Read Online Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy - Free Book Online

in there. It’d be dangerous to mess with any of it.”
    Finn nodded. He believed her, then. He believed she wanted this to be over as much as he did.
    â€œAnd if you die, my brain fries,” he said.
    â€œThat’s it.”
    â€œYou’re not suicidal, are you?”
    She examined his face for any trace of humor. His tone was deadpan, but his eyes glittered.
    â€œThat warning we got,” she said, sticking to the subject, “that’s supposed to let you know you’re going out of range. Or, in this case, that the splinter doesn’t like being interfered with.” Her wet-teck interface quickly analyzed the stored reflection. “You get zero leeway, instant detonation, once we’re separated by two thousand meters.” The interface fed her new data. “Make that one thousand, nine hundred and eighty-nine meters.”
    â€œHatchet job,” he echoed. “They couldn’t even get that right.”
    Edie leaned against the opposite bulkhead. “How did this happen? You didn’t agree to it, did you?”
    He stared at the patch of blood drying on the deck. “That outworlder woman on the station, Lancer, she bribes our handler to let us escape—if we help her grab this A-grade teckie so her people won’t have to risk their own asses in case it goes wrong. She told us we’d be freed.”
    He paused, swallowed, rubbed his throat, having trouble speaking through disused vocal cords. He continued more slowly.
    â€œI didn’t believe a word of it, except the part about you.” His eyes met hers again, and Edie remembered his trust in her abilities, back in the freight car. “I’d seen you around. Heard things. I knew you could break the boundary link, just like she said. Figured it was worth it, even if they were lying about the rest. It was worth trying, for a shot at freedom.”
    â€œBut this leash—they didn’t tell you about that.” It wasn’t a question.
    Finn set his jaw. “No, I never agreed to this .” He flicked his hand at his skull. “Now it’s a life sentence, right?”
    More like a death sentence. Edie hugged her arms around herself. “So what do we do?”
    Finn considered in silence. She could see the cogs turning in his mind behind those unwavering eyes. Then, “When do we jump?”
    â€œWe already jumped once. I don’t know where from, or where to.”
    â€œWhat’s the mission?”
    She shrugged, feeling out of her depth. “These guys are BRAT seed rovers. Trading illegal biocyph.” She remembered Haller’s unread memos. There must be information in there about the mission, or at least about a briefing.
    Finn stood, eyeing her carefully. “So what are you thinking?”
    â€œI’m thinking we have to get back to that medfac. Find the infojack who made the leash. Or someone else who knows what they’re doing. I mean, if it’s even possible without…” Without killing you . She couldn’t say it.
    â€œHow much will that someone cost us?”
    â€œA lot. It’s not a service you pick out of the catalog.”
    â€œWell, I don’t know about you, but I’m broke.”
    She smiled grimly, appreciating his levity. “They told me I’d get twenty thousand for this run, plus the same in bonuses.”
    â€œIs forty enough?”
    â€œMight be. So you’re saying we should go ahead with the mission?”
    â€œWhat do you think?”
    â€œDon’t keep asking me that. It’s your life we’re playing with.”
    â€œI need to know where you stand.”
    Where did she stand? She’d been trying to figure out her own future, but now his was inextricably intertwined. “Ididn’t ask to be here, either. I might’ve stuck with them for a while. But not now. Not with you forced along for the ride.” She swallowed a bitter lump in her throat, remembering the dead