Read Online Dominant Species Volume Two -- Edge Effects (Dominant Species Series) by David Coy - Free Book Online

Kelly.”
    “I’m Bob Hewlett. This is Wrongsideout Hinkle.”
    “Shut up,” Hinkle said.
    “Or Mr. Wrongsideout , if you like.”
    “Shut up,” Hinkle repeated.
    Both men were hardened and tough like thick leather and were
impossible to piss off, especially by one another. Kelly could tell they’d
worked together a long time.
    “Ask him why they call him Wrongsideout ,”
Hewlett said. “Shut up,” Hinkle said.
    “Hinkle here is the only Rigger in history to assemble a whole
shelter inside-out.”
    “I didn’t know that could be done,” Kelly said, barely interested.
     
    “Yep.”
    “This bastard’s a liar,” Hinkle said. “You gotta watch ‘im.”
    “You should have seen the goddamned thing,” Hewlett said, smiling.
“All inside-out and all the shit on the outside. One of a goddamn kind.”
    “Shut up. It was one goddamned panel’s all.”
    “We got pictures to prove it,” Hewlett said.
    Kelly was tiring of the bullshit and looked away with a frown,
hoping it would get Hewlett off the subject.
    “Good pictures, too,” Hewlett persisted.
    Kelly grunted and took a long drink of coffee. “How’s the work?”
he asked.
    “Not too bad. Plenty of it,” Hewlett said.
    “Shelters mostly, huh?”
    “For now,” Hewlett said. “They’re supposed to be bringing down
some reactor parts next week, but nobody’s seen nothing on that yet. We put
together some earth movers last month, that’s about it.”
    “Any women?”
    “Just Hinkle here,” Hewlett said. “You can greez him up anytime
you want.”
    “Shut up,” Hinkle said.
    Hewlett laughed and made kissy noises at Hinkle.
    “Oh, there’s some,” Hewlett said. “Mostly spoken for or married,
though.”
    That don’t matter, Kelly thought. Not one damn bit.
    “There won’t be no whores until next year, I’d say. Hinkle here’s
got a woman, ain’t that right, Hinkle?”
    “Some people call it that,” Hinkle said.
    Hewlett found that funny and laughed loud. “ It. I like that. It. So she’s a it, huh? I like that.”
    Kelly grinned just to act a little polite.
    She will be when I get through with her.
    He took another long drink of the shitty coffee.
    The dispatcher, Frank Wallace, walked out of the toilet, tucking
in his shirt. He nodded at Kelly as he walked past them. “New guy, Frank,”
Hewlett said. “He just got in.”
    “Henry Kelly,” Kelly said.
    “Yeah, he’s on the list,” Frank said, pouring coffee and not
looking at Kelly. “Looks like you come highly recommended, Kelly.”
    “Maybe,” Kelly said.
    “You got tools?”
    Just one.
    “Nope.”
    “You got clothes, except what you’re wearin’?”
    “I got clothes. Bag’s on the dock.”
    “You better get it before it walks off.”
    “It ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
    Frank walked past him still not looking at him. “Suit yourself,”
he said. “I’ll get you checked in. Looks like you got a roommate, Hewlett.”
    “It don’t matter to me,” Hewlett said.
    Kelly needed a few things from the store and headed down after he
got settled in. It would give him a chance to check things out; to get the lay
of land and find out what was around. He didn’t think there were any cops yet,
but it wouldn’t hurt to take a look just to be sure.
    His shelter was located in roughly the middle of the cluster.
Walking in and out would give him a good view of what there was, but that could
work both ways; they could see him just as easily as he could see them. There
was nowhere to hide between the rows of flat-sided shelters.
    He walked through the cluster, going first left, then right,
trying to cover as much ground as he could, looking. As he got to the end of a
row, he saw one in the kitchen window of the last shelter. She was working at
the sink, and he could hear the garbage grinder working. Tight-cropped brown
hair, nice neck, strong shoulders. Perfect .
He smiled up at her as he passed.
    “Howdy,” she said with a brief smile.
    He smiled back real nice.
    He