Read A Matter of Honor (Privateer Tales Book 9) for Free Online

said.
    "You're just a little ball of energy, aren't you," Ada chimed in, giving him her best patronizing scowl.
    "You have no idea, Chen. The boots are my own little invention. Take a grav generator, power it with… well we can't talk about that. But imagine a suit full of micro-grav generators all tied into your AI. Same controls as arc-jets," he said.
    "How do they work in the deep dark?" Nick asked.
    "You're right of course, James. With nothing to push against, they aren't anywhere near as nice as arc-jets. Although, unlike arc-jets, they don't easily run out of fuel," he said.
    "How long do they last?" I asked, enamored by his description.
    "Can't say… corporate secrets and all. But for the sake of reference, you won't have kids alive when this suit stops operating." He listened for a moment. " What!? I didn't say anything specific ."
    "Pardon?" Ada asked.
    "My AI is set to warn me - chastise really - when I'm giving away secrets. Would you mind if we just forgot about that reference?"
    "So, what's on your mind, Mr. Anino?" It appeared that I was going to have to keep us on track.
    "Just Anino. And you wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said. "But let's just say you meant to ask - why are you here and what do I want."
    "I guess that's one way," I said. "I'm not a big fan of being rude."
    "No, you're not. I'm afraid I'm the one who suffers from having no filter. A habit that comes from being an off-the-charts genius with almost zero humility and nearly infinite wealth. So Masters, you really think you could catch me? There's a suit right over there. I bet it'll fit."
    He pointed at a bank of lockers on the wall behind us. There was a locker for each of us, labeled with our last names.
    "Don't you want to talk about your job?" Nick asked.
    "Life's short, James. Rule is: play first, business second. Although you need to sign confidentiality agreements before using the suits," he said.
    My HUD chimed with an incoming priority message. As expected it was from Anino Enterprises, requesting my signature. I'd recently upgraded my AI's capability to read legalese and it found nothing objectionable in the language sent.
    "We good, Nick?"
    "Yup," he answered.
    I opened the locker with my name and found a suit hanging in it. There was an extra helmet on the top shelf. It was an unexpected addition, since most suits didn't require one. I shrugged to myself and peeled off my vac-suit.
    "I'd forgotten about your peg-leg, Hoffen," Anino said. "Does it cause you many problems?"
    He really had no filter, but I reminded myself that he was a teen. "Ladders and sand are two things I still have trouble with. Otherwise, no big deal."
    "You have any privacy panels around here?" Ada asked.
    "What? Going commando?" Anino asked. This earned him a stern look from Marny. "My bad," he quickly amended.
    Locker room layout , he directed.
    "You'll need to step back, Chen," he said.
    She moved over toward the group and an opaque glass wall slid up from the floor.
    "Thank you," she said with a mouth full of sweetness.
    I'd finished pulling on the new suit. "Helmet?"
    "Yeah, more fun that way," Anino answered.
    I pulled the helmet on and looked around. From the outside, it had been medium blue like the rest of the suit. From the inside, I couldn't even tell I was wearing it except for a few faint shadows that were the contours of the helmet.
    "Nice," I said.
    "You'll say that again, I promise," he said.
    A few minutes later Tabby and Ada exited the impromptu locker room holding helmets under their arms. Their suits were the same medium blue and they had bright yellow lines tracing their body contours.
    "Helmets on, ladies. James, Bertrand, last chance. You don't know what you're about to miss out on," he said.
    "Maybe next time," Nick said.
    "Fair enough. Okay, the name of the game is foot-tag. Once you're tagged, you're it. If you touch someone's foot, they're it. And Hoffen, you're it," he said floating, away from me.
    I took a cheap shot at Tabby,