The Reaper Diaries: Fetch Job, Part 10
21 Dec 2015Michael Wolfe
“Magnetic tether in place?”I looked at the readout on the Diamondback’s wall terminal. “Secured.”
“Maneuvering jets and air at max?”
I checked the gauges on my wrist display. “At full.”
"Cable secured?"
I tugged on the lifeline clipped to my spacewalking suit.
"I ain't going anywhere."
“Bolter rifle ready?”
I held it up. “She’s itchin’ to go.”
Kyndi placed her hand on the airlock control. “You ready to do this?”
I goddamn hate spacewalking. “Just trying to think of the payout, darlin’.”
Under her helmet, I could see her smirk. “Me too.”
Without hesitation, Kyndi flipped the heavy lever that governed the airlock. All around us, warning lights and alarms came on. All the air in the cargo bay rushed out, and we started to float.
I heard her voice on the suit comms. “Let’s go.”
We moved along the thick cable connecting the drifting Python to Kyndi’s Diamondback. The closer we got to the drifting ship, the larger and more ominous it seemed. It took a few minutes, but we reached the access hatch safely. Kyndi tried the external controls. No luck. Not even the light came on.
“I was afraid of that.”
I looked up at Kyndi. “So, how are we getting in?”
She smiled mischievously and started punching commands into her wrist computer. “Just watch.”
A few hundred feet away, a limpet drone shot out of the Diamondback and flew over our heads, circling around the ship, and settling on the other side. Kyndi followed it with her eyes.
“There’s momma’s little helper.” From the other side of the ship, I could see flashes.
“Is that….?”
Kyndi let go of the cable and started crawling around on the surface of the Python. “Yep. A hatch-breaker limpet.”
I shook my head. “Never thought I’d be happy to see one of those.”
She was already a good ways across the Python’s hull. “Hurry up, Matt! We’ve got to sneak in through the cargo bay before anyone knows we’re here!”
Reluctantly, I let go of the cable and clung to the surface of the Python. I stretched out my hand to pull myself along the next handhold on the Python. I tugged a little too hard, and floated right past the next grab-able part of the ship I saw, barely catching the one after that. Kyndi was already climbing through the ruptured cargo bay doors. How the hell did she get there so fast?
I clung to the ship for a moment before launching myself towards the next weightless hop. I goddamn hate spacewalking.
We had to burn our way through the cargo bay door to get inside, but I felt worlds better to be surrounded by walls. We activated our magnetic boots, and things went a little more bit back to normal.
Well, if you want to call this normal.
Kyndi and I were aboard our second ghost ship in the last twenty-four hours. Like the Anaconda back on the ice planet’s surface, the Python was pitch black, except for emergency lights. To see anything, we had to rely on our suit-mounted search lights.
There was no sign of life. Not in the cargo hold, not in the vehicle bay- and now not in the main corridor. All around us, objects not tied down were floating, visible only when the searchlights shone directly on them. Kyndi’s voice crackled through the comms.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m getting sick of this abandoned spaceship bullshit.”
A pencil floated past my face, gently bumping against the bulkhead. “I hear you. This is startin’ to become a thing with us, ain't it?”
I felt Kyndi tug on my shoulder. She jerked her head sideways, towards a sliding door. “Crew quarters.”
We both pulled as hard as we could, and the door slid open on its own. We both shone our flashlights into the entrance, and-
Oh, shit.
Floating right over their bunks were three bodies. I didn’t get a good look at their faces, but they were all wearing the same military-surplus atmo suits that we had seen when they stole the artifacts from us. Around us, tiny globs of blood floated through burned holes in their atmo suits. Someone had done these guys in while they were sleeping. Kyndi tapped me on the shoulder.
“There were four of them.”
I looked back into the room. Yeah, so where’s the one who was doing the talking?
“I don’t like this.“
Still, there was nothing to be found. Just a dark ship, floating objects- and no artifacts.
“Let’s check the bridge.”
Slowly, we made our way forward. On the helmet display, a new comm device registered. Is that him?
We heard static over the line, and then a man’s voice. It was a little hard to make out- but it was the same man, all right. His voice had lost all its bravado, and all we heard was fear and desperation.
“H-hello? Is someone there? I see two new signals in the ship- I’m here in the bridge!”
I looked at Kyndi, and she held up a gloved finger in front of her lips. Got it. She disengaged her magnetic boots, floating so as to not make any sounds. I did the same, and we both floated towards the bridge. The worried voice came over the line again.
