Read Under Dark Sky Law for Free Online Page B

the
edge of his desk. “Speaking of morons, what kind of an operation
are you running here?” she asked.
    Sanchez put his hand on the back of his head
and ruffled the buzz cut poking out from under his hat. “Oh, you
mean the new recruits? Yeah I’m not happy about this either. I’ve
asked HQ time and again not to put any raw dome soldiers out at
this post, given how highly contaminated this place is. It’s
getting to the point where even I have to wear a mask if we’re out
there too long. Ever since they passed that law last year
forbidding anyone from doing field shock runs, it’s harder to train
these assholes. And I don’t have to tell you how tight things have
been politically—it’s getting nearly impossible to pull more
flatties into the service, even if it means getting them out of
this hellhole,” he said and paused, looking her up and down a few
times.
    A strand of the blond wig fell across one of
her eyes. “What? You think I know something?”
    “I know you run in a lot of circles, and I
know you’re one clever bitch, so yeah, maybe you do,” he said.
    She rolled her eyes. “Sanchez, I run with the
pits crews—they trust us even less than you guys. We’re the lucky
ones that have more freedom out in the pits because we can survive.
They hate us here, and I’m visible enough as a Grease Weasel that
unless I’m incognito, everyone recognizes me. Why do you think we
have our base of operations here by that god awful river? We need
to stay away from the main population as much as possible,” she
said.
    Sanchez gave a small, awkward laugh. “You’re
right, I was just wondering if maybe you’d gathered some intel,” he
said.
    She shook her head. “I was hoping you had
more info—transmitters work for shit down by the river, and all I
heard was that there was some kind of skirmish on the other end of
the dome,” she said.
    He walked around the desk and took a seat in
a much comfier looking office chair. Xero swiveled and dumped
herself back into the uncomfortable metal contraption on her
side.
    He folded his hands and rested his elbows
against the table. “From the looks of things, it’s just another
political uprising—like I said, they’ve been real restless lately.
I’ve got work crews fragmented all over the place, which is why
we’ve got so many of these goddamn idiot recruits all over the
place at the base today. Don’t worry, we’ll have a few old timers
on the convoy back to the Phoenix dome. Hey, speaking of which,
where’s the rest of your crew?” he said.
    She sighed. “Oh, you haven’t heard? A few of
my regulars are injured, and they had to stay behind on this
mission. HQ approved a run with diminished staff, since we’re just
heading out to Yuma. I’ve got one more guy that’s supposed to be on
his way. We had a little trouble down by the waterfront last night,
which I think is probably related to whatever this uprising is
about. He’ll be along later after business is taken care of,” she
said.
    Sanchez looked suspicious, but he nodded, and
Xero was thankful he was willing to let it go. He was wise enough
to know that some things were best left unexplained. She trusted
the man, but only so far, and vice versa. He was still a dome
drone, even if he was one of the better ones. The ones that came
from the flats always had a little more perspective on just what
it’s like to live life on the fringes, but in some ways they were
still unstable—you never knew if they might turn on you when the
time was right.
    He leaned back again and put his feet up on
the desk. “Well Anastasia, your transformations never cease to
amaze me,” he said. At one point he had seen her out in the pits,
in her natural environment, in her normal clothing and make-up.
He’d almost shat himself when he saw the florescent green
Mohawk.
    She rolled her eyes. “You always have to call
me that. You know I don’t go by that name anymore,” she said. A lot
of the personnel only knew her