Read Star Risk - 04 The Dog From Hell for Free Online Page B

Goodnight said.
    He smiled innocently. Riss snorted.
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    SEVEN � ^ � This is Cygnes Control� clear for lift, over."
    Riss, at the controls of the yacht, glanced back.
    "First thing, we get offworld, is to check for bugs."
    "No kid," Goodnight said. "But first jump us nice and random, twice."
    "A deal," she said, and the Monkey Business lifted from its staging position on antigrav, cleared atmosphere, and went into hyperspace.
    Riss touched sensors.
    "Jumping again," she said into the intercom, heard a groan from the passenger section's link, then a voice:
    "Kel's puking."
    "Shit," King murmured. She waited until the Business emerged from the strange whorls of hyperspace into normality, then unstrapped and went back to play medic.
    The others helped Grok as he hastily modified receivers on three space suits. He found a standard field scanner in the ship's tiny electronics space, and fitted himself into his custom-ordered suit.
    Leaving Riss at the controls, they went out, and floated around the Business, looking for any transmissions.
    M'chel kept the ship's scanners on Rove.
    Grok's suit radio crackled:
    "I find nothing. And this suit I paid too many credits for was not properly fumigated. Reboarding."
    The others followed him, also reporting that they found no sign that any tracer had been installed.
    "Of course, you realize this proves nothing," Goodnight said. "It's too easy to put in a telltale that doesn't work on any of the usual freqs�or one that, say, would kick in when we jumped or during the time we're in hyperspace."
    "Thanks, O cheery one," Riss said, touching controls.
    "Jumping," she announced.
    They blipped out into normal space�and less than a dozen seconds later, they had company.
    "Oh, joy," Riss said.
    "I have it ID'd as a standard customs ship," Grok said. "More or less. And it will be armed, I would anticipate."
    "Hang on, people," Riss said, as a screen flared. "I have a launch!"
    The missile hurtled at them, and Riss's fingers danced across the control board.
    The missile blew about a hundred meters distant, and several screens flared, then went dark.
    "Jumping!"
    Again, the Business went into hyperspace, and, again, within a minute, came back out.
    "Well," Goodnight said, "this time the bastards weren't interested in just grabbing the negotiables and negotiating."
    The other ship appeared a moment later, and another missile spat out of its tubes.
    This one almost hit, and its detonation flash took other sensors down, then they flashed back up on secondary or emergency power.
    "Jumping! That was too goddamned close!" Riss announced.
    She started to key in a random setting.
    "No!" Goodnight said. "Go back where we were before."
    "Huh?" Riss asked. But she obeyed.
    "Maybe the bastard'll think that he hit us, and put the drive on frammis, so we're stuck," Goodnight explained.
    "Gotcha." Again, the Business went into hyperspace.
    This time there were several wails from the girls' section, and they heard King swearing.
    "I wish," Grok said calmly, "that we had invested in a good, serious, well-armed destroyer."
    "Or a battleship," von Baldur tried, as Riss sent the Monkey Business to its previous location.
    "Good, good, very good," Chas approved. "Now let's hope they think we're stuck in a groove, and they'll jump back to where we were before, and be waiting to dry-gulch us good.
    "M'chel, let's go somewhere new."
    Riss, concentrating on her piloting, nodded, and again the Business jumped.
    This time, they were not far off an unknown world ringed in deep purple and green.
    With no follower.
    "Good," Riss said. "It worked. Now let's go where we're going before they catch up to us."
    Two jumps later, they were off Porcellis, and gratefully turned themselves over to Landing Central.
    Riss insisted that she had to stay at the controls, but it was very all right for the rest of them to go back and help Jasmine clean up the