by Scott Baron
“I think we do,” the man said, producing a hefty bag of coin from his pocket. “And rumor is, you’re the best at what you do.”
“Damned right I am.”
“Then find our boy,” he said with a surprising flash of bravado.
He threw the bag to the man, who snatched it easily from the air. He looked inside. There was a significant sum held within. The Tslavar glanced at his men. All were thinking the same thing. Take these fools and part them from every coin and valuable they possessed.
“There is a significant amount more to be paid upon the delivery of information leading to the recovery of our son,” the man said.
The mercenary’s glance halted his men’s advances.
“More? How much more?”
“Five times that amount if you provide us accurate information about our son’s whereabouts. Ten times that amount if you also find who took him.”
That was a significant sum for so little work. Easy money, in fact. The mercenary nodded to his men, and they returned to their casual posturing.
“And if we do find the boy? How much to bring him back?”
“He ran away from home, but even if he has indeed been taken as we fear, we still must win his trust before he will come home with us willingly. Just tell us where he is, and we will come to him as parents to convince him to come home.”
“And then?”
“And then you may do with those who have taken him as you wish. And you will be paid well for it,” the woman said with a flash of motherly anger.
It only made the Tslavar like her more. Curves and fire? If things worked out, maybe he would take her anyway. After they were paid, of course.
“You’ve got yourself a deal,” the man said.
“Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to us!” the man gushed.
Long-range skree contact information was given, as was additional coin for the expense, then the man and his wife departed.
“Can you believe that pathetic waste of flesh has a woman like that?” the Tslavar said to his men with a laugh. “Well, my boys, it looks like we’ve got a little side job to do.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Walking back through the rough streets, no one so much as lay a finger on the couple whose cleanliness made them stand out like a pair of diamonds on a dung heap. They were easy targets, and likely a pretty decent payday, but word had already been spread. These were not to be touched. They had business with the Tslavars.
That didn’t stop the greedy stares, though, along with more than a few lustful ones. Not until they had stepped back into their craft were the two offworlders free of the intense scrutiny.
“Well, that went rather well,” Hozark said with an amused chuckle.
The poor tough guys in town had no idea what would have befallen them if they had actually given in to their desires and attempted to rob or harm the seemingly harmless pair.
“Yes, it was quite productive,” Demelza agreed, shedding her weakling charade as easily as taking off a coat.
“Their leader was certainly taken with you.”
“It never ceases to amuse me how the slight reveal of cleavage can muddy men’s minds so,” Demelza said with an amused grin. “I think I will play that up again at the next stop. It seemed to be a wonderful distraction.”
“I am sure our Tslavar friends will be quite appreciative.”
Hozark and Demelza walked to the galley for some refreshment before heading off to the next commerce hub on their planned route. They would visit a great many of them before their work was done. And the Tslavar thugs they would hire in each of them would do their dirty work for them.
The Ghalian spy network was robust, and they were certainly hard at work searching for Visla Jinnik’s boy, but with the hefty advance the visla had paid, it made perfectly good sense to use some of that coin to hire the Tslavar mercenaries who tended to work on Council endeavors to do some of the legwork for them.
After all, who better to make inquiries among the ranks of Tslavars than a group of their very own comrades? Men ignorantly doing the bidding of the Wampeh Ghalian, and against their own friends and employers, no less?
“It seems our little guest has something of an appetite,” Demelza noted when they reached the galley.
The girl hadn’t exactly raided the place, but judging by the state of the foodstores that had been readily accessible, having a seemingly limitless supply of food was something the chronically underfed young woman was not about to take for granted.
“I fear she will have quite an upset stomach,” Hozark said, noting exactly how much Henni had ingested.
“I would not be surprised if she hid some within her quarters,” Demelza replied. “It seems a natural instinct for one so recently removed from her previously precarious circumstances.”
“A valid point. In any case, we will need to perhaps secure some of the rations, if for no other reason than to keep her from causing herself unintentional gastric harm.”
“I’ve got a strong stomach,” Henni said as she trotted into the room and headed straight for the bread storage container.
She grabbed a thick slice, then took some fresh fruit preserves they had sourced a few worlds back and spread them on thick, eating the treat with obvious relish.
She was like a little fusion reactor, with her ability to ingest massive quantities and convert it into her seemingly boundless energy.
“So, was it fun?” she asked.
“Fun? We were infiltrating a dangerous Tslavar group and tricking them to do our work against their own best interests,” Hozark said.
“Yeah. Like I said. Fun.”
The Wampeh chuckled. “I suppose one could say it was fun. Dangerous, yes, but a pleasant outing, for certain.”
“Cool! I wanna go with next time!”
The assassins shared a look.
“Henni, I know you are used to the rough streets of Groll, but this is a different sort of world. And the risks are many, and not the type you are used to.”
“So? Everywhere’s dangerous, you guys. And I know I can help.”
