About Dregger's Deep

by J Rocci
24 pages / 4500 words
Ebook zipped file contains - html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

Tulley is the head of security for the most influential business man in Oilsmouth. His latest assignment from the boss is to escort the company’s new doctor down to tend to the miners of Dreggers Deep. Unfortunately, Dr. Edmund Peniwill and Tulley have a history. Edmund left Tulley behind to attend medical school overseas, with no request for Tulley’s input. But Tulley isn’t the type to hold a grudge, even if he’s not sure what he’s currently feeling. Life in Oilsmouth isn’t easy, though, and a brush with sky pirates soon has the two resolving a few issues.

Sample

Morning found Tulley down at the rail yard, nursing a headache and wincing every time the band on his wrist beeped. Irritably, he wrenched the neck of his uniform open and left the shirt gaping open over his white undershirt, stomping across the platform to the Dreggers Deep line.

Dax had a rail car that ran down into the mines from Oilsmouth proper that rotated the miners out every two weeks. The only other carts that moved along that line were the ones that brought the raw ores up to the factories to have the copper separated out.

Tulley glared at the metal rail car in front of him, its thin walls painted a bright red and the center of the roof rising slightly for inset windows that provided light. A muffled curse followed by a thump came from inside.

With a sigh, Tulley stepped up into the car. Bench seats lined the front half of the car, but the back had webbed rope to secure supplies to the walls. Edmund was wrestling with a tall steamer trunk, trying to tuck it under the sole table welded to the wall, which was where he'd be seeing patients once they arrived.

"Here," Tulley said gruffly, taking the trunk from Edmund's unresisting hands and giving it a good push. The sounds of clinking glass made Edmund wince.

"Ah, yes, thank you." The other man removed his glasses, nervously cleaning them.