“Everything’s malfunctioned on the ship, everything! If you’re part of a rescue party, then thank God for you! I’m on the bridge, please help me!”
The bridge entrance was at the end of a long corridor. I was just starting to get ready to push off towards it, but I felt Kyndi put her hand on my shoulder. Under her helmet, she was shaking her head.
My wrist display lit up.
<Be right back>
Without a word, she disappeared toward back toward the crew quarters. The hell is she doing?
After a few minutes, she came back- but floating alongside her was one of the suited bodies from the crew quarters. She let it float between us, and typed something on her wrist display.
<throw at bridge door>
I nodded my understanding, and we both grabbed the arms and legs of the unfortunate corpse. We activated our magnetic boots, heaved back, and sent the unfortunate dead man floating down the corridor, head first, but roughly upright.
Nothing happened for a moment, but as the body was almost to the door, the hall lit up with several brilliant green flashes from a plasma pistol being fired. In the darkness, I could see the last man, exposed by the light from the pistol charges. He had been hiding in a corner, deep in the shadows.
You sneaky bastard.
That moment had been all I needed. I aimed the bolter rifle, and- still planted by the magnetic boots- fired several tungsten spikes into the darkness where the man had been standing. I was rewarded with a scream of pain and surprise.
Kyndi and I approached cautiously; there was no telling what other tricks the surviving crew member had up his sleeve. Flipping on our searchlights, we saw the pistol floating away from where he was- and then tiny red orbs of blood. We followed the trail of floating blood, and-
-there he was, his right arm pinned to the bulkhead wall by three of the bolter spikes. Damn, that was a lucky shot, I thought. I had never been a particularly good marksman, but another of my father’s favorite sayings flashed in my head: Son, it’s better to be lucky than good.
The man had been trying to free his arm, but froze when the searchlights illuminated him. Now he just looked at us. He was a dark, olive-skinned man, with heavy stubble and an expression of pain and disgust on his face. Kyndi activated her magnetic boots and walked up to him.
“Hello again, Hassan.”
These two know each other?
The man smiled, in pain but defiant. “Hello, princess. Found a new boyfriend?”
A look of amusement crossed Kyndi’s face. “He ain’t my boyfriend. Neither were you.”
Hassan chuckled bitterly. “Aye, but you didn’t have any qualms about being a little tease until the very end, did you?- and then you betrayed me, sabotaged my ship, and left me paralyzed with my pants down for my mates to find.” He snorted and shook his head. “I’d have done you in for free, little girl.”
Hassan coughed, and a small amount of blood flew out of his mouth against the glass of his helmet. I shone my light on him again. One of the tungsten spikes had impacted him in the chest, suit sealed around it. He looked up at me.
“You’d best forget about this little bitch. She’ll turn on you the second she doesn’t need you anymore.”
I smiled and shrugged. “She already did, pal. We’ve moved on.”
He spat. “You’re a fool to trust her.”
Hassan looked back at Kyndi and shook his head. “Job of a lifetime, too. Find the motherload of artifacts, sell ‘em to the boss, and collect the biggest bounty I’ve ever seen on your juicy ass. I woulda been his right hand man after this. But the ship- it musta been those damn artifacts.” He coughed again, causing more blood to run down his neck.
“You must have been something special, because the deal was one mil if you were done in like normal, and two mil if I get creative.
Dying of exposure on an ice planet was pretty damn novel, huh?”
A look of disgust crossed Kyndi’s face. “My two mil?”
“It ain’t like the boss needed it. And you needed to be made example of.”
She gestured back down the corridor. “And the three you took with you?”
Hassan smiled, blood-stained teeth showing. “Wastes of oxygen after the ship lost life support. Their air canisters have kept me going. Besides, it sure as hell beats a four-way split of the reward.”
He laughed weakly, slumping slightly. “Guess I learned a little something from my time with you, huh sweet-cheeks?”
On Kyndi’s face was a look of absolute disgust, with her hand gripping her combat knife, still sheathed against her hip. She didn’t say anything, just glared. Hassan looked up at her and coughed again, more weakly this time.
“You didn’t have to let all your money go, you know. Coulda just spent that week locked in my quarters.” He smiled lecherously at her. “If I’d have had my way, you still wouldn’t be walking right!”
