Read Online Death World (Undying Mercenaries Series Book 5) by B. V. Larson - Free Book Online Page A

her approach. I didn’t move except to follow her as she came close and began to circle. She stepped around me carefully, and I thought she might throw her weapon the way Harris did—but she didn’t. She gazed up to me with deadly serious eyes.
    Tossing my weapon aside to the edge of the pit, I stood still. She followed my knife with darting eyes. She looked at me in puzzlement and cocked her head.
    Stepping close warily, she dared to speak. “What are you doing? Everyone is watching. Thousands of eyes are on us.”
    “I don’t care. I can’t kill the mother of my own child.”
    She licked her lips and stalked closer. I stood, watching her, wondering what she’d do.
    “You’re dishonoring both of us,” she hissed.
    “Why don’t you just kill me then?” I asked her. “Are you afraid?”
    Della kept her eyes on my hands, flicking her gaze from one to the other. I could tell she didn’t trust me at all. This wasn’t our first fight, you have to understand.
    “A little,” she said. “But the real problem is I don’t want to kill you, either. Why did you start this stupid fight? What was the purpose?”
    I heaved a sigh. “I don’t know. When we came to that first star system, I was so ready to catch the raiders and kill them... I wanted blood. I guess I started this out of frustration.”
    “A stupid move. I should kill you just for that.”
    She came at me then, but her arms moved slowly. It was only a fractional difference, but I could see it. A play thrust, not even on target.
    I caught her wrist and pulled her off-balance. A moment later I had my knee on her back and her knife-hand stretched out away from both our bodies.
    “Yield,” I said.
    “I will not,” she said angrily.
    “You won’t? Wasn’t that what you wanted?”
    “I won’t,” she hissed. “Not unless you admit I could have killed you.”
    I laughed. “All right, I admit it. I’m as good as dead on my feet. Happy?”
    “Not at all—but I yield.”
    Getting an arm under her waist, I straightened and tossed her onto dry land. She landed on her feet and dropped her knife in the blood-soaked dirt.
    The mud-pit battle was over. I walked wearily to the bio people who tsked with disdain and sprayed me with cleansers and nu-skin.
    Della returned to her own squad, and I looked after her thoughtfully. She’d never passed up a solid opportunity to kill me before.
    People congratulated me on the victory and even cheered me. I didn’t feel like I deserved their praise, however. I felt spent and almost as frustrated as I’d been when I’d started this mission.
    A few hours later, Graves summoned me to his stark office again. I went with my arm in a sling and my left eye swollen almost shut.
    He wasn’t smiling, and he didn’t congratulate me when I got there. I stood at attention until he told me what he wanted.
    “At ease, Veteran,” Graves said at last. He walked toward me and looked me over. “You’re in sorry shape.”
    “Nothing a few layers of fresh cells won’t cure, sir.”
    “I don’t mean your body. I’m talking about your mind. I thought you’d take your losses in stride—but I was wrong. You let your emotions make your decisions for you today.”
    I didn’t say anything. We both knew he was right.
    “Well,” Graves said, “despite its questionable effects on morale, it was an effective training exercise. Mud-pit fights to the death? That’s the sort of thing we usually reserve for recruits and candidates seeking promotion. Let’s not have a fresh challenge from you next week, clear?”
    “Clear. Nothing like this will ever happen again, sir.”
    “I don’t believe that for a second.”
    Again, I said nothing. I don’t like to lie without a good reason.
    Heaving a sigh, Graves returned to his desk. “Here’s something that might cheer you up. We’ve decided to pass up the second star system we were targeting. The techs have run all the numbers. They think the second star—a binary system—is very