Freedom, Humanity, and Other Delusions (Death's Handmaiden Book 3) by Niall Teasdale (best summer reads txt) 📕

five hours and twenty-five minutes ahead. Keep that in mind if you want to call.’

‘The day lengths are about the same though, aren’t they?’ Courtney asked.

‘Yeah. That’s not a problem. The year there is only three hundred and fourteen days, but the days match up pretty well with Shinden’s.’

‘That’s something.’ Courtney paused. ‘You will try to stay safe, won’t you?’

‘As safe as I can. I need to be going…’

Courtney glanced at the train car waiting to take her boyfriend away for a year. ‘I know.’ Then she was wrapping herself around Kyle, attempting, it seemed, to give him a kiss which would keep him warm until he got to his destination.

‘She is going to let him go, right?’ Nava asked.

Mitsuko considered her answer briefly. ‘Not by choice. No.’

236/8/5.

‘Well,’ Mitsuko said, stretching languorously, ‘this is certainly a fine way to close out the first day of the summer holiday.’

‘I can’t immediately think of a better one,’ Nava replied. ‘Maybe if we also had cake.’

‘Cake would be an interesting addition. I think it might get messy.’

‘That’s a possibility. Is messy bad?’

‘Well… It depends, I suppose.’

Melissa said nothing. She was lying on Mitsuko’s bed, panting. At midnight, she would be turning seventeen and Mitsuko had insisted they have one last threesome before she became off-limits. They had been at it for ninety minutes. Melissa was not entirely sure she would survive to see her birthday.

‘You did set an alarm, right?’ Mitsuko asked.

Nava nodded. ‘We get a five-minute warning. I am head of the SSF now, I can’t really go around breaking the law.’

‘How long do we have?’

Leaning across to the bedside table, Nava checked the time on her ketcom. ‘Twenty-seven minutes.’

Mitsuko considered briefly. ‘Hm. I suppose it’s really time to start wrapping things up. Shall we carry her to the shower?’ Melissa let out a whimper.

‘Probably for the best,’ Nava agreed. ‘I’m feeling a little sticky myself. We can get her clean and then put her to bed. And tomorrow, we can hand her over to Naomi.’

Melissa let out another whimper, though it sounded like more of an intrigued whisper.

‘I’m not entirely sure I want to give her up,’ Mitsuko countered.

‘Short of chaining her up in the basement, I don’t think that’s an option.’

‘We don’t have a basement.’

‘There’s that plan out the window.’

236/8/6.

‘Happy birthday, Melissa!’ It was a chorus. The table at Le Jardin Magique was pretty full, what with Naomi added to the regular members of the house. The toast was drunk with three out of the five drinking alcoholic drinks; Nava and Mitsuko had insisted that the others not be constrained, given that it was Melissa’s first chance to try alcohol. Legally anyway; no one was mentioning the night in Mitsuko’s apartment after Melissa had broken up with Rochester. Rochester had been invited to the meal, but he had declined, probably because Melissa had a new boyfriend.

‘Does being an adult feel any different?’ Nava asked. ‘I’m curious about what I should expect.’

‘Not really…’ Melissa looked thoughtful for a few seconds. ‘Technically, you’re an adult anyway. Sort of. I mean, if you were still working on old years, you’d be… nineteen?’

‘I haven’t bothered to work it out, but that sounds right. Unfortunately, the legal categories use Shinden, i.e. Alliance, years. Hence, I’m not even seventeen until November.’

‘Better than for me,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I won’t be seventeen until January.’

‘And aren’t we all going to suffer from your deprivation for those two months,’ Courtney said.

‘It’ll be hell,’ Melissa agreed, nodding.

‘You two won’t have her being an evil temptress the whole time,’ Nava said. Then, since Mitsuko was starting to glow, she changed the subject. ‘How is active duty in the ASF, Naomi?’

‘Relatively inactive,’ Naomi replied. ‘Useful in this instance since it was easy for me to get the evening off to visit. They seem to be unsure what to do with me. I’m riding a desk while they decide on diplomatic security or further training in strategy.’

‘Grooming you for higher rank?’ Courtney asked.

‘Mm. I believe I’d prefer the Diplomatic Protection Unit. Going back to school for another couple of years is not what I joined up for.’

‘You’d make a great bodyguard,’ Melissa said. ‘No one would be willing to attack someone you were guarding.’

‘I think that would result in a rather boring life.’

‘Boring is better than riddled with bullets,’ Nava suggested.

‘You have a point.’ Naomi looked across the table at Nava, narrowing his eyes. ‘What do you intend to do when you finally join the ASF, Nava?’

‘Oh, that’s more or less decided. I’ll be joining the Intelligence Response Directorate. What I’ll be doing there, I don’t yet know, but that’s where I’ll be.’

‘The ASF’s spy branch,’ Melissa said. She grinned, but it was a commonly held belief that the IRD were spies.

‘Intelligence gathering,’ Nava replied. ‘It’s not the same thing. Or that’s what I’m told. Besides, they do other things. For example, they act on the intelligence gathered where appropriate, which makes them more like special forces, and they act as a bridge between divisions of the ASF and outside agents to facilitate the communication of information.’

‘You sound like a recruitment post on the info-net,’ Courtney said.

‘I may have had that lecture from a number of people since I came to the Clan Worlds. Anyway, you’ve met Fawn Tyrell. Can you see her as a spy, Mel?’

Mel looked a little perplexed as well as thoughtful. ‘Well, maybe. I’m trying to imagine her in shades… That works. And the uniform’s already black, but maybe a suit… Oh, she’d need a good tailor or her bust would be bursting out all over. Okay, you got me. No, I can’t imagine Fawn as a spy.’

‘But that’s exactly what a spy would want you to think,’ Courtney said.

‘Oh! I hadn’t thought of that…’

236/8/7.

‘So?’ Mitsuko asked as she prepared coffee in the kitchen. ‘How was he?’

Melissa blushed. A lot. They were up quite early so that Naomi could get back to Alliance City in time. She had, in fact, been up even earlier since she wanted a shower –