Company Wars 01 – Downbelow Station

oldest of all. Damon and Elene and the child they wanted… they prepared to put

everything at risk. For him.

He had no weapons. Needed none, if it were to be himself and her alone, as it

had been in her quarters. He had been dead then, inside. Had existed, hating his

existence. The same kind of paralysis beckoned now… to let things be, accept,

take cover where it was offered; it was always easier. He had not threatened

Mallory, having had nothing to fight for.

He pushed from the wall, felt of his pocket, making sure his papers were there.

He walked into the hall and through it past the unmanned front desk of the

hospice, out into the open where the guards stood. One of the local security

started to challenge him. He looked frantically down the corridor where a

trooper stood.

“You!” he shouted, disturbing the vacant quiet of the hall. Police and trooper

reacted, the trooper with leveled rifle and a suddenness which had almost been a

pulled trigger. Josh swallowed thickly, held his hands in plain view. “I want to

talk with you.”

The rifle motioned. He walked with hands still wide at his sides, toward the

armored trooper and the dark muzzle. “Far enough,” the trooper said. “What is

it?”

The insignia was Atlantic’s. “Mallory of Norway” he said. “We’re good friends.

Tell her Josh Talley wants to talk with her. Now.”

The trooper had a disbelieving look, a scowl finally. But he balanced the rifle

in the crook of his arm and reached for his com button. “I’ll relay to the

Norway duty officer,” he said. “You’ll be going in, in either case—your way, if

she does know you, and on general investigation if she doesn’t.”

“She’ll see me,” he said.

The trooper pushed the com button and queried. What came back came privately

over his helmet com, but his eyes flickered. “Check it, then,” he said to

Norway. And after a moment more: “Command central. Got it. Out.” He hooked the

com unit to his belt again, and motioned with the rifle barrel. “Keep walking

down that hall and go up the ramp. That trooper down there will take you in

charge and see you talk to Mallory.”

He went, walking quickly, for he did not reckon it would take Damon and Elene

long to reach the hospice.

They searched him. Of course they would do so. He endured it for the third time

this day, and this time it did not bother him. He was cold inside, and outer

things did not trouble him. He straightened his clothes and walked with them up

the ramp, past sentries at every level. On green two they entered a lift and

rode it the short rise and traverse into blue one. They had not even asked for

his papers, had scarcely looked at them more than to be sure that the folder

held nothing but papers.

They walked a short distance back along the matting-carpeted hall. There was a

reek of chemicals in the air. Workmen were busy peeling all the location signs.

The windowed section further, crammed with comp equipment and with a few techs

moving about, was specially guarded. Norway troops. They opened the door and let

him and his guards in, into station central, among the aisles of busy

technicians.

Mallory, seated at the end of the counters, rose to meet him, smiled coldly at

him, her face haggard. “Well?” she said.

He had thought the sight of her would not affect him. It did. His stomach

wrenched. “I want to come back,” he said, “on Norway.”

“Do you?”

“I’m no stationer; I don’t belong here. Who else would take me?”

Mallory looked at him and said nothing. A tremor started in his left knee; he

wished he might sit down. They would shoot him if he made a move; he thoroughly

believed that they would. The tic threatened his composure, jerked at the side

of his mouth when she turned away a moment and glanced back again. She laughed,

a dry chuckle. “Konstantin put you up to this?”

“No.”

“You’ve been Adjusted. That so?”

The stammer tied his tongue. He nodded.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *