Read Looking at Trouble for Free Online Page B

down. It wouldn’t last long, but it might get them through a few days.
    Bilro had spot-welded the monitor to the post, the bystanders had been cleared and everyone else was wandering away from the spot.
    They returned to her side and looked at each other with quiet congratulations. Three out of four were willing to follow her orders. It was a start.
     
    At the base, Reeda was in her office and going over requisitions when Bilro came in.
    He sat in front of her desk and cleared his throat. “How long have you known?”
    “Four days before you left. Mother had something to do with it, but I am not sure what.”
    “She got you command of a Guardian base?” He looked skeptical.
    “Apparently.” She folded her hands and gave him a bland look. “I am sorry I said nothing, but it wasn’t certain until you were all assigned to the same base.”
    “Why?” He raised his brows.
    “Oh. In a word, Kimda. He has controlling tendencies but no leadership capability. He can bully you into doing something, but you know that there is only impulse behind it. You also cannot trust that he will not put you in a position that is unnecessary.”
    Bilro nodded. “I can see that. How did your mother arrange it?”
    “I don’t know. It would not have worked if I was not suitable. I know that, and I am assuming you do as well. The Imperium had to buy out my contract, and Mother would not let me go cheaply. They had to maintain the stipulations of my original agreement.”
    “Your mother sounds like a formidable woman.”
    “Oh, she is. I have told you before, she is a force to be reckoned with.” Reeda turned and brought the vid cube around to show him. “This is me and Mother.”
    Bilro stared at the image. “She’s a...”
    “Stunning brunette?” Reeda chuckled.
    “Definitely. You were raised by a l’nal?”
    “I was. Mother and my birth mother were friends, and when my birth parent passed away, Mother took me home with her, as per the will. She didn’t know how to raise a bipedal humanoid, but she did an amazing job. She has made my work clothing for me. It was a labour of love, and she gave me all the protection she could to carry with me.”
    He suddenly widened his eyes. “She is missing part of one leg.”
    “Yes. She said it made her unsuitable to be with her people.”
    “She has one severed leg and her name is Rrkra?”
    “Yes. Why did you go so pale?”
    Weakly, he said, “Oh, no reason. I just read about her in my alien races courses. Queen of the l’nal who would not take a mate. She abdicated her throne and left her world to live out her lifespan in the stars.”
    “Ah, well that is new information.” She blinked and rubbed her forehead. “I think I will have to continue my research. I have only gone back three decades. When did that happen?”
    “Seven decades ago.”
    She opened her mouth to answer him, but the com went off inside her head. She answered the message on the open line and then discontinued it. “Time to go.”
    He rose to his feet. “Are you going to fly like that?”
    “Yes. This is my mother’s gift to me. I will always wear it on duty.”
    Bilro nodded and ran out the door.
    She was the last person to the skimmer and grimly unsurprised when Kimda lifted off, heading for his home province... without her.
    Mentally muttering to herself, she went to the shadows and pulled out the riot runner she had insisted on. With practiced motions, she gunned the motor and took to the skies behind the shielded nose of the vehicle.
    She increased her speed and whipped through the afternoon sky, passing the skimmer without trouble and making her way across a lake, past a mountain range and over the outcropping of an ocean before she reached the portion of the city under siege.
    She landed her runner and went to the local peacekeeper commander. “What is going on here?”
    He looked at her and did a double take. “Command Control. Are the Guardians coming?”
    “They will be here in five