Cobra Outlaw - eARC Read Free

time of year, it hits the horizon about three in the morning. Question is, was obvious what Kicker was going for?”
    “You know of some other anvil in Archway or the Deuel Center?” Jin asked. “Especially an anvil that gets raised from an underground storage compartment or something?”
    “Nothing that I—wait a second,” Lorne interrupted himself as a sudden bizarre thought occurred to him. “Did you ever hear of a show called Anne Villager ?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “It’s a paranormal psychological thriller drama mishmash,” Lorne said. “Locally produced in Archway. So cheesy that no one admits to watching it, but pretty much everyone does. Anyway, there’s a line in the opening about Anne’s murder, and how she rose for vengeance at the stroke of midnight.”
    “And…?”
    “Don’t you see?” Lorne said, starting to feel foolish for even bringing it up. “Anne—Vil—rising?”
    For a long, painful moment his mother was silent. Then, she tilted her head thoughtfully. “And you say no one admits to watching it?”
    “No one older than twelve, anyway,” Lorne said. “What do you think?”
    Jin gave a little shrug. “I think it’s worth trying. As you said, we can’t just sit here wondering what’s happening out there. So an hour after midnight?”
    “Right,” Lorne said, trying to stifle his own misgivings. Leaving the cave would be a risk, all right. A big one. But it had to be tried.
    Besides, even if the Marines caught him, he was sure that he hadn’t seen enough of Warrior’s navigational readings on the trip to Qasama for them to pull the planet’s location from his mind. He was almost positive.
    “For now we should get some rest,” Jin broke into his thoughts. “And probably some food.”
    “Right.” Lorne looked around the cave. “And we might want to straighten up a little, too. I’d hate for any new allies we pick up to think we keep a messy hideout.”

CHAPTER TWO
    “I understand your concerns, Colonel Reivaro,” Governor-General Chintawa said, his voice heavy with the seriousness of the situation, and—Paul Broom suspected—more than a little fatigue. Sunrise, in Paul’s opinion, was way too early for this sort of confrontation, and from the circles under Chintawa’s eyes it looked like he was of much the same mind. “But you also have to understand ours,” Chintawa continued. “Incidents involving the Broom family always seem to create repercussions far beyond the family’s political, economic, or social standing.”
    Reivaro snorted. “Please,” he said contemptuously. “Let’s dispense with the dramatics, shall we?”
    Paul had seldom felt less like smiling than he did right now. Even so, he felt a bitter-edged smile tweak at his lips. After the deliberately choreographed slaughter at Archway that had led to Paul’s arrest, Reivaro was the last person who should be complaining about dramatics.
    Still, he could understand the colonel’s frustration. From the moment the Marines had ushered Paul into their aircar it had been clear that Reivaro had expected them to escort him to Capitalia, transfer him to a Dominion landing shuttle, and take him directly to the orbiting warship Algonquin , where Captain Lij Tulu was no doubt eagerly waiting to put their new prisoner under the MindsEye brain sifter.
    Only it hadn’t worked out that way. The party had reached the Dome only to discover that Governor-General Chintawa had ordered the Dominion landing shuttles locked down, with Cobra guards on hand to ensure the order was obeyed.
    There’d been some brief and heated discussions, along with some unsubtle reminders about what Marine combat-suit firepower could do to Cobras. But it was clear that neither side wanted a repeat of the Archway confrontation, and so Paul had instead been put into one of the Dome’s holding cells—under Cobra and Dominion guard—while the whole thing was sorted out.
    Apparently, Chintawa wasn’t ready to give him up. At