Hellhole: Awakening Read Free Page B

a premium to the DZ planetary administrators.”
    Sunitha raised her thin eyebrows. “Oh, so now you’re a black-market trader?”
    “It’s more festive to have them toast their independence with something other than Sophie Vence’s wine.”
    Turlo and Sunitha found the crowded observation bar where they were supposed to meet their contact. Panoramic windowports showed sparkling Sonjeera below, and they watched the passenger pods and downboxes drop from orbit, and stringline haulers hurtling in on the Crown Jewel lines. Watching the time, feigning nonchalance, growing nervous. When their contact was late by ten minutes, Sunitha began to perspire; she drank two servings of hot, sweet kiafa, which only made her more jittery. Turlo pretended to be aloof, despite the knot in his stomach.
    A thin man with short brown hair and protruding ears sat beside them, startling Sunitha. He said in a low, conversational voice, “Been watching you. Had to make sure.”
    “We’re who you think we are,” Turlo said.
    “Depends on who you think we are,” Sunitha added, flashing her eyes at her husband.
    Toying with crumbs and drops of liquid on the tabletop, the stranger drew a casual script DZ, a symbol of Adolphus’s rebellion, then swept it away with the side of his hand. He leaned closer. “The General still has loyalists here, even one or two planetary leaders in the Crown Jewels. Not everybody accepts what the Diadem is doing. Tiber Adolphus isn’t the only one thinking of rebellion.”
    The spy, Dak Telom, was a midlevel officer of the Army of the Constellation who had access to supply records and ship movements. “I came in from Aeroc yesterday. The fleet is still being readied and loaded, but they’ll be launching soon. They’ll converge here at the Sonjeera hub, then set off for planet Hallholme. I have the specific details—total number of ships, weapons capabilities, crew complements—and of critical importance, their exact departure time and transit information.”
    Turlo smiled; he could feel his pulse racing. “That’s what the General needs.”
    “That’s everything the General needs,” Telom said. “He’d better make the most of it. We’ve all got a lot riding on him.”
    “Yes,” Sunitha said. “We do.”
    Dak Telom removed a foilpaper packet of nuts from his pocket, carefully tore it open, and dumped the nuts into his palm. He gobbled them in a single bite and tossed the empty wrapper on the table in front of Turlo. “Take that with you.” Turlo looked around for a recycler receptacle, but the spy put a hand on his wrist. He whispered, “Molecular imprinting on the inner liner. The General will know how to decode it. Use that data to keep the Deep Zone safe.”
    Dak Telom finished his kiafa in a single gulp and left without another word while Turlo pocketed the wrapper.

 
    4
    Although desolate Hellhole was considered the worst Deep Zone world, Tanja Hu could see that frozen Buktu was no prize either. The remote planetoid had only a gossamer-thin unbreathable atmosphere, showered by a heavy sleet of solar radiation.
    All things considered, she much preferred her own lush, tropical Candela.
    Nevertheless, Ian Walfor and two hundred hardy colonists had made the best of things on Buktu, even though the small world turned out to be far different from what the original probe data suggested. They had built their colony under difficult conditions and not only survived but thrived. That was what resourceful pioneers did. Deep Zone people, independent sorts who did not need the choke collar of the Constellation.
    Every time Tanja thought of the corrupt central government and the machinations of the bitch Michella, she wanted to hurt something. Thanks to the General, the frontier worlds had finally broken free, and Tanja took great satisfaction in that. Now, if only they could hold on to their independence.
    Ian Walfor’s ships from the industrial yards and spacedocks on Buktu would help ensure