Page 75 of Stealing Mercury
Samantha had already done a complete scan of the object, so she decided to leave it with him. “That would be a great help. Thank you.”
“No trouble,” he said. “I like a good puzzle.”
She and Mercury turned to go.
“Sammie.” The chief’s voice stopped her.
She looked over her shoulder. “Chief?”
“What you’re doing for these men. Your father would be proud.”
She spun on her heel, not sure why his misguided attempt to be kind made her so angry. “My father’s first rule was to stay beneath the notice of powerful people.”
The chief sighed. “He learned to be careful to protect those in his care. Back when he was relocating refugees, flying beneath the radar was the only way to stay alive.”
Samantha shook her head. “My father was never a refugee runner.”
Pillar smiled. “It was when you were a tot. Before he started spending more time here.”
She frowned. “More time?”
“He told me he went to visit your mother once and realized you’d gone from being a baby to being a person. He made a point of working this port more after that.”
Samantha blocked out his words. She didn’t want to hear that she’d ever meant anything to her father. In the end, he’d proven what she meant to him. Exactly nothing.
“We should get going,” said Samantha.
“One more thing.” He held up a finger as if to reassure her he knew her hold on her emotions wouldn’t last longer than that one more thing. “Shred’s been in my office checking on you every time theBucket’sbeen in port this last year. More than any other year I can recall.”
“Checking on me?”
“Asking if you’ve been by to clean out your dad’s lock box over at the Treasure. Seems only next of kin, a blood relative, can clear the box.”
“I didn’t even know he had one.”
“Well Shred did, and it sure makes me wonder what he thinks you’re going to find in there.”
“I’m wondering that myself. Thanks, Chief.”
He acknowledged her gratitude with a nod. “Give my regards to your mother. And do let me know what you find in that box.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
HaverleeRefugeeCamp,Krena
GollerraSector
2210.170
Samantha considered Pillar’s claim that her father had been a refugee runner on the way back to pick-up Carn and Lo. Why wouldn’t he or her mother have told her if it was true? No, she would have known.
Pushing all thoughts of her father aside, she let her feet follow the path they’d trod a million times before. When she finally led all three men through the market, she realized the tension in her muscles meant she was nervous. She stopped at the gateway to the refugee camp. It was on a rise with the shantytown where she’d been born spread across the slope below. Beyond the camp, the desert stretched out in all directions.
Near the entrance to the trails that led out into the warren of temporary homes, the buildings were made of salvaged materials, the hulls of derelict ships, mostly. It made for some oddly shaped structures, and the conditions in them were often the worst in the camp. The buildings had no cooling units and the metal roofs made them nearly unlivable during daylight.
To the right of the gate, small, flimsy structures huddled around the port’s safety perimeter in tightly packed clusters. The ramshackle corridor had changed over the years, taking in each new wave of refugees until they could establish some safer section on the border of the camp and build more permanent homes. Directly ahead and beyond the older scrap-built structures, there were sections with rows of prefabricated emergency housing and areas dominated by rows of colorful tents.
She had no idea how Mercury would see the camp. They hadn’t talked much about conditions in the place he referred to as a kennel. She hoped it wasn’t as bad as it sounded, but knew no matter the conditions, his life had been hell.
