Read The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy for Free Online

a locker. “This is the explosives cupboard. You need authorization to open it. If anybody tries to break in, an alarm goes off in the control room and on your tablet and the store room locks itself down so the person can’t get away. That alarm comes on, you come running, got it?”
    “Got it.”
    They returned to the main drive, following the signs back to the control room. His guide stopped outside.
    “You’ll spend quite some time in this room. We conduct surveillance from here in between periodic
    patrols.”
    He opened the door and his demeanor changed. He sucked in his stomach, straightened his shoulders.
    “Oh. Miss Marten, isn’t it? Pleased to meet you at last. I’m Seth Ludovic, in charge of security.” He thrust out a hand, an oily smile on his face.
    Saahren looked past him, at the woman. He’d never seen eyes like that. The bright green of new leaves shaded to a dark green pupil. It was almost as though the colors blended together, instead of that stark definition between pupil and iris. Her skin was the color of cream and the dark, slightly wavy hair that hung around her shoulders held a hint of red. No slatternly serving girl, this one. Slim and lovely, dressed in simple pants and a shirt. The expression on her face was unreadable.
    “Mister Ludovic. Don’t let me hold you up.”
     
    Ignoring the hand she stepped past him, flashed a glance up at Saahren that sent his heart hammering and slipped out the door.
    “Phew. Haughty piece.” Ludovic turned to stare after her. “Quite the ice maiden.” His voice oozed
    sexual innuendo. “I wouldn’t mind melting her.” He jiggled his hips in a thrusting motion.
    “Who is she?” Saahren asked. He was staring, too. He’d met a lot of women in his day, women who
    threw themselves at him at official receptions but not one like this. She had an accent, one he didn’t recognize.
    “Oh, she’s not on the menu. More’s the pity. She’s an expert on information systems, here to do some
    work for van Tongeren. Integrating the systems. Hard to believe somebody so good-looking would have
    brains. Except for those creepy eyes. Still, you wouldn’t see ‘em in the dark, would you?”
    Those eyes. They were beautiful. She was beautiful. If she threw herself at him, he might even consider catching her, something he hadn’t done for many, many years. But somehow he didn’t think she was the
    type to throw herself at anybody.
    “Right, Stone, here’s the surveillance station.” Ludovic’s voice brought him back to the mine. “It handles most things but for now it can’t control all the doors. When the lovely Miss Marten’s finished we’ll have control of the old ptorix systems as well. Or so van Tongeren’s been led to believe.”
    Saahren followed the man’s instructions almost mechanically. Someone who could understand and
    program ptorix systems? That was an art only the very best of the Fleet’s experts had managed. The
    ptorix coding was so very different, not helped by the fact they saw different emission spectra. The Fleet had InfoDroids that could interpret ptorix systems but they were kept closely guarded. And she could do this? He needed to know more. And he definitely wanted to see her again.
    He noticed something oddly familiar in a corner. He shifted position to get a better look at the dull grey sphere hovering just above the ground. An InfoDroid. With the familiar spiral galaxy symbol of the
    Confederacy Fleet etched on the side.

Chapter Seven
    Allysha squared her shoulders and marched across to the tavern, ignoring the stares and whistles. Sean would be here, for certain. And no, she didn’t want a drink, didn’t want to sit down. She wished Jarrad was still here; he’d been a good friend, someone she’d been able to talk to.
    “Hello darlin’.” A miner smelling of an afternoon’s worth of beer tried to put an arm around her.
    She shrugged him away and strode over to the blond-haired figure at the bar.
    “Got a