Read The Only Game in the Galaxy for Free Online

there.
    The inside of the RIM safe house was oddly comfortable, even cosy. Lace curtains. Squashy sofas. Bookshelves with tattered but readable editions of the latest bestsellers and an impressive array of classics. And lots of good food. Max guessed that some stints here must last a long time. A very long time.
    Over hot cups of Ruvian coffee, with surveillance devices scanning the local area at maximum penetration, Anneke came back to their earlier discussion: ‘We were discussing my assignment.’
    Maximus steepled his fingers. ‘The hit I mentioned was to terminate two leaders of the Imperial Myotan Combine, a breakaway group of Majoris Corporata and the group that nearly engineered the destruction of RIM.’
    Anneke stared back at him. ‘Terminate?’
    Maximus returned her stare, unblinking. ‘That’s what you do, Anneke. You’re a high-level assassin.’
    Anneke twitched, suddenly pale. ‘I kill people for a living?’
    ‘There’s some other kind of assassin?’
    ‘It just … It just doesn’t feel like me.’
    ‘Tell me, what does feel like you?’
    Anneke put her coffee cup down with a rattle and clenched her eyes shut.
    ‘Listen to me, Anneke. This is what you do. The feelings you’re having right now, they’re fake. Part of your cover story. You were supposed to penetrate the Combine as a low-level tactical officer – a glorified accountant. The feelings you’re experiencing are the feelings of that character .’
    ‘It’s just a role I’m playing?’
    ‘Exactly. But that doesn’t mean the feelings aren’t real. They are. If we hooked you up right now to a lie detector or encephaloscan, it’d read those feelings too and it’d buy them. That’s the idea of being a mnemonic agent. The perfect cover! Even the agent doesn’t know they’re an agent until they’re activated.’
    Anneke looked like she’d been punched.
    ‘Now it’s my turn for questions,’ said Maximus. ‘Where did you end up after the ricochet?’
    ‘Pardon?’ Anneke said, struggling to control her emotions. None of this sounded right . Had she become so immersed in her ‘character’ that she had completely forsaken her true self?
    ‘After the ricochet, what world did they send you to? It could be important.’
    ‘Tormat.’
    Maximus cursed silently.

A NNEKE stepped out of the jump-gate, taking in the air of Lykis Integer. She immediately sensed familiarity. She knew this place. She had been here before. The money in her pocket she’d ‘awakened’ with on Tormat had been obtained here. Silently she marvelled at all she knew, all she had yet to remember, and all that was gradually coming back to her.
    As she made her way out of the gate station she wondered if Mirella was all right. After the two had escaped, they had gone to Mirella’s sister’s house, collected what few possessions Mirella had and headed for the spaceport. Anneke had hacked the computer network running the port, acquired IDs, and brazened her way onto a space yacht, which she had stolen. Well, borrowed really. She left it on another world with an embedded program that would send it home.
    She then set about accruing capital on Lykis Integer. In the meantime she researched politically stable worlds within easy jumping distance of Lykis – and headed to one. The name of this world – Se’atma Minor – had struck a chord inside Anneke and she had gone with her gut reaction.
    She deposited Mirella on Se’atma, hacked a local merchant’s guild that made millions on the black market, siphoned off enough to ensure Mirella was financially stable, then headed back to Lykis. On the way, she discovered Mirella had placed a token of her thanks – a family heirloom – inside her carry bag. A quantum capsule – which ‘froze’ its contents in time, preserving them from almost all external damage including a nuclear explosion – extremely valuable. Mirella’s attached note read: ‘Our family lost the code to this long ago so it’s of little