"Charles Ingrid - The Sand Wars 01 - Solar Kill" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ingrid Charles)

Jack let him pass. He leaned against the bank of cubicles as the dark-haired, naked woman within gave him a leer and
then slammed the door shut, saying, “Ask for number 22, honey, if you want more than a look.”
At the far end, he saw the brush-haired street punk edge past the woman custodian. The woman leaned out and
caught him by the collar. They argued. Jack was done for, at the end of his strength. He leaned forward and pounded
on the door, 22.
“Let me in. I’ve got the money, just let me in.”
“Get a key from Dora, honey. I’m no fool,’ was the muffled response.
Frustrated, Jack went down the row of doors, pounding with his mailed fist on the compartments. Doors began
popping open, tarts and customers alike yelling. From his vantage point, he could see the street punk break away from
Dora and begin to make his way down the corridor.
Angry at the interruption, a few of the clients shouldered Jack toward the end of the building, where, reeling from a last
shove, he nearly bowled over a young girl in her mid-teens, so fresh and young looking that he stopped in shock. She
didn’t belong in these surroundings. She had mellow brown eyes, so light and golden they were amber colored, and as
she looked up at him they filled with pain.
She stamped her foot impatiently, at war with herself over something. The street punk behind her yelled, “Give him
over, he’s mine!”
The girl looked beyond Jack at the punk, then back to Jack. “Oh, hell,” she said. ”Get in here, quick!” And she pulled
him inside the tiny room, slamming the door in the face of the youth and his muffled curses.
The girl looked at him with a sigh. “You can’t stay here. He’s going to get help, and when he gets back, they’ll strip
the suit—and you—for whatever they can salvage.”
The top of Jack’s head brushed the ceiling. The battle armor dominated the tiny volume of the cubicle. He took a deep,
shuddering breath. “I’ll leave as soon as he’s gone.”
“And get past Dora? He’ll have her posted.” The girl sighed. “Damn! I was havin’ a good day doin’ the dry hustle. Oh
well. Come on. I’ve got a back way out of here.” She turned around and began to remove a very tacky holo from the
end wall. She pressed her fingers against the revealed seams and squeezed through the opening. She looked back. “I
don’t ask a second time, mister.” “Right,” Jack answered.

Chapter 5


He lumbered after her, a clumsy shadow, as she skipped and ducked her way through the underbelly of the city she
thought of as the beast. Thinking that way kept her on her toes. It was an animal, with fangs and claws and parasites,
and great, raw, running sores where some greater beast had wounded it. And it might bellow at her or look down at her
with cunningly slit eyes and snatch her up before she had a chance to even know that the beast had seen her.
For that was Amber’s goal in life ... to get along with the beast without being seen or noticed until someday when she
could somehow run fast enough to escape it ... and the great beast that had mauled it.
Of course, her plans and the pains taken for escape would be a lot more successful if she didn’t keep picking up strays
and extra baggage, like the dude she had trailing behind her now. She’d have to keep him from Rolf ... yes, Rolf would
be furious with her for cutting the day short. Best not to tell Rolf and dig into her private cache for the extra coin and
credit it would take to put Rolf off her scent.
Amber paused, aware just before it happened, that the dude behind her was going to stumble in weariness, and so she
caught him up by the elbow just before he toppled. She grunted, but remained unmoved thanks to her wiry strength,
balancing the bulk of the man. He sweated as he rocked back in his b^ots. The bright pink washing the side of his face
did not bead ... laser burn, and a nasty one at that. Amber thought. She licked her lips in empathetic pain. He’d need
ointments and they couldn’t hole up just anywhere tonight, else the rats would be drawn by his suffering to gnaw at
them, and they’d spend the whole night kicking them off.
Her eyes widened in surprise at that thought. She hadn’t considered what she was going to do with this stray past the
morning, let alone the evening. If Rolf caught her out of her territory for a night as well, there would be hell to pay.
His eyes of washed-out blue looked a lot older than he did, but who could tell behind the suit he wore? Amber
shrugged as he lifted his weight off her shoulders.