Steal the Demon: A Science-Fiction Novella by Robert Roth (free novels to read txt) 📕

She reached out to grab the bag and looked inside of it, where she saw a neatly folded Al-Zamani uniform coverall. “This isn’t yours, is it? I’d be swimming in it.”

He laughed good-naturedly, patting his stomach. “Oh, no, no. It is bigger than your size, though. That way, you can wear it over your flight suit.”

She nodded. “Perfect.”

“I don’t have an ID for you, so I’ll have to talk you past security. But that won’t be much trouble for an old smuggler like me.”

Kimiko flashed him a grin. “You’re the best, Ernesto.”

The old man actually blushed when she said that. In some ways, he reminded her of her father. Suddenly she had to work very hard to keep that smile on her face. But the moment soon spun away, and the two spent the rest of their meal making small talk and catching up. After so many recent changes to her once stable life, it was a pleasant few moments of normalcy for her.

When they were finished eating, Kimiko asked Ernesto if he wanted to grab a drink or two. He declined, since he’d been planning on sleeping before his shift. He gently suggested that she do the same since they’d be getting either a very early or very late start, depending on their perspective. Then he excused himself, wishing her a good night, until he saw her again in the morning.

Alone again, she realized that she was still in the mood for company. She thought about reaching out to Paradox, but couldn’t imagine him cutting loose at a pilot’s bar with her. Hell, she’d just been in a bar with him earlier that day, and he hadn’t ordered a thing. Not even water. And she knew Ernesto was right about getting her rest. It would at least give her some time to review the floor plans and schematics that Paradox had given her. But she was too spun up to go back to her tiny, rented compartment just yet.

So she walked around for a little while, and ended up heading back down to the transit and shipping level. The crowd there was different than the joes up on the accommodation and retail levels. She watched seasoned system travelers as they seemed to glide through the busy space on autopilot, easily avoiding the confused and slow-moving first-timers just trying to find their way to the right ship or correct check-in point. Everyone was clean and well-dressed, which was a far cry from the busy transfer areas at Motherlode port, where greased up corporate crews orbited uneasily around their slapdash indie counterparts. There wasn’t even anyone panhandling that she could see. Although, based on the Station Security presence, she doubted a joe begging for creds would get very far at Davida before being hauled before a Compliance Magistrate for indigence.

As she walked past an indie flight crew, joyous and laughing in their mismatched gear and half uniforms, she felt a moment of nostalgia and sadness. Losing her crew had been one of her most significant challenges following her father’s arrest. They’d all moved on, scattering around the system, since they had to keep working to survive. Jiro was still on Ceres working traffic control for one of her father’s old rivals, so he was close by. Keon and Mirabel picked up crew posts on a freighter flagged with a Martian corp, working the Mars-Saturn-Jupiter turnround. And the twins, Som and Shahpour, took a maintenance gig at a research station on Triton. She didn’t begrudge any of them for moving on and traded messages with them every so often just to stay in touch. But she missed them all, just the same. Then she noticed a couple of the indie crew joes looking at her and wondered what they were thinking, seeing her in her civilian clothes, but still navigating the crowd like she felt at home. They were probably wondering who she was and why she seemed familiar. She gave them a friendly nod and kept going. Wandering around like that made her feel a little bit more like her old self, which she enjoyed. But it was starting to remind her that she’d been forced to leave that life behind, too. Knowing that she was in danger of getting spun out about it, she sought out the closest station lift, rode it back up to the residential area, and found her way back to her rented compartment.

After she took off her jacket and pulled off her boots, she crawled onto her bed slab and laid down. There she loaded the data from Paradox’s chip onto her hand terminal, then connected to it via her P/N-interface and reviewed the files on her HUD. The Shaitan schematics included a rendered, virtual walkthrough that Kimiko could’ve spent many hours playing with, but they didn’t tell her anything new. The Al-Zamani floorplans, though, were impressive. The plans didn’t label any of the compartments, so she couldn’t determine any security terminal’s exact location. But she was able to match up several rooms with the places Kenji’s ex had told her about. Eventually, the desire to sleep finally overtook her, so she set the alarm on her hand terminal, rolled over, and fell asleep.

3

Duck When All The Shooting Starts

Kimiko woke several hours later to the relentless beeping of her alarm. After a brief moment of confusion, wondering where she was, full awareness of her situation returned. It was time to get ready for a heist. She climbed out of bed and spent a few minutes taking care of business in the compartment’s ensuite head, then cleaned herself up as best she could, including washing off the makeup she’d been wearing since the day before.

Newly scrubbed and freshened, Kimiko worked her way back into the one-piece underlayer of her brand new flight suit, then slipped on the harness and collar ring. Once everything was properly fastened, she pulled up the suit menu and explored the