Mercenary Instinct (a science fiction romance) Read Free

to his feet, as if to
charge after them, but Ankari pointed her pistol at his eyes. He
considered her for a long second, but the burning hole in the back
of his shoulder must have convinced him that her aim was decent. He
gave her a wry smirk and even a salute, then went back to shooting
at the people on the hill.
    “‘Suppose I shouldn’t feel indignant that he
sees me as so little of a threat that he’s turning his back on me,”
Ankari said and dropped below the wall again. “That way,” she added
when Lauren gave her a questioning look. Ankari jerked her head in
a direction that would take them away from the conflict but that
should let them circle back to their ship. She hoped the Marie
Curie was still hidden beneath that overhang and that nobody
had noticed it. She didn’t want to return to a league of bounty
hunters—or slavers or whatever these people were—lined up in front
of the craft.
    Shots continued to fire, but they grew less
loud as Ankari and Lauren scurried through the ruins. If other
treasure hunters lurked in the area, Ankari and Lauren didn’t run
into them on their way back to the ship. Scavengers or not, they
were probably smart enough to stay away from a firefight—at least
until the carrion birds were circling and the bodies could be
looted. As she weaved around and over the dusty ruins, Ankari
acknowledged that she and her team were technically scavengers down
here too. And they, too, ultimately wanted to make money from what
they were pulling off the planet, if in a roundabout way.
    “Judge not lest ye be judged...” Wasn’t that
some saying from one of the old Earth religions?
    When the Marie Curie came into view,
sans a brute squad, Ankari gasped a relieved, “Yes!”
    The rainbow-striped freighter with its flower
highlights wasn’t exactly designed to blend in here—or anywhere—but
with night’s approach, the deep shadows beneath the overhang should
be hiding it, at least from the air.
    “Jamie, you there?” Ankari asked into the
comm. “If you could open the door, we’d appreciate it.” No need to
mention the squad of men she feared would be tracking them to this
spot within minutes.
    “Mission accomplished, boss?” Jamie asked as
the big cargo bay door on the back lowered, providing a ramp for
Ankari and Lauren to run up.
    “Yes, but we may have company soon. Get us
out of here.”
    “Will do.”
    The deck shivered beneath its shaggy blue
carpeting as Ankari and Lauren ran past the science stations that
dominated the old cargo hold . Ankari charged into the
compact navigation cabin first, breathing hard.
    Jamie, hands on the controls, glanced back,
her blue eyes widening. “You weren’t kidding. Someone really is
after you.”
    Twenty years old with blonde pigtails, Jamie
didn’t look old enough to be a pilot, much less the ship’s
engineer, but, like Lauren, she was willing to work for a share of
the business. Few people with more experience—and without criminal
records—were so inclined.
    “Yes. Are we in the air yet?” The view on the
screen was depressingly similar to the view Ankari had left
behind.
    “We’re almost out from under the ledge,”
Jamie said dryly.
    “This ship’s a real cheetah, isn’t she?”
    “She’s not that bad.” Jamie gave the console
a friendly pat.
    Lauren stepped into the hatchway. “If you’ll
give me that pack, I can get to work.” Her face was red, her
clothes were torn, and she was smeared with dirt, and she wanted to
get right to her research?
    Ankari could have hugged her, though she
wasn’t ready to drag her eyes from the viewer to remove her pack,
not with the dusty ground inching along at a snail’s pace. Once
they were in the air... Better yet, once they were completely off
the planet, it would be a different story.
    “Let’s see if we make it out from under this
ledge first,” Ankari said.
    “Almost there.” Jamie tapped a display
flashing a clearance warning.
    The burly captain stepped out from