Read Online Atrophy by Jess Anastasi - Free Book Online Page B

wouldn’t be on the ship for more than two rotations. Feeling anything other than gratitude toward him would just be stupid.
    Tannin remained silent as they went back down a level. Despite what Rian had said about the risk they faced if they got caught with Tannin onboard, helping him was the right thing to do.
    Okay, so maybe there was something there, something about him that drew her to him. But after he departed on Arleta, he’d almost certainly spend the remainder of his days on the run, hiding from the IPC. No one in documented history had escaped from Erebus and lived to talk about it.
    Of course, they were a long way from being in the clear. They still had to get off Erebus without anyone finding out Tannin was aboard.

Chapter Five
    R ian pushed his hair back, beads on his wrist clinking. He dropped into the captain’s chair and swiveled toward the crystal display screen to bring up the message the ship’s system had recorded and stored. The sun had barely come up on this hellpit of a world and already his day had turned to shite.
    “You should have gone with the ‘throwing his dead body out the hatch’ option.” Callan sat in the co-pilot’s chair, resting his big-ass nucleon gun across his bent knees. “You really think we’re going to get off world with an Erebus inmate onboard?”
    He cut Callan a glance that he hoped said shut the hell up as he accessed the stored comm. Callan was great at his job. Rian had never met anyone who knew as much about security detail, weapons, and combat as he did, but sometimes Callan forgot the whole chain-of-command thing, his often unwanted opinions bordering on insubordination.
    “Come on, Cap’tin. Your reputation might get you out of a lot, but it sure as dick won’t save us if the IPC officers catch us with that rat bastard onboard. I don’t understand why you want to help—”
    “I like the fact that no one’s done it before. I like being the exception to the rule. If anyone can break someone out of Erebus, it’s damn well going to be me.”
    Callan raised both eyebrows. “You’re a few stars short of a galaxy, you know that?”
    “That’s enough, Roarke.”
    He refused to explain to Callan why all Zahli needed to do was look at him with those blue eyes, so like their mom’s had been, and he’d give her anything she asked. Zahli had a pure heart, she always chose to see the best in people, hadn’t been exposed to the horror and ugliness this universe could offer—part of his existence revolved around protecting her. His baby sister was the only warm thing he had in his life, especially after the Reidar had all but ripped his soul out during those months of hell he’d spent locked in some lab in the industrial zones on Cassius.
    Anyway, he got the feeling something else was going on with her, something other than just her usual good hearted nature in wanting to help people. And he intended to find out what that something else was.
    Zahli aside, the scumrat hadn’t been lying about why he’d snuck onboard. Rian had seen that through the ship’s diag systems with his own eyes. And above all, he always did what was right…which wasn’t always necessarily right according to IPC law. If the man hadn’t committed the crime, he didn’t deserve life on Erebus. Rian didn’t view it as actively helping the guy escape, but he also knew he walked a fine line by not apprehending and reporting a stowaway.
    Besides, Tannin’s family was connected on Barasa, and there had to be more to his story, possibly a clue that could benefit him. So before the scumrat left his ship, he was going to get some more information on Barasa’s high chancellor.
    He tabbed up the message he wanted to see and then sat back in his chair as Arnon Rance’s scruffy, bearded face appeared on screen. “Good hail, Sherron.”
    “Arnon Rance?” Callan sat forward, shoving his gun in a holster attached to the side of the chair. “Why the hell are you getting messages from him?