Read Rock Killer for Free Online

like the damned GA, are unrealistic paranoiacs who want to return us all to the vile days before the nineteenth century.”
    McConnell noticed Alex’s bitterness. “Is that how you feel about the Gaia Alliance? You don’t think they do a lot of good?”
    Alex snorted. “The GA is nothing more than punk terrorists, and the people who support them are as irresponsible and criminal as they are.”
    McConnell continued to drill Alex. “You said you were in SRI Security. Have you ever killed for SRI?”
    Alex hesitated long enough to look away. An expression of pain and anger crossed his features before he faced McConnell again. “I have killed while on duty,” he said flatly.
“Then what makes you different from the GA, other than you killed for profits and the GA kills to save the environment?”
Alex’s face grew redder at he calmly spoke. “I killed in self-defense or in defense of another person.”
“If you work for SRI, even if you’ve never killed anyone directly, you’ve killed for profit.”
    “If anything,” Alex said barely containing his rage, “I killed for progress and technology that has made human existence better than could have been imagined just a few hundred years ago. That’s what profits are: wealth to make everyone better off. The GA kills because they want the rest of the world to follow their beliefs and doctrines. They are no different from the Nazis or Communists that caused so much misery in the twentieth century.”
    McConnell stood slowly and dramatically removed his cigarette from between his lips. “I financially support the GA. If that’s how you feel I think you should leave.”
    Alex stood to his full 172-centimeter height. “Gladly. Did you know two friends of mine were killed on the attack GA did on our lunar facility today? If you support the GA, you’re culpable in their deaths.” He turned to his wife. “Kirsten, we’re leaving.”
    Kirsten looked up at him from her seat.
    “Now,” he barked.
    Kirsten usually refused to react to Alex’s occasional macho spells. But this time she decided it was better to accede to his demands and work it out later in private. She stood and looked apologetically at their hosts. Then she followed Alex out of the house and to her car.
McConnell watched them leave. “Fascist,” he said.
His wife nodded.
In the car, Alex apologized.
“It’s okay,” Kirsten said with a sigh. “They’re self-righteous snobs.” She waited a few heartbeats. “Who was killed on the Moon?”
“Frank DeWite and someone you never met named Prince.”
“I’m sorry.”

Chapter Three
     
     
    “…that damn rope slipping through my fingers.”
     
     
    Bente Naguchi gazed out the window at the Earth. In the SRI Low Earth Orbit Facility at an altitude of about 400 kilometers, this was as close as she ever planned to get. Born on the Moon 25 years ago, she was sure she could live in one gee. She’d felt that and more on some ships she’d traveled in. But she knew she wouldn’t like it one bit. Sometimes she wished she could visit the blue and green world of her parents.
    She’d seen pictures, of course, but they couldn’t convey the entire sensation of being outdoors with no pressure suit confining you. She’d heard there were places, in Europe mostly, where it was legal to go naked. She wondered what that would be like: to have nothing between you and everything. Maybe someday she’d visit; someday, for a very short period.
    Bente was over 225 centimeters tall but massed about the same as a “normal” woman. She had long, black-brown hair and large, brown eyes with an exotic hint of an epicanthic fold. Her mother, a German, had given her skin a paler complexion than her Japanese father’s. She knew that some considered her attractive. That was attested to by the number of men, and sometimes women, who approached her in this bar while she waited for transportation to the Moon. But she also told herself that “Moon Maidens” were considered a