Free The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 by PJ Haarsma Page B

say.
    “Johnny! JT!” I heard my friends somewhere in the frozen darkness as I felt my body being bundled up and hoisted off the ground. The cold finally reached my brain and shut the lights out.

“Do you have any idea the risk you have taken?” someone said, right next to me but a mile away in my head.
    “What are you implying?” someone else said — someone who sounded nervous.
    “I refuse to do this dance. Tell him.”
    Was that Charlie?
    “May I remind you whom you are speaking to?”
    “May I remind
you
whom you will deal with if this boy dies?”
    “He is nothing more than a child. A human child who is here to work,” a new voice said.
    “You could have the Scion right under your noses and you wouldn’t even know it.”
    “Scion! Now I know you are foolish.”
Who said that?
    “I will not stand here and debate the prophecy of the Ancients with
him.
”
    Another voice spoke up and then another. I was cold. Very, very cold.
    “The Trust will receive my report at the next gathering.”
    “We have done nothing against the Trust. The central computer will provide evidence of this.”
    “You better pray to whatever it is you pray to and hope that boy lives.”
    Darkness came as the cold took me once more.

“You’re starting to make a habit of this,” Max said.
    I sat up and rubbed my eyes. My fingers were wrapped in a yellowed plastic that stank of decay.
    “Where are we?” I asked.
    “Our new rec room,” she replied.
    “You’re awake! Welcome back,” Theodore said, leaning next to Max. “Not bad, huh?”
    Theodore turned his palm up to the tall, slender windows that started at the floor and curved up and over my head. I could see the stars in the sky and even the other side of the ring when I looked out. The brilliant moon, Ki, floated across the windows. It felt like I was on the observation deck of the
Renaissance.
All the windows in the oval room converged on a massive pink crystal that hung down from the center of the ceiling and illuminated the entire room.
    Theodore saw me staring down the row of sleepers that lined the windows. “Twenty brand new ones,” he said. I lay in the one second from the end.
    “Compliments of the Keepers,” Max said.
    “Yeah, Odran wanted us to share a couple of blankets and a pot,” Theodore said.
    “Theylor made him order the sleepers. He wasn’t too happy about it,” Max added. “I’m at the other end with Grace and Ketheria.”
    “Where is Ketheria?” I asked.
    “She’s saying good-bye to Charlie,” Theodore said. “He sat with you every cycle, but he had to leave. He said he had things to do.”
    “He’ll be back, though,” Max added.
    “Has anyone heard anything about Weegin?” I said.
    “Nothing,” Theodore said.
    I looked around my new home. “How long have I been like this?”
    “Over a phase,” Max said.
    “A phase?”
    “You almost died, JT,” Theodore whispered.
    “Again,”
Max said teasingly.
    “How?”
    “That’s the best part,” Max said, sitting up.
    “The bio-bots tried to suck the life out of you,” Theodore said, interrupting Max.
    “May I?” Max said to Theodore.
    “Sorry.”
    “You know Toll, the Samiran?” she said. There was an eagerness to her voice.
    “Uh . . . yeah.”
    “Well, the water is treated with bio-bots. Really, really tiny things that help keep the Samirans cool. They’re just so big and with the crystals, well, it just creates too much heat for them. So the bio-bots consume the heat and then . . . you know . . . they make that sweet smell.”
    “They fart,” Theodore said.
    “Do you have to say that?” Max frowned. “They’re engineering marvels. Engineering marvels don’t fart.”
    “Well, that’s where the smell comes from. Ask Charlie,” Theodore argued.
    “Why don’t they just use those bio-bots to cool the crystals?” I asked.
    “They only work with life-forms. That’s why they went after you, but you’re so small . . .” Max stopped. “Well, not small. I