Supergiant (Gigaparsec Book 2) by Scott Rhine Page B

we went
hungry.”
    “No wonder Jeeves likes you so
much. You carry food on you all the time?”
    She raised an eyebrow. “And?”
    “You’re not a kid anymore,” Max
said. “You don’t need to.”
    “At university, the cafeteria would
close down for a week at a time for breaks and holidays. I didn’t have much
cash my freshman year, only what I earned from tutoring math. You should have
seen me at an all-you-can eat pizza place or buffet.”
    “Intermittent reinforcement,” he
muttered.
    “One semester, a roommate borrowed
my meal card and ran me out of money.”
    “Didn’t they make your roommate
pay?”
    “She dropped out. Seems she
attended more parties than classes. I had to work for building services for the
rest of the semester.” Seeing the pity in his face, she hardened. “It’s okay,
my dad always quoted the fable about the ant and the grasshopper. I bolted
together bookshelves and repaired heating systems, which paid much better and
more closely resembled my vocation than tutoring people who hated math.”
    “You’re part of a team now. We
cover each other’s backs. We won’t let you starve.”
    She stuffed the baggies into his
chilled suitcase of high-value samples. “God helps those who help themselves.”
    Max smiled. “My grandfather would
counter with ‘the lilies of the field do not toil or spin, but Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed in such as these.’”
    Roz clicked the case shut. “Yeah,
where I come from, we know someone had to plant, water, weed, and fertilize
those lilies. Takes a lot of horse manure to look that nice.”
    “Pretty much my opinion of
politics,” he replied with a twinkle in his eyes.
    Even defensive and angry, she
smiled.

Chapter 7 – Guild and Wergild
     
    The mining complex at Mount Cornwallis employed the bulk of
the stone and gem artisans interested in the Eden geodes. Tuesday morning, Roz slept
in to nearly seven, well past her usual exercise regimen time. She had Max
drive until they reached the first sign of civilization and then took over for
him. Inside the sprawling city, he used the satellite device to give her
directions to each customer on her list. She also taught Max the proper use of
horn honking and shouts to encourage movement in others. They lifted cargo off
the back together so he wouldn’t hurt his back again. Only a few crates
remained by late afternoon, so they celebrated with lunch at Le Viande
Braisé , which loosely translated as lightly charred cow. She was ready for
a thick slab of rare beast.
    While they waited for a table, Max
bought her a cherry soda with the ship’s credit voucher linked to the orbital
bank. The novelty of a man buying her a drink delighted her more than the soda
itself.
    Max kept the sample suitcase by his
leg. He didn’t want someone smashing the rental’s windows to steal something so
valuable.
    “We’ll check into our hotel after
this,” she promised. “Every inch of me is drenched in sweat. I had to take off
my bra in the bathroom. Feels good to get out of that thing.”
    He choked on his beer, a local brew
that came highly recommended.
    “Problem?” Roz asked.
    “No,” he wheezed. “Just stronger
than I thought.”
    Max showed their wares and passed
out cards for the wine auction to several well-heeled diners and the sommelier.
When the woman at the desk called their names, two burly men escorted them out
the side door by the dumpsters.
    “You can’t refuse to serve us just
because we’re nulls,” Roz said. “We have rights.”
    “We can refuse oligarchy spies,”
said one of the bouncers. They both had long, thin mustaches and looked enough
alike to be brothers.
    I know local guild members hate
the oligarchy, but why would they think we work for those jerks? Roz shook
her fist. “You take that back. I earned a scholarship from the Mercy
Llewellyn Foundation, and even though it wasn’t my first choice of assignment,
I worked like a dog to make chief engineer on Eden. I