isn’t she?”
Bean choked on a laugh. “Gotta run, I hear the next meeting arriving. Thanks again for the flowers.”
Some people were really easy to please. “No big. See you this aft.” I signed off and flipped my tablet over to GooglePlex mode. Time to do some digging on Bromelain III, and not in the nice, manicured fields of the KarmaCorp briefing materials.
3
I yawned as I crossed the threshold into the offices of the woman who ran KarmaCorp in this part of the galaxy. Should have stopped for some caffeine. Dealing with Yesenia was tricky enough without the loggy brain that always hit me after long-haul space flights and late-morning naps. “Afternoon, Bean.”
The small, lithe woman behind the desk rolled back the balance ball she used as a chair and bounced up. Her dreads bobbed madly as she closed the distance and placed a big, hard kiss on my cheek. “Kish! You look like hell. Didn’t Tyra feed you and make you take a nap?”
I grinned, well used to the unnecessary mothering. “She did. I saved a piece of bread for you.” I dug in my bag to rescue it before it turned to crumbs.
Bean opened a corner of the small container and inhaled deeply—and then her eyes shot open. “You got real butter?”
“Ssh.” I laughed, quietly. “You want to share that with half the habitat?”
She tore off the lid and popped a good chunk of it into her mouth. “Nope.” She chewed twice and closed her eyes, humming a note of quiet bliss.
That was better for my loggy brain than caffeine. “Boss lady ready for me?”
Bean waved her hand vaguely in the direction of Yesenia’s inner sanctum.
I took that as invitation and stepped toward the door. It slid open moments before I got there. Yesenia came around her gleaming desk, hand out in royal greeting. “Welcome back, Journeywoman Drinkwater.”
The urge to tweak her was irresistible. “Gods, Yesenia—when are you going to call me Kish like the rest of the solar system?”
Her eyes glinted sharp steel. “I very rarely seek to be like the rest of the solar system.”
Truer words were never said—and I wasn’t dumb enough to mess with the steel in her eyes twice. “I hear you have a new assignment for me.”
“Always straight to business.” She sighed, which froze me in my boots. “I used to be like you, mind always focused from one assignment to the next.”
Yesenia was a Fixer legend, one of the few Travelers who’d done her stint and could still talk in complete sentences. I didn’t know whether she started out tough as nails, but she’d certainly finished that way. Regret wasn’t in her vocabulary. I stepped very carefully, on high alert for exploding space debris. “KarmaCorp trains us to focus.”
“Yes, we do.” Something in her demeanor shifted. “And you do it very well, Lakisha—I never meant to suggest otherwise. What do you know of your next assignment?”
I knew that a backwoods planet needed a Fixer—and I knew the situation had somehow merited enough attention to get labeled high security. “The file said ‘Ears Only.’”
“It did.” She waited a long moment, her face the impassive mask that could start a miscreant babbling in two seconds flat. “Lucinda didn’t fill you in any further?”
I didn’t throw friends under mining carts, and this time, Bean had known very little. “She told me Bromelain III was an outpost colony.”
Yesenia raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “A little weak on your quadrant geography, are you?”
There was no point trying to explain standard human weakness to a woman who had none. “I’ve learned a little more since I got the file.”
She tapped her fingers on a tablet that could probably turn mine into a pile of metal shards without even trying hard. “Other than a quick review while you were in contact with Lucinda this morning, I have no record of you accessing the briefing materials.”
Knowing KarmaCorp tracked my every move was far less annoying than having it shoved in my
Bean choked on a laugh. “Gotta run, I hear the next meeting arriving. Thanks again for the flowers.”
Some people were really easy to please. “No big. See you this aft.” I signed off and flipped my tablet over to GooglePlex mode. Time to do some digging on Bromelain III, and not in the nice, manicured fields of the KarmaCorp briefing materials.
3
I yawned as I crossed the threshold into the offices of the woman who ran KarmaCorp in this part of the galaxy. Should have stopped for some caffeine. Dealing with Yesenia was tricky enough without the loggy brain that always hit me after long-haul space flights and late-morning naps. “Afternoon, Bean.”
The small, lithe woman behind the desk rolled back the balance ball she used as a chair and bounced up. Her dreads bobbed madly as she closed the distance and placed a big, hard kiss on my cheek. “Kish! You look like hell. Didn’t Tyra feed you and make you take a nap?”
I grinned, well used to the unnecessary mothering. “She did. I saved a piece of bread for you.” I dug in my bag to rescue it before it turned to crumbs.
Bean opened a corner of the small container and inhaled deeply—and then her eyes shot open. “You got real butter?”
“Ssh.” I laughed, quietly. “You want to share that with half the habitat?”
She tore off the lid and popped a good chunk of it into her mouth. “Nope.” She chewed twice and closed her eyes, humming a note of quiet bliss.
That was better for my loggy brain than caffeine. “Boss lady ready for me?”
Bean waved her hand vaguely in the direction of Yesenia’s inner sanctum.
I took that as invitation and stepped toward the door. It slid open moments before I got there. Yesenia came around her gleaming desk, hand out in royal greeting. “Welcome back, Journeywoman Drinkwater.”
The urge to tweak her was irresistible. “Gods, Yesenia—when are you going to call me Kish like the rest of the solar system?”
Her eyes glinted sharp steel. “I very rarely seek to be like the rest of the solar system.”
Truer words were never said—and I wasn’t dumb enough to mess with the steel in her eyes twice. “I hear you have a new assignment for me.”
“Always straight to business.” She sighed, which froze me in my boots. “I used to be like you, mind always focused from one assignment to the next.”
Yesenia was a Fixer legend, one of the few Travelers who’d done her stint and could still talk in complete sentences. I didn’t know whether she started out tough as nails, but she’d certainly finished that way. Regret wasn’t in her vocabulary. I stepped very carefully, on high alert for exploding space debris. “KarmaCorp trains us to focus.”
“Yes, we do.” Something in her demeanor shifted. “And you do it very well, Lakisha—I never meant to suggest otherwise. What do you know of your next assignment?”
I knew that a backwoods planet needed a Fixer—and I knew the situation had somehow merited enough attention to get labeled high security. “The file said ‘Ears Only.’”
“It did.” She waited a long moment, her face the impassive mask that could start a miscreant babbling in two seconds flat. “Lucinda didn’t fill you in any further?”
I didn’t throw friends under mining carts, and this time, Bean had known very little. “She told me Bromelain III was an outpost colony.”
Yesenia raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “A little weak on your quadrant geography, are you?”
There was no point trying to explain standard human weakness to a woman who had none. “I’ve learned a little more since I got the file.”
She tapped her fingers on a tablet that could probably turn mine into a pile of metal shards without even trying hard. “Other than a quick review while you were in contact with Lucinda this morning, I have no record of you accessing the briefing materials.”
Knowing KarmaCorp tracked my every move was far less annoying than having it shoved in my
Similar Books
Once Upon a Summer Day
Dennis L. McKiernan
Second Chance
Sian James
Your Miracle Is In Your Mouth
Joseph Prince
Baseball Great
Tim Green
Dark Waters (2013)
Toni Anderson
Five Go Off to Camp
Enid Blyton
Whiskey Kisses
Addison Moore
Loving Daughters
Olga Masters
Sandpipers' Secrets
Jade Archer