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.Who was this man to play with people s lives?Josiah had her taken to a very nice room, she couldn t complain about that.But she could complain about the lock on the door and the rather unpalatablechoices he wanted her to make.At least she d learned one thing.He wasn tinterested in her personally.He wanted to use her to hurt Jerred, somethingthat made her even angrier.Sure, the man was insufferable.Hell, he was evenan ass sometimes.But something inside her rebelled at the thought of Josiahusing her against him.If anyone was going to call him an ass, it should beher, she thought wryly.Josiah was just going to have to wait in line.Thinking about him made her mad, too.He just assumed she d dump him if abetter prospect came along.He certainly didn t think that highly of her.Beside that, ifCelia was any sign, women weren t too valued on this station.Despite whateveryone seemed to think, she wasn t a whore; she was a barmaid.Bigdifference.But even if there were bars on this unfortunate chunk of metal,she had a feeling they wouldn t be hiring on the kind of terms she liked tosee in her employers.There was nothing else for it; she was going to have break them out of thishunk of junk.The thought make her laugh.After all, guards surrounded her.This was Josiah s station, and he clearly controlled everyone and everythingon it.Page 51ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlBut she had a few things going for her, she thought coolly.She wasstation-born and bred.As a child on Vega, she d learned all about the littlenooks and crannies that filled even the most carefully designed stations.Shewas still relatively small, and while her hair was noticeable, it wasn t sobad when she pulled it back in a braid.In fact, unless he had thought torestrict her access to food, she could probably even manage to order somethingup to color her hair with.If she got the chance to run, she wanted to beready to take it.She wandered over to the data terminal, hoping against hopethat his access to the library included data privileges.If it did, she was set.She flipped on the terminal, opting to use the manual interface, and checkedinto the  net.There was the library all right.She took a moment to look itover, surprised to see that it went far beyond the standard titles one mightexpect on a station of this size.There were the most recent vids and lits, far more than she d seen in the datashops onTransit Three.Whatever else Josiah was, he must be an educated man.He andhis people had an impressive library.She chose an Imperial space opera at random and flicked it on to the large vidscreen.Hopefully that would distract anyone who might be watching her.Ofcourse, if they were monitoring her data terminal it wouldn t do her muchgood, but it would provide minimal cover against the casual observer.Sheflicked through data screens, 69Joanna Wylde wishing she d had more interest in the  nets as a child.She knewthere were ways to hack into them, to move around so that nobody could seewhat she was doing.Unfortunately, she didn t have a clue as to how one even tried something likethat.She flicked back out of the library, discovering that the station s public net was open to her.She started by calling up a map.It wasn t as detailedas she might like, but it did give her some general idea of how big thestation was.She looked in the directory for a brig or jail, but nothing waslisted.She sighed that would have been too easy.Instead, she took a moment to look over the station.It seemed to be builtalong the lines of a giant cylinder, spinning on its axis to provide gravity.She winced.It was an ancient design, the kind usually reserved for habitatsaround planets.She sat back and tried to think.If the station was based on the habitat design, the exterior should be fairlyuniform.Sure, there would be protrusions and hatches and such, but still, it washardly likely that there were giant holes in it.That just didn t fit in withthe design.In the map she d found online there were several large, darkspaces that really should have been filled.She decided they probably were filled, but just filled with things thatweren t available to anyone who happened to access the general  net.She d bether last creditJerred was hidden there.There were four of them, two at each end of thestation.Given that the whole thing had to be six or seven miles long, shedecided it made sense to work on the assumption that he would be in one of thecloser areas.It seemed to make sense that all prisoners would be held in thesame general area.She probably wouldn t be able to travel the length ofstation without being caught, anyway.Of the two holes in the map on this end, one of them seemed to be larger thanthe other.It was near several of the largest hangars, and also seemed to becentered in the middle of the barracks area.It would be a good, safe place tokeep a prisoner, she thought, but perhaps an even better place to storePage 52ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlweapons.And would they really keep a prisoner so close to potential escape?There seemed to be hundreds of small vehicles in those hangars&The second hole looked more promising.As far as she could tell, their littlebanquet had taken place in or near it, and she decided that it was most likelyJosiah s private compound within the station.In fact, her little room was either in it orvery, very close to it.She thought about Josiah for a moment, wondering if hewould be the kind of man to keep his prisoners close to him.He d been playingwith her and Jerred at dinner like a big, hungry zarna.The more she thought about it, the more it made sense.Zarnasenjoyed toying with their prey before killing it, just like Josiah.If she was right, Jerred wasn t far from her at all.She looked at the map one last time, then flicked back to the library.Theless time spent accessing such dangerous data, the better.She spent anotherhour scrolling through the titles and watching snippets of different vids,then settled on a drama centered on a Saurellian priestess.70Jerred s PriceTo her surprise, it turned out to be engrossing.The woman was torn, becauseher entire family wanted her to take some man as her  life mate, whateverthat was.Giselle assumed some kind of marital bond.But the priestess didn t want amate, she wanted to stay single and free at the temple [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]