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Dataset card Data Studio Files
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ODYSSEUS
A humid wind snapped at Caine's pants as he started down the mobile airway-stairs toward the tarmac. But even the tinted plexiglass roof-tube was unable to defe...
His shirt started to stick as the humidity rose to meet him, and Caine suddenly realized that covert operatives-even those as new and unprepared as he-didn't ...
A stubby, sunburned man with a flattop of bristly hair was waiting for him on the tarmac, hand extended. "You Riordan, Caine Riordan?"
"That's me," replied Caine. "Pleased to meet you."
A full head shorter than Caine, the other man smiled and pumped his hand with the excessive vigor of a membership officer for a failing Shriner's lodge. "I'm ...
Caine nodded. "Thanks for coming to pick me up."
Brinkley snorted. "I should be thanking you: anything to get me away from my damned desk." Brinkley extracted his hand from Caine's, swept it at the buildings...
At first, Caine couldn't tell if the grandiose gesture was ironic or genuine. But then Brinkley began gathering himself for another grand pronouncement-
There was a splintering blast behind Caine's right ear. A spatter of microscopic lances cut into that side of his neck: needle-fragments from the plexiglass r...
Caine dove into a prone position, his sternum thumping against the sun-softened tarmac, his heart thumping behind it. Goddamnit: a sniper? Here? Already? For ...
So-cover. Find cover. Caine scanned his surroundings: two klicks of cleared ground in all directions. No cover except the spaceplane. That meant there was onl...
But Brinkley was laughing, rising from his casual crouch. "Don't let the yokels spook you: it's nothing personal."
Caine remained prone, looked up at him, and then at the bullet hole in the plexiglass. "Seems pretty personal to me." Caine's teeth chattered once; he gritted...
"Outbackers. Neo-Luddites, mostly. Want to discourage further colonization. Every week or so, one of 'em wanders down here, takes a potshot at a spaceplane or...
Caine tried to smile back, thought: You have no idea how much they like me-since you have no idea who just shot at me. That was not a hunter's rifle. There wa...
As Caine rose up, so did a tiltrotor from the small, squat skyline to the north of the spaceport. The tiltrotor's lazy movements matched Brinkley's bored draw...
Except this time it's not a game. But you're right about the tiltrotor not finding anything. By now, a professional will have moved well away from the firing ...
Brinkley gestured toward the edge of the tarmac: through the heat-shimmer, Caine could make out a boxy, dull-green silhouette. "It ain't a limo, but it'll do....
Yes. I need to know whether that shot was meant to drop me or warn me. But either way, a little more cross-wind and that bullet would have gone straight throu...
Brinkley droned on. "Listen, I've got a medkit in the car. We'll put a compress on those nicks. They're not too deep. Day or two and you won't even feel 'em-"...
True-because I might be dead by then, without ever knowing who pulled the trigger. Probably somebody working for the Colonial Development Combine's planet-rap...
And Brinkley still droned on. "Yep; we'll have you fixed up good as new. And we'll make sure it doesn't happen again. To the extent that's possible, of course...
"I didn't."
Brinkley had walked a step ahead, was trying to catch Caine's eye. "Of course, I understand if you can't say who you work for. We get that all the time. A lot...
Caine just kept walking, kept his eyes on the low skyline of the settlement, and kept hoping it was big enough to get lost in for a while. Long enough, at lea...
No: not acceptable. Even if there hadn't been any lives depending on the success of his mission, retreat was simply not an option. The next shift-carrier wasn...
Meaning, by process of elimination, that he had to drop out of sight until he could come up with a better strategy. And if he couldn't "get lost" in the colon...
Brinkley nudged his elbow. "C'mon, you can tell me. They sent you here to find them, right?"
Caine forced his face to remain unsurprised as he echoed, "What do you mean, 'find them'?"
Brinkley looked over his shoulder furtively-even though the closest person was still over a hundred meters away. He lowered his voice to a stage whisper. "You...
Caine smiled, but thought: this just gets better and better. I step off the shuttle and-after a quick little welcome bullet-the first guy I meet asks me if I'...
Brinkley was still looking expectantly at Caine. Who stumbled over the requisite lie he should have told readily: "I'm-I'm here to investigate reports that th...
Oblivious, Brinkley was pouting. "Well, I guess it's more important to investigate CoDevCo than a bunch of fool rumors about xeno-chimps. Hell, it's about tim...
Again, Caine couldn't utter the easy lie, the easy "yes." Instead, he muttered, "Not directly."
"Have a good trip?"
"Sure. A bit long, though." Yeah, thanks to being stuck in cold sleep, about thirteen years too long. But who's counting?
Brinkley nodded. "Yeah, a six-month trip from Earth is a long haul. Seems a shame, too. You look up in the sky at night and you think, 'that should be a fast,...
"I beg your pardon?"
"Look at the night sky while you're here. Locate Alpha Centauri-you'll find it crowding Omicron Ursa Major, like a bright new eye in the head of the bear. Sol...
Yeah, and if pigs could fly- But Caine only nodded: "A damned shame."
Brinkley nodded back, then jerked his head toward the hydrogen-burning Rover now only ten meters away. "C'mon; let's get out of the heat."
And off of this shooting range. But Caine only said: "Fine by me."
* * *
Downport had the look of a well-established paramilitary compound: a lot of high-quality prefab; about a dozen permanent buildings; twice that number in vario...
Brinkley resumed his stream-of-conscious narration, nodding proudly around him as he drove. "We've got about eighty-nine thousand settlers on Dee Pee Three, n...
Caine glanced at the outri foliage that was peeking over the surrounding roofs. "So the wildlife here is edible?"
"Some, but it's hard to know which animals are safe to eat, or rather, which parts of them. Easy to make a mistake. Some of the bigger animals make the same m...
Just great. The jungle didn't sound like a very good hiding place either.
Brinkley hadn't paused for breath. "So it's pretty dangerous in the brush. Hey: if you're going in there, you'll want a gun. Nothing too fancy, mind you. But ...