Rules of Conflict
Page 39
His breath caught, but when he looked up and saw her, he grinned in relief. “Captain.” He shook his head. “No, not Captain. Not anymore.” He brushed nonexistent dust from his hands and stood. “How did you know—?”
“You said morning was best to do Gate searches. Not the best security. I guessed.”
“I’m surprised you remembered.” Sam struggled to his feet, gripping the shelving for support.
“I understand you were in hospital the same time I was?”
“Yes. I wanted to visit, but Pimentel didn’t think it a good idea.”
“He’s a worrier. How are you?”
“Fine. You?”
“Fine. You had surgery?”
“Yes. Pimentel says it went very easy. Drill, freeze, cut, cut.” Sam flicked two fingers in imitation of a pair of snips. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but how did you get in here?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Hah!” Sam grinned. “Want do you want?”
She told him.
“I don’t often make the entries themselves.” Sam activated the workstation, nestled in a closetlike office down the hall from the stacks. “It’s possible my passwords have expired.” He uttered a few Bandan phrases, then sat forward so the display could get a good scan of his eyes. It took several minutes—the workstation was old and required coaxing—but eventually the correct screens burbled up from the system depths. “Go ahead.”
Jani hesitated until he turned to her, brows arched in question. “Cray,” she finally said. “Yolan. Corporal. C-number M-four-seven-dash-five-six-dash-two-eight-six-R.”
Sam uttered codes, touched pads, waited. “Next.”
“Burgoyne. Emil. Sergeant. C-number M-three-nine-dash-one-four-dash-seven-seven-I.” Jani studied the scuffed brown lyno, the ancient paper notice tacked on the wall notifying users to clean up their trash. “Can you place the names where you want, or do they have to fall in alphabetically?”
“I can force-fit.”
“Then put Borgie’s name right at the top of the entry arch. I want Mako to drive beneath it every time he enters and leaves the base.”
Sam uttered another password. “Next.”
Fifteen names, by the time they finished. Fifteen C-numbers. Then Sam punched the touchpad one last time, and spoke the final password, and fifteen new names etched themselves in the Shenandoah Gate.
“I give it a week.” He shut down the workstation and tipped back his chair. “Two, tops. I’m not the only checker they send out, and the names are monitored regularly.”
“Can’t let colony names get on that Gate.”
“Almost as bad as inmates taking over the asylum.”
They both smiled.
“I need to get going.” Jani stood and held her hand out to Sam. “Take care of yourself.”
“You, as well.” He took it gently. “Jani.”
Who do you think you are now? Jani couldn’t make herself ask him that, either. Instead, she settled for wishing him good-bye, and hurried from the room before she thought of any more questions he could never answer.
The desk smiled. “Did you find what you were looking for, Major?”
“Yes, I did.” Jani nodded briskly to the young woman and walked out of the archives building into the new light of day. The walkways had filled in the scant time since she’d entered. The skimways had clogged. She darted between the stalled movers and taxis and down a side street, flicked the Kisa Van ID into a trashzap, then stopped at the first decent-looking café she found. Time for a leisurely breakfast, before the Documents Examiners Registry opened at 0700. The day was young, and Jani Kilian had a lot to do.
Copyright & Credits
Rules of Conflict
The Jani Kilian Chronicles, Book 2
Kristine Smith
Book View Café January 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61138-581-6
Copyright © 2000 Kristine Smith
First published: Harpercollins Eos 2000
Cover illustration © 2016 Dave Smeds, with thanks to Fernando Cortés, DepositPhotos, and Algol, Dreamstime.
Production Team:
Cover Design: Dave Smeds
Proofreader: Sherwood Smith
Formatter: Vonda N. McIntyre
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Digital edition: 20151223vnm
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Book View Café Publishing Cooperative
P.O. Box 1624, Cedar Crest, NM 87008-1624
About the Author
Kristine Smith is the author of the Jani Kilian series and a number of short stories, and is a winner of the Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She worked as a process development scientist for a large pharmaceutical manufacturer for 26 years, but now writes fulltime. She lives in northern Illinois.
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Code of Conduct
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