The Lost Ship of the Tucker Rebellion - Marie Sexton Page 0,30
from thrilled. “He’s a maniac.”
Denver shook his head. “No, we can work with this. You became disillusioned with Mars and left it behind, and Laramie and I aren’t locals, either. Hell, the station we were raised on was decommissioned by Mars a decade ago. We have no positive associations with any station personnel—”
“Except for Rand.”
Marit waved a hand. “Yeah, but he doesn’t count. He’s only station security. In the grand scheme of things, that’s barely better than a janitor.”
“Speaking of Rand, we’ve got a ship inspection later today,” Laramie added. “It’s probably better if we get some of this business wrapped up before they get here. Let’s go see this Gru guy, then worry about Samsen.”
“I have encrypted a file listing the number and type of plant available within the pod,” OPAL said. “It will be accessible from your IDs.”
“You think of everything.”
“It is all my practice at mindfulness. My mind is very full indeed.”
“Clearly.” Laramie glanced at Denver. “You feel ready for this?”
“I’m fine.” The caffeine was doing its job. Denver’s headache was almost gone. “Let’s get going. Bring cutters, but tuck them away. Just in case.” Better lightly armed than not armed at all, considering who they were off to meet.
They were just leaving the Jiminy’s docking bay when Laramie stopped him with a hand on his elbow.
“What?” Denver followed Laramie’s eyes to the other end of the bay, where a young man stood, looking uncertain. He chewed his lip nervously, and Denver had a sudden, strong memory of kissing those lips. “Cherry cola,” he mumbled to himself.
“What?” Marit asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Laramie answered.
Denver’s cheeks began to burn. Sometimes it sucked having every one of his thoughts open to Laramie.
The young man waved hesitantly, and Denver found himself smiling. “Give me a minute.”
Laramie scowled, but Marit just shrugged, and Denver left them to approach his dance partner from the night before. The docking bay suddenly felt too wide open, and way too long. He was self-conscious of the exact way his arms swung at his sides as he walked. He resisted the urge to straighten his messy hair. He noticed the boy’s eyes lingering on Laramie. Some people were suspicious of identical twins, even going so far as to refuse doing business with them. He wondered if their intimacy from the night before was about to turn cold because of his brother.
“Hey,” Denver said, when they were finally face-to-face.
“Hey.”
The shy smile on Cherry Cola’s face made Denver’s stomach do interesting things, but he was uncomfortably aware of Laramie’s impatient presence in his head. “Listen, I only have a minute—”
“That’s fine. I just wanted to return this.” He held Denver’s wallet out to him.
Denver took it, then tried to look casual as he opened it to check its contents. Everything was still there. Not that there’d been much in it to begin with. “You took it?”
“You gave it to me. Don’t you remember?”
“I don’t remember much from last night, to be honest.”
The boy’s smile wilted a bit. “Oh.”
“I mean, I remember you. I just don’t remember giving you my wallet. That’s all.”
“Well, we were dancing, and you said we should go upstairs.” He seemed hesitant to meet Denver’s eyes. “To get a room?” He worded it as a question, and Denver nodded.
“Yeah, that I remember. But—”
“But you said you needed to talk to somebody first.”
“About the room?”
“No. You saw somebody you knew.”
What? That didn’t make any sense. “Who?”
“I don’t know. You said it’d only take a minute. I joked that you were ditching me, and you said you’d prove you weren’t by leaving your wallet with me. Plus that way, you couldn’t buy any more Rave on the way back. You were supposed to meet me by the lift, but you never did.”
Denver shook his head, tucking his wallet into his pocket. “I wasn’t ditching you. I don’t know what happened. I think I just lost track of… of…”
Laramie said in his head.
“Shut up.”
“What?” Cherry Cola asked.
“No, not you.” Denver stepped a bit closer, as if that could keep Laramie from overhearing. “Look, a lot of last night’s pretty blurry, but not you. You, I remember with absolute clarity. And I was definitely into finding that room.”
That at least got him a smile.
“I’m sorry I stood you up.”
“I won’t hold it against you.”
“Maybe we can—”
“It’s simulated daylight anyway,” Denver shouted across