Living in Freefall (Living on the Run Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

look at him now—dirt poor and living in filth.
Sheesh! Are you sure that was the right ship? No one said anything about it
being a freighter.”
    “Who knows? Intel has been wrong before.” The two enforcers
returned to their ships and sidled down into their seats which seemed a tighter
fit than before. As each lowered his canopy he realized the forthcoming
explanation to his commander was going to be difficult. Neither was the ship
either man had arrived in.

Chapter Three
    When the old man accompanied the old lady back to the
rec-room he was much jauntier than his years suggested, dancing a jig as he
walked. The image was so unconnected from the action that Mara couldn’t help
but chuckle at Jordon’s shenanigans. “Jordy, for an old guy, you’re pretty
spry.”
    “Got to admit, Momma, I’ve felt worse.” He looked toward the
ceiling. “ Freefall , old friend, nice save.”
    “Glad to have helped, sir,” the ship said in a tone devoid
of emotion.
    He winked and slid the holo-badge from his belt. It had been
fried. The holograph-projected-years melted away. Mara turned her mobile
unit off and she too returned to her ‘youthful’ look, sort of . The crew
gathered around them. As he studied each man, woman, and kid in turn, Jordon
tried to find a home for his hands before finally settling on folding his arms
and resting one forefinger on his lips. His attempts to look nonchalant never
seemed to land first try.
    Saying nothing, Ericca stepped back, took the pilot’s seat,
and turned away completely disinterested. Raising her feet to the console, she
crossed one over the other, interlaced her fingers behind her head, and leaned
back.
    Along with Riley, Jordon noticed and wondered if anyone else
had. He could guess what it meant and knew things would soon come to a head
between him and Ericca.
    “So how did it go?” he asked to avoid drawing attention to
the young woman.
    Riley drew an arm around Rachel, his friend, his fellow
seventeen-year-old, to half-hug her. “Smooth. Race bypassed the new Talon’s
security systems in three minutes.”
    Rachel Kori shrugged. “Sorry, brother dear. I wasn’t
expecting their security system to be so retro. I’ll do better next time. I
promise.”
    Everyone laughed. Three minutes was remarkably fast, even if
Rachel didn’t think so. She was Jordon Sr. and Mara’s other child, and
like Jordon Jr., she was an accomplished gadget-maker.
    Mara took Rachel’s shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze.
“So now we have two of the new Talons to give to Providence intelligentsia.
What condition did you leave those two enforcers in?”
    “Well,” Josh answered, “we did leave them two perfectly
good, fifty-year-old Talons. Minus a few extraneous parts, give or take. I mean,
a transmitter is really just dead weight, isn’t it? Having one would’ve added
to their fuel consumption. Best they not have them.”
    Joshua Chisholm, and his ten-year-old brother, Nate, were Freefall ’s
loadmaster – cargo lifter pilots. It didn’t take strength to run the muscular
lifters. It just took a careful, quick mind, which both boys had.
    “Hey, they should be happy,” Riley said with a sly smile,
“Saber class Talons are classics. And the radio we left in each will pick up
some great AM stations.”
    The crease between Jordon’s brows deepened. “AM stations?”
    Josh nodded. “Yes, sir. By my calculations, radio signals
from old Earth should be reaching this sector of space just about now.”
    Jordon chuckled. “AM indeed. So, what do you suppose they’ll
hear?”
    Josh frowned. “It’s AM radio, sir. More than likely, if they
fine tune the signal, they’ll hear old-time Gospel. That’s what we were
thinking anyhow.”
    Riley’s grin had a devious cast. “That or Rush Limbaugh.
Either’s good.”
    Jordon grinned. “Come on—all kidding aside, what situation
did you leave them in?”
    Feigning confusion, Joshua and Nate glanced at each other.
Neither said anything.
    But