Page 11 of Kiss of Steel

Wonderful. The driver scowled; her new husband glowered.Fun times.

“Better hop in,” the rep said.

Steel wrenched the door open, flung his duffel inside, and climbed aboard, sliding across the bench seat to the far side.

It took two hops on a rung to boost herself up.Oh, no. I don’t need help, thank you very much.The door shut behind her, and the driver took off. The rep waved as they rolled away.

She hadn’t realized how much the compound walls had sheltered them until they got outside. Frigid wind howled and rocked the conveyance, seeping in through the gaps where the transparency didn’t fit the frame. She shivered and eyed her trunk wedged behind a half dozen crates and then the spaceport terminal building where she’d landed just a couple of hours ago. Within a few days, everything familiar had vanished.

It’s going to be a long, cold two hours.She hugged herself, wondering if the driver in the enclosed cab had heat. The wagon bed didn’t.

The conveyance moved at a pretty good clip over a hard-packed roadway through the town of single-story buildings.At this pace, maybe it won’t take two hours.At a school, little alien children bundled up in heavy coats played in the yard. They passed a hospital, several municipal buildings, and a shopping district. In the center of it towered a massive greenhouse—or maybe it was an indoor park; she couldn’t tell.

Leaving the town, they passed through the center of a solar farm, its massive reflective panels turned toward the gray sky.Maybe Refuge isn’t always overcast.She started to ask her husband but then realized he wouldn’t know any more than she did. Besides, he wasn’t the chatty sort. He’d spoken more words to other people than he had to her.

She turned her head. He stared out his side of the conveyance.

“How long have you been on Refuge?” she asked.

“A week,” he said without a glance.

Another blast of frigid wind rocked the transport and seeped in through the gaps. She blew on her cold hands to warm them. At least the wind whistling through the conveyance cleared the air; the eggers smelled.

As soon as they cleared the solar farm, they entered a tundra, wide-open, flat space sprawling for as far as she could see. There wasn’t a single building.

Low-growing bushes and grass hugged the ground as if trying to stay below the wind. Random stalwart, dwarf trees stood like disfigured sentinels against the bleak, desolate landscape. In the gnarly shapes, she imagined she saw trolls, goblins, a cackling witch, a screaming banshee. One twisted tree growing horizontally reminded her of a dragon. “Monsters,” she murmured.

“What?”

She gave an embarrassed shrug. “The trees remind me of monsters.”

“There’s no such thing as monsters.”

She recalled Blane and his brothers, their wealthy, urbane lifestyle, the charities they contributed to while offering their very special services. “Yes, there are, but they don’t always look like it.” She shoved her frozen hands under her armpits. “I wonder what summer is like here.”

He snorted. “This is it.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Summer, spring, autumn—call it what you want. Refuge has two seasons—cold and colder.” He regarded her with a discomforting, unblinking gaze. “What happened to your hair?”

He must have seen her hologram. She touched her head. “I cut it.”

“It looked better before.”

Her jaw dropped. She knew it looked like she’d chopped it off with pinking shears, but she’d been in a panicked hurry to meet up with the schoolkids because they offered the best chance to sneak out of the building undetected. How rude of him to comment on it. An angry retort sprang to her lips, but she stifled it.

He’s not worth my breath.Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.

She could tell the instant the paved road ended—the ride got a whole lot bumpier. She bounced on the hard bench, and the eggers squawked with alarm. Shivering, she cupped her hands over her nose and mouth to warm them. Her teeth chattered. She snuck a glance at her new husband; he seemed unbothered by the cold.

Miserable, she hunched her shoulders and watched the scenery roll by. She guesstimated they’d been traveling for half an hour.I can’t stand this. I have to get a coat or a sweater.She wished she could remember what she’d packed. She’d tried to plan for a variety of variables.

She twisted around to see if she could get to her trunk and encountered a scowl. “Must you keep doing that?” Jason snapped.

“D-d-doing what?”

“Making that noise.”

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