Free Insidious by Michael McCloskey Page B

Portuguese obscenity to an English warning. “Keep your distance.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” The man bowed and walked out.
    Her family had fled the crushing power of the Chinese bloc shortly before it seized control of Japan. Despite the lack of open war, many in power there had not escaped execution. Only Aldriena and her father had made it out alive. At the time, she was seven years old.
    Her father later remarried. Aldriena grew up in Brazil, taken half a Brazilian name, and even spoke Portuguese. In fact, she thought sadly, her Japanese was worse than her English was. But she had a part of Japan in her face and in her heart.
    She knew the man in her quarters was only doing his job, but she couldn’t shake the hatred her father had instilled for the Chinese bloc. The current political climate suited her bias since Chinese remained the enemy of both her ancestral homeland and her adopted one. She told herself she had softened somewhat. Her father would have throttled the man if he’d seen him touch her.
    A broadcast link message interrupted her inner turmoil.
    This is the United Nations Space Force. We are conducting a surprise inspection of this facility. Report to your personal quarters immediately and remain there or face possible severe injury or death.
    “ Merda !” Aldriena spat. The message repeated itself.
    Aldriena tried to get the Cascavel to reconnect but its authorization had timed out. She used another of the one-time codes. She hadn’t planned to push her luck, but something was obviously up and she wanted to know what.
    She picked up enough in a couple of seconds to know that the space force was preparing to board Thermopylae in numbers. This wasn’t a perfunctory visit of a couple of officials from the corporate pocket. Several police cruisers had somehow surprised the base and were dispatching military forces into the deep space enclave.
    Aldriena knew that Bentra kept a small army of Circle Fours on the base. Then there was Red. Did the UNSF know about the special ones? Aldriena didn’t think so. Black Core had gone to great lengths to make sure they didn’t leak it, and of course, Bentra, Gauss, VG, and the others didn’t want anyone Earthside to have any clue. Still, if Black Core had managed to find out the secret, could the space force have learned of it?
    Her gear went back on in record time. She wasted a few more valuable seconds thinking things through. What would the UNSF have brought to neutralize the Circle Fours? Other robots, of course.
    If she was going to run for it, she needed to do it now. Once citizens got to their quarters, she’d be too conspicuous. She hurried out into the main room where she saw her servant standing uncertainly. She pulled out C4B and enjoyed the moment of terror on his face.
    “I’m out of here,” she said through her mask and ran for the door. It flicked open just in time to emit her into the corridor outside. She saw a couple of citizens scampering for their own quarters. Aldriena’s Cascavel flipped up an escape route for her to follow. She broke into a sprint and followed the green-lit route.
    She ran past several doors and then darted to her left, going through some kind of physician’s waiting room. A reception wall robot called after her as she bolted past. She raced through a back hall with routine evaluation equipment and then into a surgical prep area.
    The Cascavel directed her through another door and into a large white room with a clear observation wall on one side. A large medical scanner or repair machine dominated one wall.
    Startled by Aldriena’s sudden entrance, a nude woman jumped off an examination table next to the scanner. She made no move to cover herself but took a step or two backward. She had long black hair like Aldriena.
    “What are you doing here?” Aldriena asked.
    “Who are you ?” the woman demanded.
    “Why aren’t you going back to your quarters?”
    “I can hardly go back naked, can I?”
    “Well, where is