Before I knew what was happening, Kyndi unleashed a war scream and buried her knife deep into the man’s suit, just to the right of the man’s neck. His body convulsed and recoiled, held upright by his pinned arm. Blood started to float out in large globs.
Hassan’s face twisted up at Kyndi in a look of pain and surprise, gasped as the last of his escaping air, and relaxed, eyes rolled back.
I turned to Kyndi. Under her spacewalking suit, she was covered in sweat, and was breathing hard, ragged breaths. A look of pure hatred was still burning in her eyes. She stared down for a moment at Hassan’s lifeless face, and then, in one motion, jerked the knife out of the man’s body, causing a fresh eruption of blood from the deep wound. The knife was red nearly up to the hilt.
Holy goddamn shit.
Wiping the blade against her atmo suit leg, Kyndi looked up at me, still glaring.
“Not a gentleman.”
For a minute, we both just stood there, looking down at Hassan’s lifeless corpse- floating, with its arm still pinned to the wall. Finally, I turned to Kyndi.
“Reckon we should find them artifacts and get the hell out of here.”
She took a deep breath and composed herself. “Yeah. Let’s find ‘em.”
We looked all over the ship, but they were nowhere to be found. I met with Kyndi after a half an hour of fruitless searching. “Anything?”
She shook her head, a frustrated look on her face. “Nothing.”
I looked at the bridge entrance. “Only one place we ain’t checked yet.”
Kyndi shook her head. “You really think Hassan was stupid enough to take those things on board the bridge?”
I shrugged. “Stupid is a hole with no bottom, darlin’.”
The doors were reinforced, and even in zero-G, we couldn’t get them open. We had to burn our way through, which used up the last of the torch fuel, but we were able to get through.
We crawled through the small opening we had made, and I took a look around. The bridge was spacious, modern, and comfortable.
I whistled as I took a look around. “I love my little Viper, but I can see why pilots swear by these ships.”
Kyndi brushed past me. “All I see is a ship that attracts too much attention and compensates for not enough of something else.”
Shaking my head, I started searching the bridge. It was dark and running off of emergency power, like the rest of the ship.
“Jackpot!” For the first time, Kyndi sounded excited.
Beside the commander’s chair were the two duffle bags. Kyndi and I each knelt down and inspected them.
“This one’s full.”
I looked up and zipped the bag shut. “Same here.”
We traded a look of satisfaction, shouldered the bags, and got up. I was about to kneel down to crawl my out through the hole we had burned, when I felt Kyndi’s arm on my shoulder. “Wait.”
I looked up. “What is it?”
Kyndi was looking around the bridge, a thoughtful look in her eye. “I’ll take the artifacts back to my ship. You should stay here.”
“You have got to be kidding me!”
She smiled slightly. “Don’t worry, Matty, I ain’t ditching you. I just think we can use this ship like before. Play hot potato with the artifacts, just to be safe.”
I looked down at the dead control panels in front of the commander’s chair. “You’re sure about this?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Nothing’s wrong with her, except a busted cargo bay door. The systems should start coming back online after I put a little distance between her and the artifacts.”
Goddamnit. It’s a good idea, but… goddamnit.
I stood up, shaking my head. “I’m just starting to like you again, darlin’. You’d better not be fixing on a repeat of last time.”
She smiled and pressed our helmets together. “If I was planning anything like that, I’d be getting you naked. Besides-“ Her smile grew just a little sweeter- “Partners, right?”
I cocked my head to the side. “We were partners then, too!”
She released me and picked up both duffle bags. “But like you said, we moved on. New Kyndi, remember?”
I watched her as she shoved both bags out. She turned around, and me the best hug that two people in spacewalking suits could manage. “Don’t worry, Matty. I won’t move out of comm range.” Then she puckered her lips, made a kissing noise, and ducked out of the bridge.
It took a good forty-five minutes of waiting, but sure enough, the Python’s systems started coming back online, starting with the reactor and life support. Shortly after that, I got thruster control, and was able to join Kyndi in a wing formation. The comm crackled.
“See? Everything is fine. Your ship up for frameshifting?”
I checked the readouts. “According to my diagnostics, everything is good. I’m linked with your ship’s nav, and the course to Novitski is plotted. Let’s do this!”
Turns out, there’s a big difference between hauling lots of artifacts, and hauling only one artifact. Whereas before we were able to get five or six jumps in our Diamondbacks before the “hot” ship started shutting down, we were only getting two or three jumps with two bags of those damn things. The Python didn’t have the legs that the Diamondback did, which meant that the trip took more jumping between stars. Plus, it didn’t have any drone limpets. To transfer the artifacts, we had to park the ships and spacewalk.
