Read Online Crossways by Jacey Bedford - Free Book Online

Yamada cut her adrift? If so, there were worse places to endup than Crossways, but that didn’t solve the problem of her mom.
    She briefly wondered whether she should make her way back home from here. Hell, Benjamin had offered to send her back. He seemed like a decent kind of guy. He wasn’t working for the Trust anymore, so did that make him potentially useful to Alphacorp on the enemy-of-my-enemy principle? She hoped so.
    She needed to get a call through to Ms. Yamada. Not that she had a direct line, of course. She couldn’t hope to do more than leave a cryptic message and hope Rufus would contact her.
    She increased her speed for the last lap, feet pounding the deck plates.
    Gupta was sitting at the top of
Solar Wind
’s ramp as she jogged past, smart-dart rifle cradled in the crook of his arm. He took his duties seriously even though the security team here was pretty tight. She didn’t break her stride until she got to the guard post by the entrance where she stopped, head bent forward, hands on bare knees to catch her breath. That gave the nearest guard a good view down the front of her singlet.
    He was smirking as she stood up and pushed her hair out of her eyes. “What does a girl have to do to get offered a drink of water around here?” she asked. “This place is dryer than Orphena’s twelve moons.”
    â€œIt’s not so bad when you get used to it.” The guard signaled to one of the others, who tossed him a bag of water. He caught it neatly and handed it to Kitty.
    She bit off the corner and took a deep drink, then began sipping the rest. “Kitty Keely,” she said.
    â€œOrton, Wes Orton.”
    He had even white teeth, dark brown skin and eyes that crinkled at the corners when he smiled.
    â€œWhere were you before Crossways?” she asked. “You don’t look like you grew up here.”
    â€œThere are a million people on Crossways ranging in height from here to here.” He indicated low to high with both hands. “And every color from marble white to deepest black. I’ve even seen a few blue faces. How in the hell could you generalize about what someone born here might look like?”
    â€œSorry, did I hit a nerve? I guess I expect people who’ve lived their whole lives on a space station to look a bit . . .” She shrugged. “I was going to say unhealthy, but I guess the hole is deep enough, so I’d better stop digging. You look outdoorsy and I didn’t expect that.”
    His expression softened a little. There, she’d done it, delivered a subtle compliment, given him an opening. Would he take it?
    â€œI did grow up here, mostly, but I was born on Sylvain. My folks crewed for a tramp freighter. Got killed in a decompression accident. The captain decided I was a bit of ballast he didn’t need, so I got left behind on Crossways.”
    â€œHarsh.”
    â€œNot really. It’s better than freighter life. Crossways is not all gray-walled corridors, you know. It has its own outdoors, kind of . . . Acres of farmland and a forest segment big enough to have its own weather.”
    â€œReally? I guess I thought it all looked the same.” She waved at the dock and at the broad sweep of the roadway outside. “I’m a bit new to all this, Wes. I could do with a tour guide.”
    â€œThat could be arranged.” He grinned. “Where are you from?”
    â€œI’m a genuine Earth girl.” She smiled back.
    â€œReally? I’ve never been. What’s it like?”
    â€œCold, or at least my part of it is. Shield City’s almost on the Arctic Circle in the far north of the United States of Canada. Beautiful summers, fierce winters. My mom still lives there.” Pause for two heartbeats and then let the smile fade. “She’ll be real worried about me.” Kitty put on her vulnerable face. She wasn’t entirely lying. Shield City had been their home.