Lana's Comet (Outer Settlement Agency) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her yet. He called out names and rooms one by one, until only Lana remained. Still, she hadn’t spoken. “Have you given up?”
    “No, sir.”
    He stood inches away, hands and omnitablet clasped behind his back. “Whether eighty people or two, this gray room of ours is quiet. Your behavior has improved.”
    “Thank you, sir. Permission to speak?”
    “Permission? Where did that come from? Go on.”
    “Sir, am I being cut? I haven’t been assigned to a mental acuity room.”
    “And what will you do if I answer to the affirmative?”
    “Slap you, sir.”
    Her eyes hadn’t shifted. Her lips hadn’t wavered. She’d told the truth. Yet to anyone looking in, they’d see a ramrod trainee at attention, waiting for direction. She hadn’t lost her fire and he didn’t like how much that pleased him. “Why do you want this so much?”
    “Because I’m good.”
    “Humble too.”
    “Sir, I am good. I graduated top of my class and—”
    “You’re the best, Lana.” Her eyebrow picked up at the use of her given name and he could have kicked himself for it. But she wasn’t a slug, a grunt or a girl. She was a woman, a doctor and a damned good one if her files were to be believed. Just a bad recruit. She could have had any job in the galaxy, but she’d come here. “You can’t have come to basic training for the money. How many credits are you losing by joining OSA?”
    She snorted and the corner of her mouth twisted up. “Think about how much you hate me.”
    “Yes?”
    “And multiply it by several hundred thousand.”
    “Way the hell more than I make in a year. May I ask why?”
    The question sagged her shoulders and the smile melted away, revealing more of the open and honest face he’d met that night at the club. “Per contractual obligations, I am unable to discuss this any further. However...” She paused, nibbled her lip and took a deep breath. “However, as part of the OSA oath, I must reveal any previous oaths as well as—”
    “Anything deemed a threat to interplanetary and lunar habitation,” he finished for her. “What the hell have you seen, Lana? What brought you here?”
    “I can’t say, Cyprus.” She turned and looked at him straight on. A small something in her eyes gave it away. A faint flicker of fear. Also, resolve. She wouldn’t give up her secrets easily.
    “If there is an immediate threat, you’re going to tell me.”
    “There isn’t.”
    “But a threat large enough to send you here. You didn’t leave because of office politics. That’s not your style. You left because...because you’re a doctor and there’s something you can’t stomach.”
    “I can’t.”
    He paced, circling her, sensing her skin prickling more and more by the second. Sweat pebbled her brow and her chin started to twitch. “Why run here? You’re rich enough to go to Mars, Venus, Enceladus, anywhere. So why here? Sure, the oath that protects you legally, but that’s hardly your main concern, is it?”
    “Stop.”
    “I’m not accustomed to that word.”
    “I—”
    “No, don’t interrupt. You’re scared shitless. It’s why you came to the most fortified place in the solar system.”
    “Second most.” Small hands curled to fists and her eyes started to glisten. Yet she did not break her stance, back still straight, jaw still set. “Meash Corp has more power than any planetary alliance. We’ve subcontracted too much to them. They terraform our colonies, maintain the basics of life, not out of goodwill, but profit. We were so desperate to leave Earth, that we stopped paying attention.”
    He almost said it – that sometimes ends justify means, but he was born half Kin. His grandparents had been created in a rogue Meash Corp lab. Mindless, their sole purpose had been to build up that stupid Saturn moon, Enceladus. The thought took him to a dark place. “Are you saying they are creating—”
    “Not that and more, I can’t say. Not yet. Just think, Cyprus. Every single Meash Corp wing used