It was really slow going.
Eventually, though, we were both ready to jump back into the Naraka system, where Novitski and untold profits awaited us. We had both decided that Kyndi should be carrying the goods when we landed. The comm buzzed.
“Once we get to Naraka, you’re going to have to ditch your ship.”
Oh, hell no. “'Scuse me, darlin’- but I’ve been planning on selling this beautiful thing to the first buyer who comes along. I want a damn payday!”
I could hear the impatience in her voice. “You’re going to sell a ship that belongs to one of the head enforcers of the biggest crime boss on Novitski- and you don’t think he’ll notice? What about that body still hanging from the wall? What about the ones in the crew quarters? What about all the blood? Ditch the damn thing, Matt!”
I looked down. She’s got a point. But we ain’t necessarily out of options.”Tell you what. We set down someplace remote, I’ll hop back in your ship, and we finish the job. I’ve got a contact in Eravate who specializes in this kind of thing.”
Kyndi’s voice was laced with frustration. “Fine. Set it down somewhere. I’ll take you back after we sell the artifacts. But after that, I’m done!”
We both set down on a barren moon. I parked the ship in its shadow and powered it down completely. Then, I spacewalked back to Kyndi’s Diamondback, secured the airlock, and strapped myself in on her bunk, just like before. Next to me were the two duffle bags.
“Ready to go?”
I gave a thumbs up. “Let’s head back to Novitski and get rid these damn things!”
We touched down on Novitski Oasis without incident, though we were just starting to lose reactor output. It was a relief to get the hell out of a spacewalking suit. Kyndi looked me up and down.
“So, what all did you salvage from your ship?”
I shrugged. “You mean, how am I fixed for clothes?” I held up my black leather jacket. “This here’s the only thing I managed to save.”
A look of “not impressed” crossed Kyndi’s face. “Then before we do anything, you're getting cleaned up, and I'm finding you some new clothes. Only new-jacks walk around in their flight suits.”
She hit the button for the escape hatch. “Wait here for a bit. Go ahead and use my shower. I’ll be back soon.” With that, she gave me a quick kiss on the lips, and left her ship.
Well, let’s get cleaned up.
Kyndi’s shower was as tiny as the one on the Lady Luck’s had been. It worked well enough, but when it came to my choices for body wash, well-
What’s Matt the badass bounty hunter going to smell like for this job? Apple Orchard, or Vanilla Apricot?
I shrugged. I always liked vanilla. I looked down at my body. It really had been awhile, and I was probably pretty ripe. I don’t care if I use all the water in the heating reservoir. I’m making this a good damn shower.
Kyndi returned as I was toweling myself off. In her hands were some shopping bags. She set them down on the bunk and looked me up and down.
“Hope I got your size right.”
I opened up the bags, and within were brown leather shoes, socks, underwear, a pack of grey t-shirts, a dark brown vertical ribbed sweater, and a pair of tan slacks that were trendy in Federation space.
I looked up. “You’re dressing me up like I’m meeting a girl’s parents for the first time.”
She smiled. “At least you’ll look nice for a change.”
“’For a change’, huh?”
She picked up a cardboard box. “There’s one more thing.”
I opened it, and the smell of leather hit my nostrils. Inside the box was a brown leather jacket, the old-school bomber style. Picking it up, I could tell that it had been made from real hide- it was thick, heavy, and a little stiff. It was tough, it looked good, and it was the kind of thing that a man could wear for the rest of his life. I looked at Kyndi.
“Now this is something special.”
She raised her eyebrows and grinned. “You like it?”
I smiled back. “It’s perfect. What do I owe you?”
Kyndi gave me a kiss and started stripping off her clothes. Walking towards the shower, she looked over her naked shoulder, smiling.
“Just keep being sweet.”
I heard the water come on, and I held it up once again. Damn. This is nice.
From the shower, I heard a high-pitched squeal.
“Did you use all the hot water?”
And now I feel like a dick.
Kyndi ordered immediate repairs to her ship, and her and I set out to visit every one of her underworld contacts. As before, I waited outside, and for the most part, I wasn’t much use except carrying a large duffle bag full of artifacts. It was risky moving them that way, but Kyndi was in a hurry. The sooner we replaced those things with credits, the better. We spent most of the afternoon that way, her coming and going, my load getting lighter and lighter.
