The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 Read Free

surprised as the rest.
    “What’s on the scroll?” Max asked me, motioning to the glowing screen scroll the Keeper left for Weegin.
    Max and Theodore stood there staring at me.
    “How would I know?” I asked them.
    “Take a peek.” Max nudged me.
    “Maybe he shouldn’t do that,” Theodore argued.
    “Oh, give me that,” Max said. She grabbed the scroll and unraveled the organic screen from its metal container. She pulled the uplink from the scroll and inserted it into her neural implant. The glow from the metal casing flashed: INVALID USER.
    “Told you,” Theodore said.
    “Here, you do it,” Max said, holding it out to me. “Do the
push
thing,” Max said. She knew very well I could sneak into hard drives, network arrays, light drives, anything to do with a computer.
    I was about to push into the scroll when an alarm went off. I looked up and saw the field portals at the top of the outer metal dome sparkle to life and begin to fade away.
Could a cargo shipment really be arriving?
I wondered. Nothing had come through those portals in over a phase. I stood next to Theodore and watched as the robotic cranes warmed up by stretching out their huge tentacles. But before they were in position, a small metal crate was thrust through the opening. It dropped from the sky like a meteor, right toward my sister.
    “Ketheria, watch out!” I yelled and leaped forward, catching my sister’s arm and yanking her aside.
    “You all right?” Max questioned her.
    Before she could answer, Weegin burst from his office and scurried down onto the sorting-bay floor.
    “This has to be it. It has to be,” he said, rubbing his three-fingered hands together.
    “What
has
to be it?” Switzer said, inspecting the metal projectile.
    “Shut up. Get back, you imbecile. Move away from here,” Weegin scolded him.
    Switzer simply stepped aside, scowling, but that didn’t stop me from creeping forward. What was in the crate? I wondered.
    “I said get out of here!” Weegin snapped before I could get close. “All of you. I’m deducting one chit for not listening.” He used his small body to shield the contents of the crate. Nugget scrambled next to his father, but Weegin only pushed him aside.
    “How can you deduct chits? You haven’t paid us for a whole phase,” Switzer protested.
    Weegin ignored him and attached a thick data cable into his own neural port. He glanced over the ragged nubs on his shoulders to make sure none of us could see him tap an access code into the O-dat. Satisfied with Weegin’s entry, the crate hissed open and Weegin jammed both fists inside the container. Quickly, he pulled out an unmarked plastic box and clutched it to his chest. His eyes darted over each of us without looking at anyone in particular. Then he grinned and raced off toward the lift. If Weegin still had wings, I’m sure he would have flown.
    “I wonder what was inside,” I said, walking over to the empty carcass Weegin had left behind.
    “Nobody is to disturb me!” he shouted from the second floor as the latest messenger drone slammed into the closing office door.
    “Never mind the crate, JT,” Max said. “What does this scroll say?”
    “Oh,” I said, looking at the screen scroll still in my hands. I pushed into the scroll, and the message instantly appeared in my mind’s eye as if an O-dat was mounted inside my forehead. I read it aloud.
    Joca Krig Weegin ,
    As previously arranged by Keeper decree, the labor force of human beings is to be transferred to work duty on Orbis 2. Since all business for Joca Krig Weegin has been forfeited on every ring of Orbis, you are called upon to surrender your humans for immediate relocation.
    CENTER FOR IMPARTIAL JUDGMENT AND FAIR DEALING
    “Weegin has to give us back,” I said, glancing up at his office.
    “He’s not going to like that. We’re the only valuable thing he has right now,” Max said.
    “This is not good. I feel it,” Ketheria muttered.
    I looked over at Theodore, who was