Read Online Loralynn Kennakris 3: Asylum by Owen R. O'Neill, Jordan Leah Hunter - Free Book Online

you’ve been stoppin’ for some recreation here and there along the way.” She caught and held the ensign’s watery eye. “Or you’ve been doin’ a righteously shit job of recon.”
    “Um—ah—”
    “I don’t care which it is, Piffle. Thank gawd you’re not my problem. Now that you’ve found me, here’s what you’re gonna do.” With a hand on the narrow shoulder, she turned him about and propelled him forcefully through the doorway. “You’re gonna report back that I’ll check in at 1400—”
    “Make it 1500,” put in Shiloh with a wink and snicker.
    “1500. No. 1530. Run along now. That’s a good ensign.”
    “But, ma’am.” Pfeiffer was quivering on the threshold. “How do I—? It says immediate —”
    “Improvise and overcome, Ensign.” And she shut the door on his incontinent stammering. “Shit. Eight months on the line, and they can’t even give us three full days.”
    Lieutenant Wells approached with more sway in her hips than was strictly necessary and laced both arms about her much taller lover’s neck. “Then we’ll just have to make the best of it.”
    Lewis took possession of those round hips with both hands and dipped her head for a kiss. “Suppose so. Now that we’re both up, where were we?”
    “You said something about Oh fuck me , I think?”

Z-Day minus 32 (PM)
Port Lux, Saarland District;
Tenebris, Cygnus Sector
    “Heya, Captain! What the hell’s up now?”
    Walking across the melt-rock paving of the open concourse that connected the flyer park with the rambling eyesore of Saarland District Headquarters (formerly a school, a casino, and—according to local legend—a brothel), behind which rose the steep stone-dotted scarps that threw the heat of the blue-white primary down on Port Lux, Minerva Lewis turned at the sound of the familiar voice.
    “Hi, Anders. Wish I knew. What’ve you heard?”
    A short lieutenant with a gymnast’s build, her company XO, sauntered up. “Seems we’ve been amalgamated.”
    “We?”
    “Yeah, they brought what’s left of the company here. Just got in a few hours ago.”
    “Amalgamated with whom?”
    “The 321st and two platoons of the old 35th. They haven’t told you yet?”
    “Nope. They sent this squirt around outta calling hours—too green to know you don’t pass out in a whore’s rack with your uniform on.”
    “So he had seen a naked woman before.”
    “Dunno. But he has now. Why?”
    “They were still laughing about it when I reported to the new CO. Y’all made quite an impression, I gather. You’d think nobody ever pulled a gun on him neither.”
    “Probably haven’t. Training ain’t shit these days.”
    “It’ll serve him well in the end. How’s Shiloh? She alright?”
    Lieutenant Wells had been on Camperdown ; her squadron rotated out the week before the Miranda action. They’d both learned of the big carrier’s destruction just that PM.
    “She’s okay. A little tight around the edges.”
    “They take her outta the line?”
    “They did. Sending her back for a training billet. She’s overdue, but she’s still pissed about it. But whatcha gonna do?”
    Anders shrugged in philosophic agreement. “Give ‘er my best when you see her.”
    “Wilco.” Lewis checked her xel. “Gotta square up and sup with the devil. What’s he like?”
    “Kerr?” Another shrug. “Brand new light colonel. Terran. A bit young. Still got the parade gloss on him. I expect he’ll be okay once he acquires some field polish.”
    The lieutenant colonel’s service record, which Lewis was glancing over, suggested as much. She furled her xel. “Yeah. I just hope the polishing don’t cost too damn much.”
    *     *     *
    Lieutenant Colonel Oren Kerr was a fit-looking man of medium height, with brown eyes, blond hair, and that peculiarly erect carriage of the newly promoted. A bit young was even younger than she’d expected; clearly he’d been marked for rapid advancement. Minerva Lewis made him out to be