Pledge Allegiance Read Free Page A

night,” she said. There was no humor in her voice despite the sarcastic comment. I wondered what it would take to make her show an actual emotion.
    “Just perfect,” I said.
    “You going to stay in that doorway all night?”
    I looked around at the dry doorway and the rain lashing down onto the street. “Looks like it.”
    She looked up at the night sky through the car window and said, “Do you ever wish you were up there again, Blake? Up among the stars?”
    The honest answer to that question would be “All the time” but I wasn’t going to let her know that. Instead, I shrugged and said, “Maybe. Sometimes.”
    She nodded as if she knew I wasn’t telling the whole truth. “If you want, you can be up there tonight. Solomon Vess wanted to meet with you on his ship, The October Girl . She’s in orbit around the planet. We can go right now, if you like.”
    I felt a shudder of excitement at the prospect of being in space again. Sure, I would have to listen to this Vess guy, but at least I’d be dry and warm. And it wasn’t as if I had anything better to do.
    I looked at the homeless guy in the corner and said, “Hey, buddy, you take this.” I slid the plastic box containing my belongings toward him.
    I got up and ran to the car’s passenger-side door, sliding in next to Baltimore quickly to avoid the rain.
    She pressed a button to close the darkened window, and then she joined the traffic on the street. The car’s heater vents blew against my cold, wet skin, making it tingle.
    Baltimore wasn’t much of a conversationalist. She drove in silence, following the signs to the spaceport.
    “So how long have you been working for Solomon Vess?” I asked to break the silence.
    “Two years. Before that I fought in the Horde War.”
    I knew she’d been a soldier. That toned body wasn’t the result of going to the gym or having body modification surgery.
    “What unit?” I asked.
    “The Legion.”
    I resisted the urge to let out a low whistle of appreciation. The Legion was one of the toughest units fighting in the Horde War. Its members came from the planet Pelagio, which was mostly ocean, save for a few islands where its inhabitants lived.
    The citizens of Pelagio were members of a brutal fighting culture and that environment produced the Legion, the planet’s finest warriors. They fought alongside Earth and the other human planets in the Horde War and their feats of bravery were legendary.
    When I said nothing, Baltimore looked over at me. “Are you surprised?”
    “Surprised that you’re from one of the most elite fighting forces in the galaxy? No, not really. I don’t think I’ve ever met a legionnaire before. How did you go from fighting in the war to working for Solomon Vess?”
    “I’m not done fighting yet,” she said.
    I didn’t pursue that any further except to say, “This job offer that Solomon Vess wants to talk about, does it involve fighting? Because you might not be retired from that life, but I am.”
    “I told you,” she said, “it’s about the Oregon , your last command.”
    Then it dawned on me why a billionaire might track me to Iton-3 and send someone down to the surface to collect me.
    “Stop the car,” I said.
    “What?”
    “Stop the car, I’m getting out.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “There’s only one reason why someone like Solomon Vess would want to meet me. He’s a grieving relative, isn’t he? He had a sibling or cousin or some other relative serving on the Oregon and he blames me for their death. He tracked me all the way here so he could take revenge.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous, Blake.”
    “Stop the car,” I said.
    “It isn’t like that. I’m not stopping the car.”
    I searched through my memory for the name Vess. Had there been a crew member by that name? Of course, they didn’t have to have the same last name to be related to the billionaire but it was a place to start. A name came to me. “Ensign Georgia Vess,” I said. “Don’t