Read Gambit for Free Online

narrowing on her. “I said the latter. Seems I was right.” He paused. “And where’s your shield?”
    “That piece of off-world crap?” Chae snorted. “You’re giving me a bloody refund.” She holstered her gun and rubbed her damp hand against her thigh. “Oh, and thank you.” She glanced back out to the brethren and found them glaring at her. She gave them a short smile, one the drek probably couldn’t see through the haze of the security screen. “It would’ve become…messy.”
    “What possessed you to buy this?” Aleph circled Daned, a claw tracing along the broad breadth of his shoulders. The Samekh towered over him, the pale glow from the lights in the rounded stone ceiling washing over his ivory skin. Daned remained passive, his gaze unfocused, and Chae breathed a little easier. “You had to know the drek would want him. I’d have given you a much better deal.”
    “Better than free?” She laughed and settled her backside against his desk. Her finger skimmed the metal bowl of treats, the sound of it slow and, she hoped, distracting. “I got into a game in Khovd. Some idiot, too much money and not enough brains, thought to slum. The table cleaned him out. That pretty, there—” she smirked at Daned and it deepened as she thought of how he had to be seething, “—came as a bonus…as did I.”
    Aleph let out a slow groan. “Cloning is so much more…clean.”
    Chae laughed and popped one of the red ambrosia roots into her mouth. The quick heat and burst of sharp berries lit sparks on her taste buds. She drew in a breath to let the heat fill her lungs. She could never resist the things. Aleph knew that. “All this flesh around you.” She waved her hand to the prime stock in softly illuminated display cases set up against the curve of the back wall. “And you’ve never been tempted?” She grinned at the flash of annoyance in his all-black eyes. A Samekh wasn’t bred with a sexual imperative. It was well-known, but she couldn’t help poking her friend about it.
    She ran her tongue around her teeth, catching the last of the ambrosia root’s fire, and got back to the point. “I need to use your business access to the hangar.”
    “Best not, Chae. The hangar is swarming with suits.”
    Her heart jumped, but she kept her face passive. “Government suits?” She laughed. “My accounts are straight.”
    “Off-world suits. Mean. They took pot shots at Mali, took out her whole arm and then blasted the regrowing buds until she talked.” He paused. “They were looking for you. She identified your ship.” He wiped his hand through the air and a shimmer of gleaming light trailed from his fingers. An image solidified of the inside of the hangar and her ship.
    The great flare of its gray wings swept up toward the clear shield stretching over the hangar. Chae’s heart cramped to see men surrounding it—worse, trying to hack it to gain entry. Aleph stretched his fingers and the screen blurred and refocused. The men looked grim and had guns. Very big guns.
    Chae wiped her hand across her mouth. “Fuck.” She let out a sour laugh. “Who did I piss off now?”
    Aleph wiped away the image. “I don’t know, but you set foot in the hangar…” His words trailed away and he let out a slow breath, the air hissing through his mouth plate. “You’re one of my best customers.” His gaze narrowed on Daned. “Mostly.” He pressed his hands to his chest, covering his hearts. Aleph wanted to deal. “So, I can make you an offer. I’d say you need to get off-planet until this—whatever it is—dies down.”
    Her black crystal sat somewhere in the hangar. She could almost feel the pulse of it, the smooth blackness sliding warm and wanted under her fingers. The expensive sliver in her boot was little comfort right then. Especially when she had to walk away from crates of it. Shit. Shit. Shit. Her luck had struck again. “What are you offering, Aleph?” She held up her hand. “And before you ask for