The Alliance Read Online Free PDF Page A

for the Federation mission leader to abandon her.
    The sergeant was another matter. Her sense of him suggested his enmity was personal, not just the reaction of a professional soldier toward someone who’d thwarted his purpose and probably earned him a reprimand. She felt his ambition so her death probably contributed to his eventual goal. It made him a dangerous enemy, for she sensed a high level of intelligence and pride in his professional accomplishments. What she remembered of the hanging party confirmed it. He’d gone about the business with an efficiency she might have commended, had she not been personally involved.
    She pictured his face again, trying to probe behind it. Toughness, both mental and physical, were the predominate impressions. There’d been small scars on his cheeks, long healed into thin white lines, which reminded her of the manhood rituals of some native tribes, visible proof he could bear pain. Blue, or gray, eyes, set under dark brows; thin lips, or normal lips thinned by anger, she wasn’t sure which. The hard face of a hard man. He would follow wherever she went and act without mercy.
    Rachael shuddered again as his thought came to her across the distance. “ Poor Red, Life isn’t fair .”
    * * * *
    Kamran kept the identity photo of Rachael from the pile of belongings confiscated from the Federation party. He’d been going through them, looking for anything to focus his search and now stared at the parchment map on his table guessing how far she could travel since they raided the hut and searched the area.
    Assuming she was outside the perimeter at the onset and her companion was a local, there weren’t many options. A few he could discount. He posted men in the two villages and they’d been part of the hanging party, able to recognize Rachael on sight. One, in particular, remembered her vividly. He was still reluctant to straighten quickly and her kick had left the whole area black and blue. She’d get short shift if he caught her, and the three with him were brutal at best.
    The woman was smart, she had to be to evade capture so far, and she had a local guide. How had she recruited her companion? There must have been clandestine landings prior to the arrival of the shuttle.
    He turned back to the confiscated possessions, studying the three communication devices. They were short-range stuff, nothing powerful enough to penetrate the ionosphere and too bulky for the redhead to have concealed. Either there was an agreed rendezvous or, Red, he’d taken to calling her that, had to communicate with her people by a visible signal, large enough to be seen from space, but not obvious from ground level. He turned to the map again, visualizing the country it represented. He’d marched over most of it these last ten years.
    There were no large fields of grain, an obvious means of signaling, or any open tracts to arrange a signal without being obvious. Signaling by night needed fires, which would take time to set and tend and there was enough nocturnal movement from poachers and smugglers to make it risky. Red would be a tasty morsel to any of the groups he knew to exist. Punished savagely if caught, they were callous with those who fell into their hands. Her local guide would know.
    Where would she go ?
    His mind came back to the clandestine landings. They were the most likely pick-up points. The mountains were out, too far from any population centers. A large town would be ideal, but how to land without being noticed. Large towns attracted nocturnal movement, particularly smugglers between the principalities. A coastal town had possibilities. There was no night fishing and the smugglers hugged the shore. An amphibious nighttime landing with silenced motor boats using radar would be easy.
    Kordobah was on the coast. He located it on the map and took a direct line to the forest hut. Five days travel, possibly six, through heavy forest—not much chance of setting a signal there and dangerous too.