the Guardians, anything that might have been transmitted before my people made The Crossing.”
    “And?”
    “Nothing.”
    “I cannot believe,” Wolfe said, “that at one signal, a signal you say you didn’t receive, every frigging Al’ar in the galaxy went away like a Boojum. So you weren’t looking in the right place, or in the right manner.”
    “I dislike your levity, but I must concede, logically, you are correct.”
    “Which of the homeworlds, what we call the capital worlds, were the most important?”
    “Sauros,” Taen said. “The world I had my birth-burrow on, the same one you lived on before the war. I also sought access to one of our great machine-thinkers, computers, to help me analyze the problem. But I had no time to search for anything before that spy-probe found me.”
    “If I can put us both back on Sauros, will you let me help in the search?”
    The Al’ar curled on a ladder that was the closest approximation Wolfe could find to his customary seat. He remained silent for a long time. Twice his hood puffed, deflated.
    “There are risks,” he said. “To us both. There will be precautions still in place, unless they were set off by Federation searchers earlier. And I do not believe the Federation even knew where to look.”
    “I’ve seen Al’ar booby traps,” Joshua said. “They can be managed.”
    “So you have a plan?”
    “An idea.”
    “Which of my two goals are we seeking?”
    “Not the Mother Lumina. We’ll start with The Guardians. Maybe that’ll lead us to the rock in question.”
    Taen’s slitted eyes stared at Wolfe. “One thing you have never told me. Not honestly, by what I can feel of your thoughts. You could have abandoned me on Montana Keep, or simply returned me to one of my own worlds, and then gone to ground.
    “I do not doubt you have more than enough abilities to avoid both the Chitet and Federation Intelligence. They will not seek you forever, especially when they learn you have taken no further interest in the fate of the Al’ar.
    “Why, Joshua Wolfe? Why, One Who Fights From Shadows?”
    There was a long, heavy silence.
    Wolfe shook his head slowly from side to side.
    • • •
    “She sings, she dances, she sways, she swoops,” Cormac said proudly. He and Wolfe stood on a crosswalk in an enormous bay. Below them lay Wolfe’s ship. It looked just as it had when he ported at Malabar. “Would you care to request your good