Free Your Truth is Out There (Find Your Truth Book 1) by David Allen Kimmel Page B

bullying or manipulating those around him. Lhvunsa would allow him to do neither. She had, in fact, done a pretty good job of bullying him since the moment he first contacted her.
    Moreover, she was right. He really had started to convince himself that none of this was his fault. That Gsefx was, in fact, the miserable show-off he made him out to be. But why? What had Gsefx actually done to him to deserve such treatment? The answer was simple. Admitting it wasn’t.
    “I don’t hate Gsefx,” he said quietly.
    “What?”
    He reengaged the auto-pilot and turned to face Lhvunsa.
    “I said, I don’t hate Gsefx.”
    Lhvunsa turned from the window to face him.
    “I don’t dislike him at all. It’s just that …” he looked down at his hands, unable to meet her eyes.
    “Yes? I’m waiting.”
    “I’m jealous of him,” he said softly. “I know how juvenile that must sound, but it’s the truth. He’s successful because he’s smart, talented, and good with people in a way I’ll never be. He’s a natural leader.”
    He took a deep breath and summoned the courage to look at Lhvunsa directly.
    “His success isn’t limited to the workplace, either. He’s happily married to a beautiful woman who clearly loves him very much. I, on the other hand, have never even been on a third date.”
    He turned away from her and looked out his window, silence enveloping the cockpit once again. When Lhvunsa finally spoke again, her voice was gentle, but firm.
    “Qilzar,” she said, “you are a selfish, bitter, heartless bully who punishes everyone around you to make up for your own failings. But I have to give you credit, it took a lot of courage to say what you did just now.”
    He turned back to face her.
    “I think it was more difficult to hear the words than it was to say them.”
    “There may be hope for you, yet,” she said with a smile.
    He returned her smile, but before he could say anything, the navigational computer signaled their arrival at Irt.
    Lhvunsa removed a small device from her purse.
    “This device allows us to know where our vehicles are at all times. It also lets us know the status of each vehicle. We each have one. Gsefx invented them about a turn ago. He took a couple of basic vehicle analyzers and reprogrammed them so they’d not only analyze each vehicle’s status, but they’d also talk to each other and alert us if either vehicle traveled outside of a one hundred parsec range. I thought they were just a part of his ridiculous hobby and a waste of time. When I see him again, I’m going to tell him just how wrong I was, right after I strangle him for being so stupid!”
    “That’s quite impressive,” said Qilzar, marveling over the device in his passenger’s hands. “I had no idea Gsefx was such an electronics wizard.”
    “I wouldn’t call him a wizard,” said Lhvunsa, flatly. “All it really amounts to is a lot of excess junk laying around the house. It’s mostly just a big mess.”
    “Perhaps,” said Qilzar, “but Lhvunsa, that device you’re holding in your hand is not something just anyone can throw together. Gsefx’s talents are clearly not limited to accounting.”
    “I suppose you’re right. It still doesn’t get him off the hook. He’s still in deep trouble.”
    “Of that, we’re in solid agreement. Any sign of him, yet?”
    “Not yet, you’ll have to move into a lower orbit. Depending on what side of the planet he’s over right now, this may take a while.”
    Qilzar moved the ship into the lowest possible orbit and accelerated to maximum speed in hopes that wherever Gsefx was, they could overtake him soon.

Chapter 19

I Will Never Be Helpless Again
    Lhvunsa stared at the device in her hand, willing it to reveal the location of her husband’s vehicle. As angry as she’d been at Qilzar earlier, she was now more frightened than anything. After all she had been through recently, the thought of losing her beloved Gsefx was too much to bear, especially over something as