Read Online Faring Soul - Science Fiction Romance by Tracy Cooper-Posey - Free Book Online

assured him.
“Lilita is a pillow talker.”
    Brant’s smile this time was a delighted
one, making his face light up and making him seem much younger.
    “But I’m fairly sure the arrangement is
already ended,” Catherine added. “I like to stay on top of such
things. Even the most casual of sex can ruin working relationships.
But Bedivere seems to have extricated himself without
complications, as usual.”
    They reached the docking bay doors and
Catherine pressed her hand against the scanner and leaned against
the door to open it. “So you learned a lot with one night of
observation,” she concluded. “Is that your hobby, measuring
people?”
    “I thought it was my job,” Brant said
gravely. “Security doesn’t stop at the airlock.”
    That gave Catherine something to think
about other than the endlessly fascinating problem of making a
living.

Chapter Seven
    Kemp Rodagh stepped aboard the next day
and stowed his gear in the best of the passenger rooms. Bedivere
ran all the usual background checks and Catherine matched Kemp’s
DNA to the fedcore banks.
    Once the jump was initiated, it would
take two weeks to reach the Soward gates. It was considered to be a
small jump, one that the really big Federation cruisers could do in
a few days. But Kemp was paying for a non-Federation vessel and an
extra degree of discretion.
    “Soward isn’t only home to the best
wine in the universe,” Brant pointed out as they headed back to the
dock after meeting Kemp for the first time.
    “The Jourden Cartel is still in
business?” Catherine asked.
    “Not in a way that draws Federation
attention, but they objected to the preaching we did, so we had our
run-ins with them.”
    “They’re anti-humanist?”
    “They’re pro-profit and they’ve been
around for a couple of centuries. Kemp says he’s going back to
comfort a dying relative. It might even be true, but if he was
cartel, he wouldn’t be looking for discreet passage. He would take
the cheapest Federation shuttle he could find, or his cartel
buddies would put up for a luxury berth on one of the really fast
ones.”
    “The cartel used to have the Soward
system locked down pretty tight. As they’re still in business, that
probably hasn’t changed. If he’s trying to get home without the
Cartel knowing, I’d do it the way he is.” Catherine glanced at
Brant. “This could be interesting.”
    Kemp’s background checked out as clear.
Bedivere specifically searched for possible cartel connections, but
came up empty. “There’s no signs of tampering on anything,” he
said, flipping through screens of information. “I think he’s
exactly what he says he is, a family man heading back to see a
dying relative, who doesn’t want to have to deal with the Cartel to
do so.”
    “That’s right, they group into families
on Soward,” Catherine murmured.
    “That’s how the Cartel came into
being,” Brant said. “Individuals identifying with groups, giving
rise to an outsider/us complex.”
    “Kemp left Soward and was reoriented, I
suppose,” Bedivere replied.
    “It’s amazing he was allowed to leave
in the first place,” Catherine said. “If the Cartel is so powerful,
they wouldn’t like one of their own leaving.”
    “Perhaps he didn’t ask,” Brant said.
“Maybe he left the same way he’s returning.”
    “That would explain a lot,” Catherine
said.
    And so Kemp was invited aboard. Brant
reported he had been tucked into his stateroom and Bedivere sent
Kemp an invitation to the last meal of the day on behalf of the
captain. They got busy with departure protocols and jump
preparation.
    Darwin’s gates were only three standard
hours from the terminal at best sublight speed, including
acceleration time. It meant the jump preparations had to be hurried
but they had done this so often, even with Lilita mixed into the
process, that there was little risk they would have to go through
any expensive deceleration process at the gates because they
weren’t