The two assassins knew far too well what having an unpredictable element like the young violet-haired woman embedded in an operation could do to their whole plan.
She had survived on Groll, sure. But this was different. This was an active deception plan, and a somewhat delicate one at that. Henni’s impulsive and rather lippy nature could cause far more damage than she realized, and fast.
“Come on. You can’t lock me in here forever!”
“Henni, it has only been an afternoon,” Hozark said.
“You know what I mean. I need to be out doing something. I’m gonna earn my keep!”
“You are welcome here with no payment required,” he said. “This was not a condition of your coming with us.”
“But I want to help.”
“Again, your enthusiasm is appreciated, but you are not obligated to put yourself at risk.”
“Hozark is right,” Demelza said. “Just stay here and relax for a bit. We should be done on this world relatively shortly.”
This was not what the young woman wanted to hear. The thrown piece of bread stuck to the wall, leaving a trail of preserves as it slowly slid to the deck.
“If you don’t take me with, then dump me here!”
“We are not dumping you, Henni.”
“If you don’t take me with, I am going to trash this ship. You don’t think I will? You know I can.”
Hozark sighed. This was the sort of thing that he did not need on board his craft. But one worked with what one had, and he had a moody young woman of unknown abilities on his ship. And she was pissed.
Reluctantly, he accepted the reality that Henni was going to have to be let out, one way or another. He just hoped he could do so in a way that would not negatively affect their plans. The girl was erratic and would have to be steered clear of any sensitive dealings, but she did have skills.
“All right, Henni
. You make a valid argument,” Hozark said. “And we actually could use your particular expertise. But only if you’re up for it. This will be a difficult task.”
“I can do it. I’m part of the team!” the girl chirped.
Hozark was not fond of the increasing frequency that word was being used of late, but he let it slide in the interest of minimizing the girl’s potential damage.
“Yes, you are,” he said. “And you have a very important job to do.”
It actually was an important job. If she could manage to do it stealthily, that is. But that was something she was actually pretty good at back on Groll.
Hozark tasked her with being their scout on the ground. Their secret eyes and ears. While he and Demelza played the part of distraught parents hiring the Tslavars to find their son, Henni would watch and listen and report back all that she learned.
It was something they would do repeatedly, as each of the different cities across the planet were essentially their own domains. And the big dogs of each tended to stick to their own turf, where they controlled things with an iron fist.
Of course, the Tslavars did still know quite a few of their brethren––especially the power players––but the odds of them sharing that they’d scored a lucrative side gig were slim.
Even if they did discuss it, all that would do is put both parties on higher alert to complete the task first and claim the remaining payment for themselves. If the strange couple had paid the same sizable deposit to another Tslavar captain, then they must truly have a lot of coin at their disposal.
And coin spoke louder than words. On top of that, knowing there was another on the job would be quite an incentive. More often than not, a little competition was just what a man needed to motivate him to go that extra mile.
“Prepare yourself, Henni. We will arrive in our next landing site shortly.”
“On it, Captain!” the young woman said with glee, then raced off to get ready, whatever that entailed.
Hozark flew them to the next of the main cities at a somewhat hurried pace. His landing was likewise a bit rushed, all the better to maintain the impression of someone operating on a ticking clock. From the moment they were visible as a speck on the horizon to the time they vanished into the sky, they were playing a part, and everything they did had to reinforce those performances.
They would set down and head off into the city, making themselves visible, as they’d previously done. All attention would be on them when their little friend would sneak out of the small access hatch at the opposite end of the craft. If done properly, no one would notice a thing, and she could go about her task with ease.
“What in the worlds?” Demelza said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
“What?” Henni asked as she strutted into the command center.
“Oh, no. No, that is not what we had in mind,” Demelza said, eyeing the foul bundle of clothing Henni had recovered from its sealed storage bin. “We will have to burn those.”
“Hands off!” Henni hissed. “No one messes with my stuff. These are mine!”
“Believe me, I have no wish to put my hands anywhere near those rags.”
Hozark chuckled. “She does have a point. She will be not only invisible, but actively repulsive with this outfit.”
“So I keep them, right?”
“Yes, Henni. You keep them, but you bathe as soon as we return. And those stay sealed in storage when they are not in use, understood?”
“Deal.”
“All right, then,” he said, walking to the door with Demelza at his side. “Let us begin.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The leader of the Tslavar mercenary band in the next city they arrived at was a gargantuan woman named Blatzik. For a woman to lead so rough and ready a group of hired killers truly said something about her drive and abilities, for while gender often played no role in a person’s career, in this particular line of work, men tended to rise to the top.
The violent, aggressive, and dangerous ones.
When Hozark and Demelza saw Blatzik, they immediately placed her in the “threat level high” category. What she would have had to do to reach this pinnacle could only be guessed. Likely because those who might have been able to talk had been slaughtered and fed to the Bundabist corralled in the pen outside. To underestimate her would be true folly.
