Alan Dean Foster Aliens Vs Predator War

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led him to believe that some women douched with liquid nitrogen. And found it
too warm.
He smiled pleasantly, perfectly aware that having to report to him was torture
for her; the loathing was entirely mutual, and Russ hadn't been informed about
the 949 situation until late in the game.
Whereas I was there at the beginning, dear heart. Choke on it.
"Lucas. I see you're getting settled in," she said blandly, her pale blue gaze
taking in the silken robe and mussed hair. "If this is an inconvenient time .
. ."
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"How nice of you to ask," he said, deliberately keeping his tone casual. If
there was anything she hated, it was being taken lightly. "No, not at all. How
are you, I haven't seen you since the last Earthside con.
Keeping busy?"
Julia matched his smile, her eyes like chips of ice. "I'm well, thank you. I
just received the numbers on our scan "
"Don't tell me you've finished already,"
he inter-rupted.
My, isn't that adorable, you did your whole job just as quick as a tick!
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She gritted her teeth at him and continued. " and the ST signal wasn't picked
up, which suggests that the exo suit was taken from the site prior to the
explosion. The spread pattern is such that my people aren't able to trace
passage, but we should now assume that at least one member of the team managed
to escape, taking the MAX with them."
The short range ST beacon couldn't be disabled, which meant that the MAX had
been taken; someone had survived. It was what he'd hoped to hear, but he
wasn't going to let her see it. "Yes, we expected as much," he said, stifling
a deliberate yawn. "Any pick-ups on the
Nemesis?"
"No. My field man believes it was destroyed; it's al-ways possible that they
disabled the tracking boards, but it's unlikely. We'll keep looking, of
course, but I think all we can do now is wait to see where they set down. If
they set down."
Briggs nodded. The joy of goading her was fizzling.
his thoughts already turning to where their runner might be headed. If the
Nemesis had been lost, the suit must have been taken out on a shuttle or
hopper something small, or Julia's team would have spotted the trail.
Disheartening news, considering how easy it was to disappear out in the DS
sectors.
But an emergency craft isn't likely to get very far, ei-ther . . .
Zen's Respite was close to where 949 had been, less than three days on his Sun
Jumper, and he'd come on the very slight possibility that someone on the
Nemesis team might have made it out. Someone who'd had ac-cess to the
Trader's log.
Someone who,if /
can find them, they have the infor-mation, and if if 7
can make the deal, would absolutely assure my position with the Board.
"Worried about something, Lucas?" Julia asked sweetly.
Briggs frowned, tilting his head to one side. "Actu-ally, yes. You've been to
Zen's Respite recently ... is
Chin still cooking in the restaurant here? I heard rumor that he moved when
the Company remodeled his kitchen."
If looks could maim. Julia's composure slipped for only a second, but the pure
hatred that flickered across her features was truly a sight to behold. She
reached forward and the screen went blank. Briggs grinned; not even a
good-bye.
The pleasure was short-lived, quickly giving way to frustration. For a moment
he sat and stared at the dead screen, searching for a way to hurry things
along. He'd put Irwin and the guards on standby and double-check that the
channels were all straight-lined to him . . .
. . .
and wait. I can wait, and hope that they turn up somewhere Company or Company
friendly, that the manager bothered to read the alert, and that whatever C4
channel jockey picks them up has the sense to report it.
A lot of ifs, a lot of hoping. Briggs sighed and stood up, already feeling
like he needed another massage.
He knew there was no point in worrying about it; they'd either turn up or they
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wouldn't, and he hadn't made
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it into the upper brackets of Weyland/Yutani by agoniz-ing over things he
couldn't control. And it wasn't as though Zen's Respite was such a bad place
to wait. The Company's complex had four excellent restaurants, a full holovid
rec room, and was within easy distance of a half dozen highly ranked organic
gardens.
And there's the suite-level staff, of course.Selee' was able enough, but the
brochure also listed several em-ployees with skills and attributes that he
wouldn't mind tasting. For 47 TS, he was in excellent shape, still perfectly
capable of enjoying the satiation of his appe-tites. In fact, there was a
particularly flexible young woman he'd heard about who could supposedly do
things he'd only read about . . . [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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