Connor Rix Chronicles 1: Rules of Force Read Free Page A

newer
construction that had sprung up in Las Cruces to accommodate the phenomenal
growth of the private spaceflight industry. It was set back from the main roads
and quiet, a good place to ride out the latest pain session. When checking in,
the scanreaders had also unquestioningly accepted the documents he used for his
Number Three identity, so his true digital footprint for this trip would be
nearly invisible.
    He ate a
leisurely breakfast in the lobby, methodically turning over in his mind the
previous day’s events. It was still early when he pulled out of the parking lot
heading south and east toward New San Antonio.
    To home and her.
     
    ****
     
    Rix turned into
the parking lot of the Ramirez Brothers’ Taqueria as he usually did before
finally returning home. He ordered his usual dinner and paid with the newly
issued silver coins, tiny drops of moonlight that he passed to the cashier.
From the booth at the front corner he sipped ice tea, looking out the window
toward the industrial park across the street where he kept his living quarters.
He surveyed the cars and trucks in the lot, watched the comings and goings.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
    Marie had not
pinged him on his Everything device, and a silent E-Thing was a good E-Thing as
far as he was concerned. He was pretty sure the Atlantic States of America’s
security services had stopped looking for him, but he knew old grudges from The
Breakup died hard.
    Marie was
particularly vulnerable now, and he had hated to leave her to travel to New
Mexico Territory, but Open Sky had made it hard to say no. The pay was very
solid for the job. But he had been shocked at how easily they had located him. It
revived the jumpiness he had felt in previous years. You think you cover
your tracks….
    Rix finished
eating then ordered tortilla soup to go for Marie. He drove across the street
and pulled around to the back of building C, opened the garage with his remote,
and pulled his truck inside. His motorcycle was parked where he left it,
meaning Marie had not needed to go anywhere.
    He trotted up
the stairs, and made his way across the catwalk to the office on the second
floor. Inside was the passage to the unit next door where they lived. He
punched in his security codes, unlocked the deadbolts, and went inside.
    Marie was awake,
of course. No one could sneak up on her. But she continued to lie still on the
bed, smiling at him, letting him look her over, curves partly wrapped in
sheets. The light from the setting sun streaming through the high windows lit
her from behind, the warm glow highlighting even the fine hairs on her arm.
    She slowly
raised up on one elbow.
    “Hey baby,” she
said softly.
    “My Marie. How
are you feeling?”
    “Well, I can’t
say you didn’t warn me. This isn’t nearly as easy as the blood boost
treatment.”
    There was no
denying that. Biofilm was a bitch, he knew firsthand. The first biofilm
application was the hardest. It sank into your pores, invaded your cells. But
when it was done, you were largely impervious to bacteriological and viral
infections. Mostly.
    Of course, after
the first couple days of biofilm applications, many wondered if the occasional
flu wasn’t so bad after all. Or even flesh-eating bacteria. In fact, the
side-effects were still what was keeping the treatment off the above-ground,
legitimate Modifications market.
    “So. Do we have
a job?”
    “We have a job,”
he said, grinning.
    “They didn’t try
to pay you in paper, did they?”
    He shook his
head. “All bullion, deposited in all the right places. Plus access to Open
Sky’s parallel net.”
    She laid back
down, still smiling, and performed a leisurely stretch. “Rich as Australians,
are we?”
    “Well, I
wouldn’t go that far.”
    “So what is the
job?”
    He told her what
he had been shown and what Open Space wanted. He described the scene from the
security video.
    She was silent.
And suddenly looked newly tired.
     
    ****
     
    Later, after he
had