Free Dominant Species Volume Two -- Edge Effects (Dominant Species Series) by David Coy Page B

tool.
    When he could swing it no longer, he let the tool hang at his side
as he stumbled blindly on, oblivious to the bugs that bit and sucked at him and
stung him.
    Walking zombie-like, he pushed a large leaf out of the way and
came out, to his shock, in the clearing.
    The utter absence of leaves and vines in front of his face caused
him to laugh out loud.
    “Fuck me !”
    He looked at the cluster of shelters to his left. He’d missed them
by two hundred meters at least. He shook his head in disbelief, not at the
measure of his miscalculation, but at the fact that he made it out at all.
    Half smiling at the insects, he took a few swipes at the large
ones crawling up his legs and arms.
    “Get the fuck off me.”
    With little concern about being seen, he trotted along the
perimeter and back toward the cluster of shelters. He grinned nearly all the
way back.
    Showered, bandaged and dressed, he stood behind the screen of the
rear door and looked out at the patch of jungle visible between the shelters.
He’d been foolish and lucky. A few more minutes in there, and he would have
been dead. He would have stumbled around and collapsed, and the bugs would have
eaten him alive.
    He decided not to do any more freelancing. It was risky, and Smith
probably wouldn’t like it.
    He itched all over and hoped the clinic was open. He planned on
going there first thing in the morning.
     

 
     
    7
            Donna wondered which
gene bastards like this one were missing that allowed them to do work like
this. It was one of life’s great mysteries. She’d read about people who could
do anything to anyone provided they did it as an order from someone higher in
rank than themselves. The prick sitting in front of her was one of those
types. Natzers or natzys, she thought they called them—something like that.
    “That’s the deal, Applegate,” the facilitator said to her. “Take
it or leave it.”
    Anyone could get down on his or her luck; it was part of life. But
why was it so many predators had to charge in, ripping and tearing as soon as
your knees hit the ground?
    “You’ll be more than a nurse. That must appeal to you, am I
right?” the bastard asked.
    “Sure. That’s not the problem. The problem is the pay down. I’m a
grade five. I should be paid down as a grade five.” She watched him scowl and
fiddle with the numbers a little. She knew what would be next—an itsy, bitsy
increase in the pay down, maybe enough for a sandwich each week, if that.
    “I can go ninety-two fifty per annum, Applegate, but I’m afraid
that’s just about it.”
    Two sandwiches.
    “When would I leave for Verde whatever?”
    “Verde’s Revenge. Verde for short. You’d leave tomorrow. They say
it’s the richest planet Richthaus-Alvarez Mining has ever discovered.”
    “Oh, really?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Any profit sharing?”
    “Nope. I’m afraid not.”
    “There never is any profit sharing, is there?”
    “Rarely.”
    “Then why would you bring it up?”
    “I didn’t know I had.”
    “You did, and you didn’t, didn’t you?”
    It had to be one of those sadistic little things these rotten
bastards did just for fun. It had to be.
    “I just thought you might find it interesting.”
    “I see. I’ll take the deal. I think you knew I would. I’m sure Richthaus-Alvarez
appreciates your negotiating skills. You’re one smooth bastard. Pardon me.”
    “It pays down,” he said.
    “Right. It pays down . . .” she scoffed.
    She shook her head right at him. He stared at her and finally
pursed his thick lips. Donna thought she could detect just the hint of a sick
little smile in those worm-like structures. Her Irish temper was flaring. She
could feel her ears beginning to turn red and wished for a perverse second she
could be this prick’s personal nurse for just a couple of days the next time he
got good and sick.
    Something was wrong about this Verde deal. It didn’t make sense to
her that the alleged richest mining