Her men and women were as loyal as they were dangerous, and, unlike the previous location’s hub of Tslavar activity, the mercenaries in this place were all on their best behavior. At least, inside of Blatzik’s base of operations.
Hozark had anticipated another, “What the hells do you want?” line of greeting from the Tslavar welcoming committee, but instead, all he got was a cold, calculating stare that took in both he and his alleged spouse. He fidgeted and shifted his weight from foot to foot, acting unsettled under the woman’s intense gaze.
Demelza simply looked down at the ground in front of her. Lowering the eyes was a demure posturing that would be taken for subservience by many, but it served another purpose. For with her eyes gazing down, but ahead, the assassin’s peripheral vision could easily count and track the others in the room.
But they had not come to fight. They had come to hire this woman and her crew.
“Uh, we thought this was the place to come to hire the best tracking crew on the planet,” Hozark said, a faint waver in his voice. “Should we go?”
Blatzik spoke at long last.
“Oh, you’re in the right place, all right. But what I can’t figure out is what a pair of upper-crust socialites like you are doing in my turf. You can’t be here for trade. You haven’t brought a thing with you. And you don’t look like couriers. So tell me, why are you on my doorstep?”
“Doorstep?” Hozark asked, confused. “B-but, we’re inside.”
“It’s a figure of speech, little man,” Blatzik replied.
She then shifted her attention to the buxom woman this pathetic male had somehow landed as his own. Not bad, and curves in all the right places. On top of that, she seemed solid beneath her feminine exterior. Blatzik thought this one could be a lot of fun. But first, she had to find out their true reason for coming.
“Well? Speak up. Why have you come here?”
Demelza read the woman’s gaze quickly, as had her partner, and they silently shifted their plan accordingly without so much as a word or a glance.
“If I may speak, we have come because we need your services,” Demelza said.
“My services? Oh, dear, you have no idea what services I can offer you.”
Demelza’s cheeks flushed deep red––a nice trick she’d practiced for years––but she continued.
“Yes. It is said that you are the best on this planet. In this system, for that matter. And we need your help. Our son has gone missing. At first, we were certain he ran away. You know how boys can sometimes be,” she said, her gaze locking on the intimidating woman’s eyes. “But it is looking as if he may have been abducted.”
“Abducted?” Blatzik asked. “You get a ransom demand?”
“No.”
“Then why do you think he’s been snatched up? Seems out of character to kidnap a boy and not ransom him.”
Hozark took a timid step forward. “I had a local investigator from our system ask questions. He had to spread a lot of coin, but eventually, word of him was received. He’d been seen in the company of rough men. He doesn’t have any friends like that. I’m sure he was taken.”
“Or ran away precisely because he wanted to be with those ‘rough men,’” the Tslavar said. “In any case, why is this my concern?”
Hozark nodded to Demelza. She pulled out a hefty bag of coin and timidly walked close to the sturdy Tslavar woman. “We will pay well to find our boy,” she said, handing the pouch over.
Blatzik weighed it in her hand.
“A sizable sum, indeed. But not nearly enough for what you’re asking.”
“There is more if you are successful. Five times that amount if you
provide us accurate information about our son’s whereabouts. Ten times that amount if you also find who took him,” she said.
That got the woman’s attention. It was a lot of coin for so little work. Sure, it would be time consuming, but she had crews running across the systems. It wouldn’t cost her a thing to simply have them keep a look out for the boy in the process.
“Well, then,” she said, leaning closer to Demelza. “It looks like we’ve got ourselves a deal.”
With that, the couple gave the woman their skree contact and made a hasty exit. As they walked, they sniffed the air. Even dulled senses could have picked up that particularly pungent aroma.
“She is close,” Demelza said quietly as she and Hozark walked back toward their ship.
“Yes, I can smell her too.”
“We really must at least clean the stench from her rags, if we can’t burn them entirely.”
Hozark’s attention shifted, his shoulders stiffening slightly. “Darling, you’ve been so brave during this ordeal. Please, go back to our ship and rest while I handle one last task before we depart.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yes. Now that we are allied with Blatzik, I am confident all will be okay.”
The mention of their ties to the Tslavar boss immediately sent any who had any thoughts of assaulting the woman as she walked back the remaining distance to the ship on her own change their minds. Blatzik was one they did not want to cross, no matter how tempting the score.
“Very well, my love. But do hurry back to me.”
“I will not dally any longer than needed, my sweet.”
Demelza continued on her way, while Hozark turned down a side alley leading to a small marketplace of sorts, following the sound of boots all the while. Many boots, and all of them in an angry hurry. They were pursuing someone. And from the smell lingering in the air, he knew who it was.
This was getting more and more complicated. And he was going to have to act fast.