Finally, she emerged from the office, and it was all done. We hadn’t even bothered tallying up the total payout yet, since we had visited so many places. In fact, we didn’t say anything at all. Kyndi led me into a turbolift, but instead of heading back to the ship bays, she punched in coordinates for one of the residential areas.
Crimea Heights. Visiting the homestead, huh?
We brusquely walked back to Kyndi’a apartment, still not saying anything. She keyed in her passcode, and we both walked in. It was trashed, just like last time.
Kyndi turned around. “We need to hurry. There isn’t much time.”
She grabbed one of the empty duffle bags in my hand and started stuffing it full of odds and ends from her desks. Tablets, laptops, disks, they were all going inside, without a trace of concern for neatness. She looked at me over her shoulder, pointing to her dresser.
“What are you waiting for?”
Shrugging, I started grabbing piles of Kyndi’s clothes, stuffing them in the bag. I worked fast, though when I got to her top drawer, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a distinctive lack of underwear, and what she did have was- well, pretty damn impractical.
Come to think of it, I didn’t see a single crotch-covering undergarment any of the times she stripped right in front of me.
I looked at Kyndi, still stuffing her own duffle bag, a look of worry on her face
Just stay focused.
I finished with the dresser, and started picking jeans and shirts off the floor. “What are we doing here?”
She looked at me, inserting the same disk with the red “x” on it that she had used on her ship. “Checking out, Matty. For good.”
“What do you mean?” From the looks of it, Kyndi was deep-sixing the hard drives of every computer she couldn’t pack.
“I mean I ain’t coming back. You saw what happened when I sold just one artifact to a competitor.”
She looked up, worry still in her eyes. “So what the hell do you think will be his reaction when he finds out that I just flooded the market on his own turf?” Kyndi shook her head and threw the last disk inside her bag. ”I’ve lost my Novitski privileges, Matty.”
I nodded. “How long before you’re ready to leave?”
She shrugged. “As soon as my ship is repaired.”
All of the computers lost power and shut down simultaneously. “There. That’s it. Everything is wiped. Let’s go.”
We power-walked down the corridor, duffle bags bouncing on our shoulders. She stepped into the turbo lift, and she directed it towards the ship hangers. A chime sounded on her wrist computer.
“Ship’s done. Thank God I paid extra to have the techs prioritize the repairs.”
They had done a good job. The ship looked the same as the first time I had laid eyes on it weeks ago, back when Kyndi had been wearing that pheromone stuff and I couldn’t stop staring at her ass.
Not that you don’t sneak the occasional glance anyway. She hit the entry release, and the Diamondback’s ramp lowered.
We stepped into the refurbished pilot’s cabin in Kyndi’s Diamondback. Everything looked brand-new- except the black, slagged streak along her deck plating where the Vulture’s beam laser had carved through her hull.
“They missed a spot.”
Kyndi smiled and traced along the ugly line with her toe. “I told them to leave it like this. Adds a touch of character to the place, don’t you think?”
“That it does, darlin’. Now let’s get out of here!”
She looked at me suspiciously. “Aren’t you going to grab your Viper?”
I shrugged. “It’s safe enough where it’s at. Somebody’s got to fly that Python out, right?”
Kyndi raised her eyebrows. “Word gets out that it was you helping me, that ship is history.”
Laying down on her bunk, I began to strap myself in. “Well, that’s just a risk I’ll have to take. Besides, this job probably brought in enough to buy it back a couple times over.” I snapped the last buckle closed. “What was our take from selling off those artifacts, anyway?”
Kyndi shook her head and hit the cockpit door. “Don’t know.” She looked at me over her shoulder. “How about we get to safety first, and then divvy it up?”
I gave the thumbs-up from my prone position on her bunk. “Sounds good, darlin’. Let's get out of here!”
Back on the dark, barren moon, Kyndi sat at the table in her Diamondback’s pilot cabin, hunched over a pile of credit chips. Gradually, the chips moved onto two smaller piles, as Kyndi’s lips silently mouthed ever-growing sums of cash for us.
Eventually, she moved the final two chips into their respective piles, and pushed one of them over in my direction. A satisfied look crossed her face.
“A little over two mil each, Matty.”
