Mesmerized Read Free Page A

Stop making excuses not to leave.”
    “Tell me more,” Andrei said with a sigh, hope still a tiny ember in his belly.

Chapter 2
     
    “ W e’ve got company,” Kenner all but snarled as he stared off across the yard.
    Piper looked up from the fuel coupling that had nearly fried just the day before. They’d limped back, and she’d managed to land without any more damage. Storm season was upon them, they’d be grounded far more often, and she hated to go into it without a fat pile of credits to cushion any problems that might arise. Being down a bird would cause delays she would rather not have to afford. Thank the heavens her brother was such an amazing mechanic and could most likely fix it.
    Four men had just come through the main gate. She recognized them easily enough as the Imperial people who’d been attempting to entice her into running goods over the line, into the Imperium.
    “Imperial dogs,” he added.
    Unease slithered through her.
    She kept working. “Tell them I’ll be with them shortly. Let Eiriq know as well. I want some backup.”
    Her twin hesitated, she knew, wanting to deal with this on his own. He was the one with more military training, he’d always been fond of reminding her. And then she could remind him that the last time she let him handle things it had ended in a seven-person fistfight and two days in lockup.
    Instead, he exhaled slowly, wiping his hands. “Watch your step, Piper.”
    He stalked off, leaving her to clean up and steady her nerves. She began to scent ozone and knew a storm would be coming. The sky above darkened, deepened, and she hurried along.
    The heat rose from the ground in waves that battered her, stole her breath. All the recent storms so close together had left the air unsettled.
    Soon, hot, blast-furnace air would send dust hurtling through the sky with so much force that it’d flay the flesh from bone in less than three minutes in some of the worst storms out in the Wastelands. Visibility would be next to nothing, and the electrical fields would rub against each other, bringing a terrible need to grind teeth along with the stench of an Asphodel windstorm.
    Asphodel wasn’t for amateurs; that much was for certain. Just existing here meant a constant dance with the ’Verse itself.
    For some reason, this appealed to Piper. The very act of living there and making a life in the dust and canyons had been one of defiance for as long as she could remember. Though, she could admit it became tiring just treading water year after year.
    Certainly the increase in the thugs the Imperialists sent to the Edge over the last year or so disquieted their little family compound. They were not part of her life, nor did she want them to be. She may exist on the edge of the law, but she wasn’t a traitor.
    She paused, looking over the group waiting for her near the front gates. There were four of them. Each looked exactly like an Imperialist spy sent here to smuggle something very bad back and forth across Imperialist/Federation lines. She did not need this. In fact, it offended her sensibilities, a truly rare occurrence.
    “What the seven hells do they want anyway? I’ve said no three times now,” she said to Eiriq, who’d just joined her.
    In the distance the winds kicked up, sending the seeds of the storm upward, giving birth to the beginnings of it. The static in the air rose, bringing the hair at the back of her neck to stand.
    “Don’t know, but if we don’t get rid of them soon, we’ll be stuck with them until after the wind dies.” Eiriq motioned skyward.
    She quickened her steps until she came to a halt before them. Giving them what they expected, a dirt farmer with no formal education, she put her hands in her pockets and rocked back and forth on her heels. It would also save her the potentially troubling refusal of their hand clasp.
    “Storm brewing down in the caldera. Time to get under some cover. What brings you around these parts?”
    One of them eyed her,