Faring Soul - Science Fiction Romance Read Free

through the opening between
the chair and the official standing next to it, his hand to his
ears. This time, when her boots contacted the floor she let herself
roll forward, the case tucked up against her chest to protect
it.
    The roll brought her to a sprawling
halt, five meters beyond the milling, robed men. She picked up the
case, got to her feet, spotted the back door Bedivere had found on
the radar scan of the building an hour before landing the ship and
ran like hell.
* * * * *
    The streets of Shanterry were nice and
straight, but they were narrow. Bedivere couldn’t land here without
destroying buildings. Destruction of property would build
resentment against them, when all they wanted to do was take their
fair share of the deal. Catherine had left the bag with the
agreed-upon payment in it sitting on the table.
    So she gripped the handle of the case
and kept running. “Bedivere!”
    “I’ve got your location. There’s a
park, three kilometers ahead of you and two blocks over. It’s big
enough to take the ship.”
    “See you there.”
    Behind her, Catherine heard shouts and
running boots. Soon, air cars and ground cars would join the chase.
But she was two hundred meters ahead of them and pursuit just made
her run faster.
    She had to get two blocks over, so she
started jagging and jigging through side streets, always keeping
count of how far north she had gone. She could shift farther north
than the park, but that would mean having to come back south to
reach it and possibly running into her pursuit. So she headed east
more than she travelled north, dodging and ducking all the way.
    When the air cars came overhead, using
spotlights, she turned into a doorway and leaned against the closed
door, catching her breath. It was a residential building, but no
one came to see who had entered. Perhaps the man of the building
had been at the meeting. In this patriarchal world, no one would
think to come and check for themselves if the man wasn’t there.
    She pressed her ear against the door,
listening, then checked in with Bedivere. “I should hire myself out
to a Federation cruiser,” she said. “Good food, decent
entertainment and all you have to do is make sure the passengers
are having a good time. None of this running and dodging people
with weapons.”
    “The Federation would take you in a
heartbeat.”
    “Yeah, but not to give me a job on
their luxury liners,” she said dryly. “Where now?”
    “If you can get through the building,
there is no one on the street south of you. They’re anticipating
your direction and everyone is moving north east.” He paused. “You
could always dump the tech.”
    She pushed herself off the door and
headed along the dim corridor. It was late at night by Shantan
standards. Everyone would have been asleep, although she doubted
anyone was still asleep after all the commotion and noise
outside.
    “I spent two years saving to buy this
stupid thing. I’m not dumping it now,” she told Bedivere. “Besides,
I’m not leaving you.”
    “I’m the one flying the ship. Wouldn’t
I have to leave you ?” He sounded amused. “I’m three minutes
away. You’re about five minutes away, if you keep to the same
pace.”
    “Easier said than done,” Catherine said
dryly, moving through the corridor, looking for the back door. Or
the front door, maybe. She couldn’t linger long enough to figure
out Shanta domestic arrangements. But a window would work just as
well. “All that Soward champagne is starting to tell.”
    “I’ll wait,” he assured her.
    “You’ll scare the locals into next
month.” A jump-ship hovering over land was very loud, very bright
and tended to stir up weather that included small tornados and
localized hail and rain storms, all from irritating the atmosphere
to the point where it had to scratch and sneeze.
    “I can live with people being afraid of
me.”
    “Liar.” She found the window she needed
and used the butt of the knife she pulled out of her