Fool Me Once (Privateer Tales) Read Online Free

you for the raid on the base and is sending me after you. I had a little chat with Magee and I’m afraid the old gal isn’t going to make it. I didn’t know you had a little sister so I did a little checking around and I know right where she is. She sounds like a sweet little thing, I can’t wait to break her in. Don’t worry, I’ll record it for you. Why don’t you turn that ship around and meet me back here at Terrence. I can’t promise I’ll take it easy on you, but maybe I’ll forget about your little sister .
     
    I should have expected the message, but I'd pushed him out of my mind. The Captain he was referring to was someone I'd never met, but I knew he was higher up in the Red Houzi hierarchy. Boyarov could be bluffing, but I had no doubt that if he and I met again it wouldn’t go well for me.
    It was even more urgent than before that I find Jenny .
     

     
     
     
TRIP TO MARS
     
     
    After five days of sailing toward Puskar Stellar on Mars, I finally heard from Domiva’s Grace . The message was short and to the point. They’d never transported anyone by the name of Jennifer Dontal, period. If I had any further questions, I was to contact their legal counsel on Earth. It was a terrible letdown. It was odd that they referred me to their legal counsel, however. I hadn’t pushed that hard. It felt like they were hiding something, although that could just be wishful thinking on my part. I was currently in no position to push the issue.
    Life aboard the ship became routine after that. I continued to exercise and pushed myself to eat twice a day. I’d put on at least three kilos and my cheeks had lost some of their hollow look. My hair wasn’t as thin as it had been at the start of the journey, but the silver color appeared to be permanent. I was happy to see the muscles in my legs and arms filling out, though I was still very thin. It would take time.
    On day six, the ship broke from hard burn, spun a graceful 180 degrees on its vertical axis, and fired the engines back up. One of the disadvantages of this ship’s design was that slowing down required the ship to be pointed away from its eventual destination. I would have enjoyed watching Mars grow through the armor glass, but it wasn’t possible. Part of my HUD showed the approach, but I felt a little cheated.
    For the first time in my life I saw multiple ships within range of my own. At first, I worried that Alexander Boyarov had arrived before me or that some other Red Houzi ship was on to me. But they all kept to their original courses and sailed by.
    When I was three hundred thousand kilometers from Mars, my ship flipped over again and the deceleration dropped off considerably. The planet was breathtaking with its purplish glow. Large numbers of ships of all sizes were approaching and leaving from all points around its perimeter. Mars was the biggest object in space I’d ever seen.
    The ship I was in was probably unregistered and possibly even listed as stolen. Fearing Red Houzi's reach, I needed to be careful. It would eventually need to be abandoned, but first I planned to land at Puskar Stellar. It was the main trading hub on Mars and there was no registration requirement for ships.
    Negotiate with Puskar Stellar and find a landing site that doesn’t require upfront fees .
    I wasn’t holding a reading pad so my AI used the sound system on the bridge to communicate.
    There are five landing sites that do not require upfront fees. Three requi re bond and proof of ownership .
    My AI had anticipated a problem I hadn’t considered. I picked up a reading pad.
    Show remaining two .
    My pad showed a top view map of Puskar Stellar. The city was huge, fifteen kilometers on one side and twenty-three on the other. Glowing outlines indicated the two public landing sites. Both were located on the edge of a part of town called the Open Air District. I was thrilled. That was our original destination when Jenny and I planned to come here in the first