I was packing my belongings into one of the duffle bags we had used to transport the artifacts. Zipping it up, I started prepping the spacewalking suit for the jaunt over to the Python next to us. I picked up one of the credit chips from my pile and held it up. 80,000 glowed in bright orange letters on its surface.
“Not bad. Not bloody damn bad.”
She smiled and waterfalled her pile of credits off the edge of the table into a small canister, and then stowed it in a compartment by the table. “Not bad at all. I’ve got my nest egg back, and I’m breathing easy for the first time in weeks.”
The atmo suit was prepped. Before putting it on, I turned to Kyndi. She was starting to light up a victory joint of Onionhead, a content look on her face.
“So, what’s next for the great Commander Kyndi?"
She smiled as she took her first drag. “Back to what I do best. Smuggling things into places where they shouldn’t be, and pocketing the profits.” Chuckling, she added, “And nothing involving creepy derelicts on frozen ice worlds for awhile. What about you?”
I shrugged and started putting on the atmo suit. “Once I get the ship sold, it’ll be back to wasting pirates, and protecting miners. There’s good money in it, you know.” I smiled and looked at her. “And no derelicts on frozen ice worlds.”
We both exchanged a laugh, and looked into each other’s eyes, an uncomfortable moment of silence settling in. Kyndi walked up and started helping me fasten my suit gloves, biting her lip slightly. She looked up, her eyes betraying an uneasy look.
“So, I guess this is goodbye, huh?”
I shrugged, trying not to let the sudden feelings of sadness show. Jesus, is that a lump in my throat?
“I reckon it is, darlin’. Job’s done.”
She nodded, and placed the helmet in my hands. Pursing her lips, she looked up at me. “Good luck out there in the black, Matty.”
Nodding, I picked up my duffle bag and set it on the table. “I’ll be needing it if I hope to make it back to Eravate.”
Her face twisted in confusion. “That Python is fine. Why would you need luck?”
I unzipped the duffle bag, and pulled out in the new leather jacket Kyndi had bought me. Unfolding it, I saw Kyndi’s jaw drop at the sight of what I had concealed within. Kyndi’s jaw dropped.
“You saved one?” Her eyes were fixed upon the artifact I held in my hand.
I smiled. “Yeah. I’m going to take it to a friend of mine, make him eat his words.”
She cocked her head to the side. “What kind of friend rates an alien artifact?” Her eyes narrowed. “Would this be the same contact that you no doubt let down the first time you returned empty- handed?”
I laughed. “Yeah, that would be it. Except he didn’t see as it as being let down. It was more like-“ How do I describe Rax?- “Free entertainment. About the worst I got out of the deal was a lot of ribbing and a hangover.”
“You mean, he didn’t go after you? Or even get angry? And you actually had drinks together afterwards?”
I shrugged. “Passed out in his flat and everything. I’ll never be the operator you are, darlin’- but I do believe I pick a better class of scum to work with.”
She smiled and poked me in the ribs through my atmo suit. “I work with you, so what’s that say?”
“Sometimes you get it right?”
That one earned me punch in the shoulder. “Well, how the hell are you going to move it, anyway?”
I smiled and looked over at her. “Well, not by myself, that’s for damn sure. Eravate is a long ways away. I’d been thinking of someone to hot-potato the artifact with me on the way there, but I haven’t received an answer back yet.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Yeah? Who?”
I looked down at the burned scorch mark on the floor plating. “Oh, no one. Just some low-down smuggler. Black hair that turns purple under the right light, kind of a smartass, and she’ll strand you if it means more credits. Kinda risky to run with, but-“ I looked up into Kyndi’s amused eyes- “I heard she’s the best.”
Grinning, Kyndi rested her hands on her hips and looked up at me. “And what do you think she’ll say?”
I smiled at her. “I don’t know. She ain’t named a price for coming along yet.”
Kyndi’s grin grew even larger. She pulled the collar of my atmo suit close to her, and whispered something in my ear.
I raised my eyebrows. “Really?”
She smiled in the way that only Kyndi did. Smiling her Kyndi smile, I thought. It was playful, intelligent, witty, confident, and sexy all rolled up into one amazing expression.
“Yeah. If it isn’t too much trouble.”
Nodding slowly, I smiled. “I think it can be arraigned.”
That got me two arms around my neck and a full-on kiss on the lips. Kyndi broke the kiss and looked into my eyes. “Partners, then?”
I ran my hands through her hair, causing little oil slicks of purple to shine against the black. “Yeah. Partners.”
