My Own Kind of Freedom, page 79 by Steven Brust
<< Return to Title Details & Download80
nd guard took a step forward and swung his shotgun so it was a bit closer to pointing toward Jayne.
He estimated his chances. He didn't like them. He shrugged. Five weeks in the mines wouldn't be any fun, but he'd lived through worse. "All right," he said. "Maybe we'll have a talk when I get out."
The guard smirked.
Jayne wasn't always the best at reading people, but he knew what a smirk meant. He glared at the guard.
"All right, how does it work?"
"How does what wo--"
"Hump that fayu. How do they do it?"
Yuva: Canteen
"It varies," said Mark, "but there's always something. Maybe you show up five minutes late for work, that's another six months. Maybe you leave for lunch a minute early, that's another six. Pushing another worker, two months; pushing at a guard, another year. Obscenity--"
"Okay," said Mal. "How do they get away with that?"
"Who's going to stop him?"
"What, does he have an army backing him?"
"Call it a large security force."
"Huh."
The bartender reached under the counter, but emerged with nothing more than a damp cloth, with which he absently attacked some of the splotches on the stainless steel counter in front of him. "What about you?" he said.
"Hmmm?"
"What are you doing here?"
"Delivering cut maple."
"Ahh." The bartender smiled.
"You know what it's for?"
"It's for me. I've been wanting a new place, and he's been promising me one for most of a year now. A real saloon, made of good wood. Know what I mean? And I want swinging doors, holo windows, a dart board, a flyball booth, maybe a couple of pool tables. So, what was that ruckus about last night? Those two guys you picked on were on Mister Sakarya's private security staff."
Mal felt a quick glance from Zoë, and checked his tongue, then said, "A personal matter."
"For your sake, I hope it stays personal."
"I'm like to feel the same way. Where is the lockdown?"