Stranger King Read Online Free PDF

me. I don’t know which. I guess it doesn’t matter what I tell you if I’m dead either way. Just keep your mouth shut until they make the announcement later today. This place isn’t interested in biology and tree species or whatever it is they have you photographing. They’re a communications station linked with space colony P-180. Canadians aren’t supposed to have one, but the Americans tend to look the other way since it’s usually just business interactions, personal mail, etcetera. But the comm station picked up something else, something they probably shouldn’t have picked up. We heard rumors, suspicions really, when the scientists started applying for American licenses.”
    “What did they pick up?”
    “That’s the problem. They don’t know what it is. Maybe they’ve figured it out now, but we got reports of every linguist and frequency technician in the country being flown up here. With all this secrecy, my organization had a suspicion.”
    “It could be a coded message from one of the other unlisted colonies. Maybe Eneres…”
    “That’s little more than a bedtime story, you know that. The little colony of freed Canadians rebuilding a perfect world? Come on now. And even they wouldn’t want to be contacting us.”
    “What do they think then? Little green men?” Lena paused and frowned. “Wait … you’re serious, aren’t you?”
    “I don’t know. But I don’t think the signal is human. Maybe it’s just feedback. But…”
    Lena laughed darkly, “You decided this was worth running about during the day and getting shot.”
    “Why would they hire you and lie about what you’re doing? A group with a perfect track record, one that has no moral qualms about taking tasks, and one that promises complete anonymity. Why would they lie to you?”
    “It’s none of my business.”
    The man looked up at her sadly, “Then I guess this was just professional curiosity?”
    “This was an investigation,” Lena replied curtly, grabbing her pistol off the table. She left without looking back, nodding again to the security officer.
    She saw Stiar waiting for her, leaning against the wall.
    “I suppose you heard that?” Lena asked.
    “I was watching through the camera. Do you think he’s right?”
    “No,” Lena said, “And that wasn’t part of the job. We did what we were hired to do, even if we weren’t told exactly what that was. Let’s just get back to the city.”
    Stiar stretched out her sore shoulder. “Good idea.”

Chapter Five
    “What’s this?”
    Stiar laughed as she threw it at Lena. “It’s called a dress. Come on now, we have the day off. There’s a party at the Theras Corporation. Let’s go before it gets too hot out.”
    Lena held up the dress, a thin black sheath with a low-cut back.
    “This isn’t going to show off my tumor scars?” Lena asked in concern.
    “You want to show them off,” Stiar replied. “You’re a Daywalker. Half these people are rich folks who want the thrill of seeing sunlight while getting drunk. You’re just part of the experience. They want to say they met one of us in the flesh. Which is funny when you think about it; in reality there’s plenty of people out there who live during the day and yet if one of these rich idiots saw them they’d be running away, not buying them drinks.”
    “So we are working then?”
    “Think of it as overtime. Very, very nice overtime.”
    “Unpaid overtime?”
    Stiar shook her head and chuckled, “It’ll be fun. Go get dressed.”
    “How did you know my size?” Lena asked, holding it up to her chest.
    “Very thorough research when we hired you. How do you think we got a suit to fit you the first time?”
    Lena blushed, “Accurate guess?”
    Stiar glanced over her quickly and smirked, “Even I’m not that good.”
    *
    Lena walked awkwardly up the stairs as the dress restricted her movement. She followed the rest of her crew into the loft apartment overlooking the city. She had to squint, as the