Read Online Insidious by Michael McCloskey - Free Book Online Page A

bars,’ which is on the cargo manifest of the vessel Silvado ?”
    “Yes.”
    “The shipment has been logged. Your blue status is confirmed despite a long absence.”
    “Thanks so much, I’d hate to have to fall all the way back to indigo,” she said sarcastically. Despite a deep competitive streak, she’d only managed to work her way up to blue so far, since she spent most of her time away from the deep space stations. She ground her teeth.
    Aldriena waited until the robot started to point out her sidearm.
    “There appears to be—”
    Aldriena slapped the weapon onto the counter. She’d scratch the damn faux wood yet. The gun looked like a retro-styled stunner trying to imitate an old auto pistol. The robot’s voice skipped, abandoning its request.
    “This item. Identify,” it said.
    “One-shot stunner,” Aldriena lied. She didn’t mention its function as a Circle Four blinder. She had given it the uninspired name C4B. Circle Fours were overbuilt and tough from top to bottom, but where there was money, there was a way. Her sonic weapon would break the audio pickups of security robots, and she knew it could shatter the camera lenses of a Circle Four right through their protective plastic bubbles. She believed it capable of doing the same to most other security models.
    The gun was expensive, but Black Core had enough money to give its operatives good weapons. Especially ones assigned to Project Insidious.
    The slender-armed robot dropped the weapon into her small box as it always did.
    “You are cleared. Welcome to Thermopylae.”
    Welcome to wacko world , Aldriena echoed to herself.
    She snatched up C4B and holstered it in her gear by dropping it into a webbed holder affixed to the inside of the armor. Her own curves left plenty of a gap for it to fit comfortably behind the flat torso plate.
    She examined the countertop for signs of her abuse but found none.
    “This counter is all scratched up,” she said anyway.
    “I’ll schedule a repair,” replied the machine.
    “Good. Because I expected better.”
    “Your complaint has been logged.”
    She walked into an atrium beyond the checking lanes. The floor looked like marble, but she thought it must be a plastic several times lighter than real marble. At least the plants nestled in every corner were real. Each giant pot held a large exotic plant growing from a dense knot of airscrub grass at its base. Every station had the oxygen-producing grass, although they all chose to place it in their own way.
    She saw two other people moving through corridors exiting the atrium but ignored them. She found a comfortable sling chair placed between two stubby palm trees and she threw herself down. She closed her eyes, sighed, and linked up to the common environ.
    She opened her eyes and found herself in her virtual Thermopylae home chamber. She checked the chronometer and made a few vain changes to her avatar until she caught herself.
    You’re wasting your time.
    Thermopylae’s infuriating shared environ included a layer that obfuscated everyone’s real identity by showing a different avatar to other observers. Any changes she made would be for her benefit alone. Aldriena stopped preening.
    Technically, inhabitants weren’t supposed to be able to tell anyone’s sex whether they were incarnate or in the virtual setting, but Aldriena had learned where the limits were. She knew how to drop the right hints so that most people would identify her sex. She noticed a definite shift in the kind of attention she received once a male had recognized her as female in her gear. They liked to push the crazy rules almost as much as she did, and it made it easier for her to collect her data if they were observing her in the enhanced light of idle sexual interest.
    She checked the environ people finder and found the majority of station inhabitants assembled for a public challenge. She sent a command and instantly transferred her avatar into the arena.
    The other avatars were milling