Free Ricochet by Sandra Sookoo Page A

helmet itself. Push it, and a display screen will turn on. If you’ve entered the checkpoint coordinates into the ship’s computer, you’ll see the waypoint as well as every asteroid in our vicinity.”
    A sense of doom settled over him. “Uh, first problem. I don’t remember entering the coordinates.” In fact, he’d pretty much balked at doing it, feeling that being the navigator was beneath him and that he’d do it later.
    “Damn it, Ace, it’s a fairly important job.” Disappointment dripped from her statement. “If you keep pussyfooting around like this, I’ll file an appeal for a new partner.”
    For the first time, he understood how much the Nebulon Trike meant to Willa. “I’m sorry.” He pressed the activation button, and instantly the interior of his visor danced with brilliant-green 3D images. Digital asteroids moved across the screen. A tiny, red beacon flashed while a constant stream of data in the right-hand corner updated information in a real-time readout. “What the hell?” And then he realized that, despite his blatant disregard for the race, she’d gone ahead and inputted the coordinates.
    “You might not care, but I do. With or without you I intend to finish this race. That’s my choice. You need to decide what’s yours.”
    “It won’t happen again. You have my word.”
    “As much as that means.” Her fingers tightened on the steering mechanism.
    “I promise.” He reeled as he realized he meant it. If, by the end of their time together, he’d done one thing to make her think of him as something other than a screw-up, he’d be better for it. “I assume the beacon is our checkpoint on Megaris-8?”
    Pregnant silence filled the cabin, and for one terrifying moment, he thought she’d keep him in frosty stasis. Finally, she drew in a deep breath and let it out, the sound magnified and crackling over the helmet intercom. “Yes. There’s a small settlement on the north side, fit with an atmospheric shield to support life. I’m sure we’ll find the marker there.” She fiddled with a button on the console. “It’s very bleak, from all I’ve read.”
    “Parts of it are.” He’d visited various livable asteroids in the Belt several times. One of the first things he’d learned in the bounty-hunting business was that criminals flocked to others of their kind, and to find one, you had to assimilate into that society. Many bizarre weeks had been spent living among the riffraff of the Sybaris Belt.
    Not the best environment for a woman of Willa’s caliber.
    “Once we land, I want you to remain inside the ship until I can scout around and confirm the area is secure.” His body naturally leaned into the patterns Willa created as she expertly wove between the floating rocks.
    “I can protect myself, thank you. Don’t treat me like a blown-glass collectible, Stratton.”
    “Why, because that would conflict with how your father treats you?” He ground his teeth when she cursed in Lingorian. Thanks to the universal translator, his face burned from being called a castrated cattle herder. “Fine. What would you like for me to do right now, kita ?” The woman grated on his nerves with her aloof attitude.
    “Make sure we’re maintaining our course. Never lose sight of the beacon, and above all, don’t panic when I do this.” With only those words for warning, she jerked the wheel, and the Anomaly quickly went into a long series of rolls.
    Stratton’s stomach dropped into his shoes, then, just as fast, came back up to lodge in his throat. He clutched at the edge of the console, the armrests of his chair, anything to give him a sense of balance as his equilibrium spun as fast as the ship.
    The crazy bitch is going to kill us!

Chapter Five
    Stratton’s stomach pitched in time to the barrel roll and continued the motion minutes after Willa evened out the ship. “Why the hell did you do that?”
    A naughty grin slid across her lips and animated the visible lower portion of her