Star Road Read Online Free PDF

give a damn what kind of clearance this guy has, he deserves a few questions.
     
    Like... what planet are you from?
     
    The man hesitated as if she’d asked a trick question.
     
    His tongue slipped out between his teeth, looking like he’d swallowed a fat slug that wouldn’t go down. Then three jerky nods.
     
    Annie forced herself to smile.
     
    “Great. We’ll be loading soon. The SRV is right over there.”
     
    She indicated it without taking her eyes off him.
     
    The man seemed to fight to look away from her. Then he gave the quickest of glances at the waiting Star Road vehicle.
     
    Annie kept the smile plastered on her face, but she kept her eyes locked on him, barely blinking.
     
    “May I see your boarding chip?”
     
    The man’s eyes were glazed now. They didn’t move.
     
    Annie took another step closer to him.
     
    She broadened her smile, thinking, This cork is about to pop.
     
    “Part of a captain’s duties, sir. A last minute—”
     
    And then it happened.
     
    The immobilized man was suddenly fast. The long coat opened, and he pulled out a pulse gun. A pistol.
     
    In a fraction of a second, the barrel swerved and aimed at what Annie knew had to be a spot right between her eyes.
     
    A few people in the area saw what was happening. Someone screamed, and then others saw and shouted as they scrambled for cover. Panicked sounds moved like a wave through the terminal.
     
    Annie hoped no one did anything stupid.
     
    Pulling a gun was stupid enough. If those two newbies raised their weapons now, they could probably take this guy down ... but likely only after he burned a hole through Annie’s skull.
     
    “Hey, hold on there,” she said. “There’s no need to—”
     
    “The Road ... is meant... to be ... free!”
     
    One of “those” guys, Annie thought. A “Free the Road” zealot.
     
    How the hell did he get a boarding-chip clearance? He must have paid a ton of credits to someone. And the pulse gun? Maybe someone planted it here for him, past the security.
     
    And his plan?
     
    Commandeer the SRV?
     
    Take out as many people as he could before burning his own brains out? Make a fucking statement with blood?
     
    “Right. I hear you, sir. But there’s no need to—”
     
    The man’s eyes darted back and forth now that he was off-plan.
     
    What’s he going to do?
     
    Is he considering getting everyone on the SRV, leaving here, and then... what?
     
    Kill them ... or hold them for ransom?
     
    Perhaps the idea that he was trapped, that it was already over, was beginning to dawn on him.
     
    In which case ...
     
    What the hell is he gonna do?
     
    He has an SRV captain at his mercy.
     
    A lot of passengers around.
     
    Not a bad statement.
     
    Bunch of dead bodies.
     
    Free the Road indeed.
     
    Annie took another step, maintaining steady eye contact with him, not even thinking to look at what might be going on around her, locked in this deadly standoff.
     
    Deadly for me, she thought.
     
    “Why not lower the gun, and we can talk?”
     
    Another small smile, but Annie guessed that her partner in this dance wouldn’t opt for that.
     
    Annie lowered her gaze to the man’s hand, the outstretched arm holding the weapon. Was his grip tightening, or did she only imagine it?
     
    Her stomach tightened. She felt like she might throw up.
     
    The man licked his lips and then opened his mouth.
     
    “Free the—”
     
    His voice wound up higher and then broke.
     
    Finger definitely tightening.
     
    And then, from the side, an arm flew from out of nowhere, hitting the man’s outstretched arm—and the gun—knocking both to one side.
     
    But too late. The trigger pulled.
     
    The gun shot a pencil-thin pulse at Annie’s head.
     
    But the intervention had moved the man’s arm just enough. A high-pitched sizzling sound whizzed by, inches from Annie’s head. The hairs above her ear actually moved in response to the charged particle burst.
     
    Then her savior grabbed the