Free Children of Junk (Rogue Star Book 3) by James Wisher Page A

piled high with some sort of overly thick paper, sat a man with thick, leathery skin devoid of body hair. He squinted at Marcus, put his hands on the desk, his arms corded with muscle pushed off and stood up revealing a massive, broad shouldered body wearing simple brown cloths made of a stiff, durable material Marcus didn’t recognize. He doubted a shot from his stunner would even make the man flinch.
    “You the new guy in hanger twenty?” The owner had a thick, scratchy voice that matched his appearance perfectly.
    He removed his mask and let it dangle around his neck. “That’s right. I’m Marcus Drake and I work for the Galactic Council. I believe you spoke to my boss earlier today.”
    He nodded his massive, bald head. “Right. You’re man’s in hanger thirty-two. Paid for a week in advance. Ain’t seen him since.”
    “Thanks. Mind if I poke around?”
    “Knock yourself out.” The owner sat back down behind his wall of paper and lost all interest in Marcus. Given his total lack of motivation, why’d he bothered to report Cade’s arrival?
    Marcus left his amiable host to his work and set out to track down hanger thirty-two. He found it about as far as you could get from the office and still remain on the property. The lack of a hanger door made Marcus’s job easy, he slipped inside just as slick as you please. The security transport sat on its gear, sealed tight. He went to the rear of the ship and checked for an access panel, but found nothing. Arnold must have had a remote access key like his gauntlet. Well, shit.
    His hopes for a quick in and out dashed Marcus returned to his ship. He still had a few options, several of them expensive and none of them a sure thing. A command from his gauntlet opened the loading ramp; Marcus entered the hold, jogged up to the cockpit and found it empty. He sighed and shook his head. It reminded him of the old days when he worked alone, running Vlad’s errands. He didn’t miss the old days, he missed Solomon. He missed Iaka even more, she was just down the hall, but felt lightyears away. Marcus set his dark thoughts to one side. He’d make things right later, for now he needed to find Cade.
    First things first, Marcus did a basic search for Cade’s name, hoping to find some family that might know where he was. Nothing. Well, that would have been too easy anyway. Next he checked for cameras that might have seen him leaving the field, but the planet lacked a functioning surveillance system. Marcus saw why Cade chose this dump; it seemed like a good place to disappear for a while. He brightened, fired up one of the hacking programs Solomon wrote for him, typed Cade’s name, and set it to search every database in the city, starting with the closest and moving out from there.
    He leaned back in his chair and tapped his chin. Where would Cade have gone? Truth was he might have gone anywhere. Ten minutes later the computer chimed and an image of Cade appeared on the screen. He checked into a cheap hotel about five miles away. Marcus grinned. Time to introduce himself to Mr. Cade.

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    M arcus left the cockpit and rapped on Iaka’s door. It slid open and she leaned in the doorway. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’ve got a line on Cade. Will you keep an eye on things here in case he comes back while I’m gone?”
    She nodded. “Be careful.”
    He wanted to kiss her, hug her, pat her on the shoulder, something to reinforce their connection, but instead he headed to the hold to get his bike. He unstrapped it and his mask fitted as tight to his face as he could get it Marcus eased down the ramp. When he was clear he sealed the ship behind him. It was mid afternoon local time, but the clouds were so thick it felt like night. He sighed, typed the hotel’s location in his computer, and roared off into the murk.
    Following the directions on his screen Marcus flew down a pitted, and pot hole filled three lane highway. Heavy haulers not dissimilar to the one the