Mercenaries Read Free

doesn’t one of them just propose?”
    â€œThey have. I keep saying no.” Remembering her parade of suitors, Trin grimaced. “None of them is anybody’s idea of Prince Charming.”
    The mercenary shook her head. “Hell of a birthday present.”
    â€œYou’re not kidding.” Trin glanced around for more eaves-droppers. The square was emptying out, colonists heading back to work in the surrounding shops and businesses. Some of them gave Trinity disapproving looks as they passed. She lowered her voice. “I’ve got to get off this planet. Is there any way I can talk to your captain, arrange for passage? I don’t have many credchits, but I’m more than willing to join the crew and work.”
    Cassidy frowned, her expression doubtful. “Well, we did loose a couple of guys at Dyson’s Hole, but . . . I don’t know, Trin. My sensors tell me you don’t have any nanotech implants. We’re a merc company—we fight people that eat unenhanced humans for lunch. Sometimes literally.”
    â€œI could get the implants.” In fact, she’d like nothing better. It would feel good to finally have the muscle to defend herself against people like the sheriff and his son. “Look, yours is the first ship we’ve seen in Rectitude in three years. The Maker only knows how long it’ll be before we get another one, and by then I’ll be married. The elders won’t be happy about my trying to leave now, but once I’ve got a husband, he’s not going to let me anywhere near another ship.” In her desperation she grabbed the other woman’s forearm. “I’ve got to get out of here now, Cassidy.”
    The mercenary glanced down at her hand, stiffening. Embarrassed, Trin hastily released her. Cassidy sighed. “I don’t blame you. I’ve visited my share of nutball colonies, but Orville’s Paradise seems even nuttier than most.” She hesitated a moment. “You’ll find the captain in the Spacer’s Tavern by that pitiful excuse for a shuttleport. His name is Nathan August. But I’ll tell you right now, you’re going to have to talk fast. He’s not going to want to take an unenhanced human on, no matter how short-handed we are.”
    Trin set her jaw. “I’ll convince him.”
    â€œYeah, well, good luck with that. You’re going to need it.”

    TRIN headed for the shuttleport at a pace just short of a run. The port was located on the outskirts of town, and she had to move fast if she was going to make it before the captain left.
    Moving in long strides, she ducked between two shops, her boot heels clicking fast on the pavement. But as she reached the end of the alley, a tall male figure suddenly stepped out in front of her. “Hello, Trinity.”
    â€œAndy.” Trin drew up in dismay.
    Andrew Makerson wore the uniform of a sheriff’s enforcer, its brown fabric snug across his bull shoulders, black boots gleaming. His white-blond hair was cut in a tight pelt. Like his father, the sheriff, he had a broad, beefy face that would have been handsome if not for the malice in his pale eyes. “Where you headed, Trin?”
    Of all her suitors, she feared Andy the most. Still, she was damned if she’d cower. “No place illegal, so I don’t see that it’s any concern of yours.”
    Andy’s eyes narrowed. “Since we’ll be getting married next week, I think it is. What were you doing talking to that infidel trash?”
    Trin bit back her instinctive protest— We’re not getting married, Andrew —and shrugged. “She said hello, so I spoke.”
    â€œYou don’t talk to mongrels, Trinity. She didn’t look genetically pure to me. Not with those eyes.”
    Trin had no idea what it was about Cassidy’s eyes that had struck Andrew as nonwhite. Probably some tiny detail only an Orvillian would have noticed.