Pirates of the Outrigger Rift Read Online Free PDF

deconstructive brain-scan and download the results to my classified file. No one else has access until I examine the data.”
    The men took hold of Kendrick, who tried in vain to fight them off. They restrained him in seconds.
    “Please, no! Listen to me! I told you everything I know! I—”
    The doors closed behind the men as they dragged Kendrick off.
    Silence.
    Maxwell called the cat back to him. It gave him an annoyed look and walked off. Maxwell smiled; he had something to report to the council.

    Hank Jensen grinned as the small woman exited the bar. She was a tough one. He couldn’t help liking her. Maybe she was his salvation, but more likely, like most women in his life, she would turn out to be the devil incarnate. Either way, he couldn’t turn down money right now.
    He went over his options. Nearest he could figure, he didn’t have any. A free-trader’s life was always a gamble. How could he have known that the market for Polytungstan would collapse almost overnight? How could he have planned around that rebellion on Carthas? It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t fair, but fair or not, those two financial disasters had broken his back.
    Still, he had to admit he’d reaped the benefits of chance and fate often enough in the past. You had to take the bad with the good. That was the price of freedom.
    Jacbar, the bar owner, was one of the lucky ones. He got out with enough in savings to start a business. Most free-traders ended their lives in starport gutters. The odds were always with the house.
    But there were the exceptions, those trader lords who struck it rich. They were fabulously wealthy, living in pleasure palaces on the rim of Manspace, free from corporate interference. The call of El Dorado still lured men to their deaths.
    Hank wished, maybe even daydreamed, but didn’t believe that load of shit for a heartbeat. He was content that for at least a while longer he would be free to roam the spaceways, master of his own destiny. The ride was what interested him, not the destination.
    He checked the time on the comlink at his wrist. It was late. There was a lot of work to do before he spaced out. He activated the unit to call the one woman he loved. “Elsa, it’s Hank.”
    A voice answered from the wristband. “Who else would it be? What’s up?”
    “We have ourselves a gig, honey. A passenger. I’m fixing to make a deposit right now. We blast out of here in an hour.”
    “What’s the destination?”
    Hank hesitated. “She says we’re going to Raken.”
    “Oh no. Tell me you didn’t,” Elsa said.
    “What?”
    “You know what I mean. You said ‘she.’ This is another one of those hard-luck cases, isn’t it? A damsel in distress?”
    “Honey, I am the original hard-luck case. We can’t afford to be too choosy. I haven’t eaten in so long my stomach thinks my throat’s been cut. I’m so poor that—”
    “Enough! Just make the deposit and I’ll handle the details. It’s just that I have a bad feeling about this.”
    Hank grinned. “Are you sure it isn’t jealousy?”
    “I should say not! You’re the most egotistical man I have ever known. You, my friend, are not the great prize you think yourself to be.”
    “Ah yes, but you love me anyway, don’t you?” Hank switched off the com. Things were finally looking up.
    He ordered another drink and started contacting the dockmaster to deposit funds to pay for his berth fee and fuel. After that he’d call his creditors. He was sure they’d be surprised that he was actually making a payment instead of an excuse.

CHAPTER THREE
    T he docks stretched for several kilometers. They were arranged like spokes shooting out from a central hub. Spaced evenly down the spokes were the individual berths, flat concrete segments crisscrossed by conduits and cables, highlighted here and there by spaceships rising majestically to the sky.
    Protected walkways ran underground with blast doors leading to the outside at every berth, open until the time of