Privateer Tales 3: Parley by Jamie McFarlane Page A

get down to Coolidge, not to mention both Nick and I desperately wanted to ride on one.
    The three of us stepped off the elevator platform, found a restroom and immediately changed into our civvies. Nick sported black jeans, a black collared shirt and a light brown blazer. I wore a black coat, white shirt and blue jeans. We had both opted to wear shoulder holsters with flechette pistols. Marny warned us that Coolidge, as a military town, was likely to enforce the 'no laser blaster law' most towns had. Marny wore tight fitting blue jeans and a colorful tunic with a Mao styled collar. She didn’t wear an obvious weapon, but I’d be willing to bet she had easy access to something.
    “Boys, dinner’s on me tonight,” Marny said. We were standing in a large open area in the most spacious building I’d ever been in. The ceiling had to be at least twenty meters above our heads. Intellectually, I knew atmosphere wrapped around the entire planet but my spacer sensibilities were overwhelmed by the wanton waste of space. The atmosphere to fill this room alone …
    “Cap … you with us?” Marny asked. I was lost looking around the room.
    “Uh, sounds good. You know some place? I thought you were North American Navy.” I said.
    “Sure enough, but I’ve been here plenty. We’re allies , you know.” She winked at me.
    The elevator terminal wasn’t overly busy. In the ten minutes we’d been here, perhaps twenty pods had arrived. The area was nowhere near the capacity it was made for, even if you just considered the floor and not all the openness. I wondered if it was built this way just to mess with spacers like myself. If that was the goal, they’d certainly succeeded.
    “Cap. This way, big fella.” Marny had a grin on her face and Nick stood next to her with his arm wrapped around her waist. They didn’t show much affection on the ship, but apparently on leave, all bets were off.
    As we neared the exit doors, we could see through the glass that it was very dark outside. I hear d a loud rhythmic noise, as if the glass was being pelted by thousands of pieces of debris.
    “Looks like we’re gonna get wet,” Marny said.
    Nick and I looked at each other and simultaneously yelled, “Rain!” We bolted for the door, pushed our way through and ran out into the street. There was water all over everything and it was coming down heavy enough that it was hard to see much farther than ten or fifteen meters.
    Marny watched with a bemused expression from under the terminal's awning. She had hold of our bags, since we had impulsively dropped them. “Let me know when you’ve had enough.” She had to shout over the sound of the rain.
    It grew old after a few minutes and we rejoined her. I was appreciative of our clothing’s ability to resist absorbing water. My hair was wet and I had water running down inside of my shirt and undies, but that would dry soon enough and it was worth it.
    “I’ll call a cab.” Marny still talked louder than normal due to the rain.
    A silver vehicle pulled up next to the awning and a door opened. We all piled in and Nick and Marny got into some sort of wrestling match. Their playful happiness was infectious and I couldn’t help but sit back and enjoy just being in the moment.
    “We have a place to stay tonight?” I asked.
    “Yup,” Nick answered. Take us to the Concord .
    “You’re really going to love this place, I’ve never stayed, but I’ve been in it a couple of times,” Marny said.
    “Will it be raining there too?” Nick asked.
    “Yes my gorgeous little man, it’ll be raining there too.” Marny apparently couldn’t resist getting back to wrestling with Nick.
    I couldn’t have been happier to have the cab start descending. The building we approached was a minimum of forty stories tall and made entirely of reflective glass. It was dark outside and giant flood lights attempted to light up the building's exterior. The rain, however, was heavy enough that the lights had a difficult