Free Accord of Mars (Accord Series Book 2) by Kevin McLaughlin

family here. Have to stay. But I’ll help Acres get the ship ready.”
    And then I was off in the company air car again, jetting back toward New York for the second time today. This time, I was dressed much more formally. It was a black tie deal. I had no idea where Bolton had come up with the outfit I was wearing. I fingered the gold braid on my shoulder. He’d had a dress uniform made - officer dress for the Mars Space Service. It was a blood red top, with black slacks that had a blood stripe running down the leg.
    Dad had the thing designed back on Mars. He borrowed heavily from the US Marine dress uniform, and switched the colors. As far as I knew, he’d only had a few sets made, and all of them were back on Mars. Most of the people on Earth had never even seen the uniform I was wearing.
    I was going to make one hell of an entrance. Which suited me just fine.
    The car landed out in front of the building. I exited onto a red carpet, surrounded by flashes from media cameras. This party was a pretty big deal. The attendees were ambassadors, politicians, a few heads of business. And the UN president, of course. And then there was me.
    I stood nervously in the cameras for a few moments, tugging the bottom hem of my tunic to straighten it. I wasn’t used to this level of attention. For a moment, I had the impulse to jump back into the car and skip the party. The hell with meeting Choi. But before I could act on the idea the car was jetting away, and another was cruising in to drop off the next guest.
    No help for it now. I had to move forward. My first step was slow, but I gained confidence as I went. It was no time to be timid. Now was the moment to be bold.
    I was scanned as I went into the building. First a body scan, and then a security guard went over my body with a hand scanner. The device bleeped a little when it passed over my smartwatch, and again over my pocket.
    “Please empty your pockets, sir,” the guard said. I wondered briefly if he was one of the men who’d accosted me on the roof earlier, but he didn’t look familiar. I did as he asked, laying out a small tablet and a pen onto the counter. He examined each for a few moments, ran another device over them, and then nodded.
    “There go you, sir,” he said. He handed the devices back to me. “Sorry about the inconvenience.”
    “No trouble,” I replied.
    I reached the entrance to the main hall and stopped in my tracks. I’d seen things like this before - in movie sets. The room was huge, decked out in soft lighting and full of tables. There was a small stage and podium up front. Presumably someone would be speaking later on, but I’d been too worried to check the event schedule to see. About fifty people were already inside. Some were milling about chatting, and about half had found seats already.
    The room was awash with black tuxedos and white gowns. My red tunic stood out in the crowd like a laser beam. As thrilled as I’d been to have the uniform on, I wasn’t sure if the added visibility made me happy or not. Part of me was enjoying the free publicity I was giving my father’s Navy. Part of me wanted to go find a corner to hide in. This was his scene, not mine. I didn’t know how I was ever going to become comfortable in places like this. I just didn’t know how he managed it.
    Across the room was a little collection of dark blue uniforms - four officers in the dress uniform of the US Navy. I spotted Admiral Perrault among them, and his eyes met mine. I tilted my head to him with a small nod. He gave a slow shake of his head in return. He looked sad. What was he really up to?
    I made my way over to his group. He broke away before I got there, excusing himself to meet me halfway.
    “Admiral. Good to see you again,” I said.
    “Nice uniform,” he replied. “Your father’s design?”
    “Yes.”
    “He always did have a good eye for such things. You should have taken my advice, Thomas.”
    “To run for home? But I’ve been learning so