Alien Assassin Read Free Page B

2g/Generators that provided equal compression whether in a front- or backwell. Yet being as small as she was, the ship only had one internal gravity generator. This didn’t cause a problem for Adam; he always kept the internal gravity cranked up to what he estimated to be at least Earth’s level, if not a little higher, in order to keep himself strong and his muscles toned. Yet it did present the rare visitor to his ship with difficulty moving about. That was all right; he never had that many visitors anyway.
    Adam slipped into the pilot seat and began the lift-off procedures. Kaylor – probably his only real friend outside of Earth – had once told him that while on-planet he always kept one of his generators active, just in case he had to make a quick exit. Adam had adopted this practice, and it had saved his hide on more than one occasion. So it wasn’t long before the Cassie-1 was lifting silently and smoothly off the surface of Hildoria, and heading for open space.
    As he reached the outer limits of the planet’s thin atmosphere, Adam spotted two contacts on his screen moving to intercept. This had been expected. He made no attempt to evade; rather he watched to verify their intent before taking action.
    Since the Cassie-1 had been originally built and owned by the Juireans, Adam had elected to save one special feature of that lineage – the ship’s original transponder. On Silea, Adam had a new primary transponder installed that masked the ship’s Juirean identity, otherwise everywhere he went local officials and luminaries would be swarming all over him and the ship, trying to make an impression and curious as to why a Juirean official would be arriving unannounced. The new transponder, although highly illegal, had solved that problem.
    But with a simple flick of a switch, Adam once again activated the Juirean transponder. Almost immediately, the two ships on his screen slowed. Then they paralleled his course for a moment before finally veering off.
    Even though he had no love lost for the Juireans, at times it was good to be the King!
     

    After setting the coordinates for Castor, Adam shed the alien-blood-stained pressure suit and took a quick shower. He then dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and then went to the ship’s small galley for something to eat. He took the plate of bland-tasting brown mush to the stateroom.
    The stateroom aboard the Cassie-1 was the only internal part of the ship that screamed opulence. Designed so a high-ranking Juirean could travel in luxury, it was huge, measuring twenty meters square, with a full-size bed to accommodate the seven-foot-tall Juireans, a private bathroom – grooming station, they called it – and an office area sporting a large metal desk and a four-meter long couch.
    The trip to Castor would take two days, and was the headquarters of Seton Amick, the gang leader who had hired Adam for the Bundnet hit. So after finishing his meal, Adam lay down on the couch and propped a pillow under his head. He had carried the boonie hat into the room with him, and now twirled it on his hand absent-mindedly. The floppy-brim hat had been made custom for him by tailors on K’ly. In fact, he had spent most of his first contract fee at the tailor shop. He had them make ten pair of jeans, several white and olive-colored t-shirts, a couple of polo-style shirts, two light jackets and two pair of rubber-soled boots. As he figured, even though he had to live in an alien-dominated universe, he didn’t have to dress like one!
    As he lie on the couch, Adam didn’t close his eyes. Instead, his gaze focused on the bulkhead at the end of the couch.
    The wall was covered with various pieces of paper and plastic, each holding a clue of some kind as to the location of Earth or the Klin hiding place in the Fringe. For the past nine months, when he wasn’t off exterminating some smelly alien creature, Adam could be found scouring the Library or following other leads trying to track down the