Beneath the Fallen City, Jamie A. Waters [ebook reader .TXT] 📗

Elyot came into the room followed by a tall, fair-skinned, willowy redhead with hazel eyes. The girl’s gaze swept over everyone before settling on Kayla. “We heard the commotion. What’s going on?”

Carl handed Kayla the ice pack and introduced her to Jinx, a former ruin rat. “We had an incident with Ramiro.”

Jinx sat next to Kayla, studying her cheek. “Wow, the bastard hit you? I knew I never liked that guy.” Kayla pressed the ice against her cheek and winced. That made two of them.

Kayla looked up at the sound of excited voices to see Xantham, Cruncher, Zane, and Veridian enter the room.

Xantham walked over to inspect her cheek. “Holy shit balls! What the hell happened?”

Cruncher shook his head and stared at Kayla in amazement. “Unbelievable. You were the one who stole the Aurelia Data Cube?”

Xantham’s eyes grew huge. “No freaking way! That was you?”

Kayla looked around in exasperation, lowering the ice pack from her cheek. “I don’t know why everyone seems to have a hard time believing that. And it’s not entirely accurate. I stole it back. That pustulant zit on the ass of humanity stole it from me first.”

Xantham climbed over the chair and sat down. “I’ve gotta hear this story. You better start talking, girl.”

Carl nodded. “I’m curious too.”

The crew gathered around while Kayla pressed the ice pack against her face and took a sip of her drink. She didn’t usually subscribe to the practice of swapping personal tales with trader crews, but she figured she owed them an explanation. Carl hadn’t thrown her out on her butt after hitting him, and then he’d stood up for her against another trader. She gave him a long look, once again contemplating the sincerity of his earlier words.

Carl leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest like some sort of ancient warrior standing sentinel over his troops. His gaze, along with the rest of the crew, focused on her, and she resisted the urge to squirm under the scrutiny of an entire trader camp. She spared a quick glance at Veridian and he gave her a nod of encouragement. Somewhat reassured by her friend’s presence, she took a deep, steadying breath and began.

“Veridian and I were scavenging in a sector Ramiro’s crew had cleared the week before. I didn’t expect to find much since it looked like some sort of office building and was pretty picked over. I ended up locating a false wall that hadn’t collapsed. The room behind it had mostly trash in it, but I found a safe in the floor.”

She twirled the scotch in the glass and took a sip before continuing. “The data cube was in there, along with a bunch of journals that looked like lab records. I took the cube and the journals and went back above ground.”

Veridian nodded and added, “One of Ramiro’s crew used to come by to visit Kayla. He’s the one who told us the sector was clear. When he saw our bikes that day, he stopped by to see her.”

Kayla shot Veridian a warning glance. There were some things she wasn’t willing to discuss. “It was piss-poor timing. He saw my bag and called it in to Ramiro. A few minutes later, there was a freaking party in our tent. Ramiro demanded the cube, and I refused. It got ugly. Vex broke Veridian’s arm, and Ramiro took the cube from me.”

She paused for a moment before continuing the story. “After we got Veridian back to camp, I worked on a program to send false data readings to the UV guard at Ramiro’s camp. I drove out the next day by myself and told Ramiro I had reconsidered his offer. He took me into his office, and I activated the program. When the alarm went off, he left me to go check the equipment. I broke into his safe, took my data cube back, and ran.”

“Holy shit,” Cruncher muttered.

Kayla took another sip. “I knew Ramiro would be hunting me down, so I drove straight to Warig’s camp. I told him I’d found it in a cleared sector, and he bought it on the spot for forty thousand credits.”

Xantham let out a low whistle. “Damn, girl, that’s a lot of credits.”

Kayla shrugged. It was strange how some things seemed so important at the time. “It was fine until Ramiro found out I’d sold it to Warig. He flipped out and told Warig I had stolen it from him. Both traders blacklisted Leo’s camp on the spot. Leo was pretty pissed about it, but the forty thousand credits helped smooth things over. He decided it would be a good idea to get out of the area, so we picked up and moved closer to Henkel and Carl.”

“So that’s why you came this direction,” Carl mused. “You first popped up on our radar about a year ago, right after that incident.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like we had a lot of choice.” Kayla finished her drink and pushed away from the table. “So, thanks for the drink and the entertainment, but I think it’s time for us to head out. Come on, V.”

Kayla dropped the cold pack on the table and avoided looking at the surrounding faces. She knew she’d see a mix of emotions on them, some with awe and others with pity. She’d seen it before and wasn’t any more prepared to deal with it now. None of it changed anything. The past couldn’t be rewritten. There was no use dwelling on it.

Veridian moved to stand beside her, offering her the opportunity to retreat. With a smile, he took control of the conversation at the table and gave her a gentle nudge toward the door. She tossed him a grateful look.

Barely registering Veridian’s voice saying his goodbyes, Kayla headed toward the exit and nearly ran into Carl leaning against the wall by the door. When she met his eyes, he gave her a small smile and a brief nod. Her face flushed at the approval in his expression. Turning away, she hurried out the door, wanting to leave and rebuild her emotional shields before they collapsed.