Read Drifters' Alliance, Book 3 for Free Online Page B

original body as possible.” He pauses. “It was safer that way. The OSG keeps tabs on people, you know? Couldn’t have this unknown popping up out of nowhere.”
    The sour taste of bile comes to my tongue. “Bodies do not grow on trees. Nothing you say will make me believe that.” I’m just throwing out words as distractors. Overshine knows! Overshine knows he’s not real! That had to be what he meant when he said they don’t do AI on guys like Tam! I feel like I’m going to vomit.
    “No,” Tam says, oblivious to my distress. “Bodies grow in placental pods, though. They’ve got everything a regular human body has minus the consciousness.” He shrugs. “So this body got my upload. It’s just a copy, though. Gus hosts the original in tandem with his own.”
    I feel sick to my stomach. Placental pods? I can only imagine what that looks like, and it’s not pretty.
    Baebong steps in closer to Tam, staring into his eyes. “How does he keep from getting screwed up? From being you and not him? And why is he doing that? Why can’t you just host your own stuff?” Baebong is too curious to realize how crazy messed up this is. I want to cut off the question and answer session now that it’s gotten to this point, but it’s too late. Tam is already answering.
    “His mind is formatted into two partitions. Like a computer’s hard drive can be. The part that hosts my consciousness is blocked off, where it will remain until the day that it’s put into a permanent host.”
    “Whoa.” Baebong moves in even closer, still staring into Tam’s eyes. “So you’re in there, but you’re not really in there. Yet.” He pauses, tilting his head. “So when’s moving day? When will you be in there permanently?”
    Tam shrugs, looking sad again. “Maybe never. They have to give it enough time.”
    “For what?” I blurt out, unable to keep myself from digging in deeper. I still feel like this has to be a scam, but I want to see how far they’ve thought it through or how far it goes.
    “Time to see if the host is suitable for permanent integration.”
    “Why wouldn’t it be?” Baebong asks.
    I swear I can hear seconds passing by as we wait for Tam’s answer. I hate that my ears are burning and my heart rate is increasing. While my rational brain knows this is a con, my imagination is believing it, taking it all in and picturing the rows of bodies hanging in placental pods. So, so gross.
    “Because sometimes the hosts aren’t so great at hosting.” He looks at me apologetically. “Sometimes they’re prone to outbursts of temper or irrational behavior.”
    “That was the host doing that?” I ask. I can’t help myself. This horror show keeps getting more horrific, impossible to look away from. I did see Tam acting very out of character, for all I know of him, anyway. And I’m usually pretty damn good at sensing lies when they’re delivered, and these gingers are serving up a big, fat, steaming, stinking platter of a story, that’s for damn sure. If any bit of it were a lie, I’m pretty sure I’d feel it in my bones. The problem is, all of it feels like it’s the truth to my internal lie detector.
    Tam sighs. “It was … an incompatibility. That’s all I can say about it.”
    I shake my head. Maybe this is where the lie will be revealed. He’s holding back information, but that’s not going to fly on my ship. “Nope. That’s not all you can say about it. We want to know everything, or you die. It’s that simple.” I play along to make him think I’m stupid. “Goodbye hard drive, goodbye upload, goodbye whatever the hell you’re talking about that’s inside that head.” I point at his skull.
    “No, I don’t mean I’m withholding information from you. I’m saying that’s all I know. The Outlanders only give us enough information to function in everyday life, and they decide when it’s time for a permanent host, not us. And they haven’t decided yet.”
    I cannot detect a single falsehood