Free The Ruins of Karzelek (The Mandrake Company series Book 4) by Ruby Lionsdrake

captain wanted a private report from him. He grabbed his weapons belt and stood to buckle it on.
    “ Don’t get too close to that white cactus out there,” Striker said. “Lots of thorns. You wouldn’t want to get poked. Your prick might be allergic. That’s a body part you probably don’t want all swelled up.” He smirked and nodded at Kalish. “Or maybe you do.”
    Kalish looked toward Sedge, not as engrossed in her computer work as one might have hoped. She glanced down his form for an instant before looking back to the hologram. Sedge headed outside so nobody would see the way his cheeks reddened at the thought of her imagining his penis as some bloated whale with thorns sticking out of it. Or maybe it was the thought of her imagining his penis at all that flustered him.
    “ Didn’t they have manners where you grew up, Striker?” Tick asked. “Some sort of notion that there are things you shouldn’t say in the presence of women?”
    “ Nah, grew up on Frontier Colony. The women there are tougher than bullets and curse twice as much as the men. They also chew fenwad and spikes, not sissy strawberry gum, like a ten-year-old girl.”
    “ You’re insulting my gum? It’s got adrenocharge in it. See if I share a hit with you the next time we’re humping it through a jungle with a hundred pounds on our backs.”
    That was the last of the conversation that Sedge heard. He fished his tablet out of his pocket, thumbed on the flashlight feature, and powered up the hand warmer as well. It had dropped well below freezing after nightfall, and he hoped the captain wouldn’t want to talk for long. He didn’t have that much information to share anyway. He hoped the captain would not be disappointed. He didn’t want to make excuses about being unconscious for however long that had been.
    Sedge saw the thorny white cactus and avoided it, choosing a less prickly spot to take care of biological needs. As soon as he finished and moved far enough from the tent that nobody would overhear, he tapped his comm-patch. He kept the video from displaying, not wanting to attract attention if anyone else wandered out of the tent to relieve himself—or herself—though given the temperature, the prudent person might hold it until morning.
    “ Mandrake,” came the curt answer. The fact that the transmission wasn’t routed through anyone on the bridge told Sedge that the captain had indeed been waiting, perhaps not all that patiently.
    “ Thomlin reporting, sir.”
    “ Yes, what more do you know? Thatcher has been flying around all night and had little to report. You’re in Blackwell’s camp, right?”
    “ Yes, sir. I was injured.” Sedge wasn’t sure why he added that information. He had not intended to make an excuse, nor ask for sympathy, but he wanted the captain to know he hadn’t been relaxing on duty. “Kalish—er, Ms. Blackwell—is being cagey about what she reveals.” He wished he could see Mandrake’s face to know if he had reacted to that slipup. On second thought, maybe he didn’t want to see. “But I find it likely she’s seeking ancient alien ruins rather than ore. She has a historian’s background, and I believe she either has the specific coordinates of a site that hasn’t been documented and explored, or she has a good idea as to where the location might be. She must expect to find valuable artifacts, because I heard her speaking about making enough to come out ahead after paying off the company.”
    “ So long as she does intend to pay the company.”
    “ Yes, sir. She seems...” Sedge thought of Kalish’s distress over the miners they had shot. “Honorable.”
    Mandrake grunted.
    Sedge couldn’t tell if it was a grunt of skepticism or merely one of acknowledgment. He rubbed his hands together, wishing he had thought to find some gloves before coming outside, and debated whether to share the other information that he had overheard, the fact that Kalish’s father seemed to be under duress