Origins: The Complete Series

by J. N. Chaney

  If they had a means to verify it, then I was as good as dead.

  The official took a step forward, but I clicked my tongue and took a step back. “Not so fast, boss. You pull anything, and I’ll destroy this.”

  He scoffed. “You couldn’t move fast enough.”

  “No?” I raised an eyebrow, doing my best to stay calm even as he all but threatened me. “I planted a little present in it, as a means of insurance. You do anything stupid, and a remote-controlled bomb that I’ve deployed in the vicinity destroys everything in a hundred-meter radius. I’d rather take you with me in an explosion than let you shoot me in my own damn ship.”

  Bluff number three: and this was the one that carried the most risk. All it would take was a few scans on their ship to realize I was full of shit.

  Luckily, they didn’t have any scanners here, and that was all that mattered.

  The official stiffened. “We didn’t detect any mines in the area. How could the likes of you find a way to cloak explosives?”

  “Use your imagination,” I answered with a confident grin. That’s what would sell my whole story.

  He frowned, and from the way he flexed his hands nervously, it seemed like such a thing was actually possible after all.

  Huh. And here I’d just been bluffing.

  “Don’t do anything hasty,” he said, a bit calmer now.

  “That’s more like it,” I said, my heart skipping a beat as my elaborate lie somehow worked against a trained military professional. “Send those two off. You and I can handle this like men, don’t you think?”

  At first, the Sarkonian didn’t move. He stood there with his two soldiers, and I could almost see the cogs turning in his head as he debated his options.

  Truth was he had complete control over the situation. They had military-issue rifles, while I had a pistol and some nerve. All he had to do was call any one of my three bluffs, and I was screwed.

  “Get back to the shuttle,” he finally ordered.

  The two soldiers retreated immediately, though they held their rifles while they stared at me from within the small vessel.

  “Put those on the ground,” I ordered, giving them a hard stare around the officer.

  “Do it,” he commanded, nodding at his men.

  The soldiers set their weapons on the ground and stood cross-armed as the soft blue light from their shuttle’s holo illuminated them from behind.

  “The moment we return to our ship, we’ll verify the device,” he warned as he shot me an ominous look. “If there’s anything amiss, we will not hesitate to hunt you down and destroy you.”

  “Oh, I’m sure of that,” I said, forcing a lazy shrug, as if the thought didn’t bother me in the slightest. “That’s fine. Before I hand this over, let me tell you how this is going to work. I’m going to give this to you, and you’re going to return to your shuttle immediately. My snipers won’t put away their weapons until you’re safely on board your shuttle. You take this to your captain, and I’ll leave the moment you disembark from my ship. You will not pursue me.”

  “Very well,” he said, lifting his chin as he looked down at me with disdain. “Unless, of course, we’re displeased with what we find.”

  I suppressed a laugh. Someone wasn’t used to giving over control.

  “I suggest you stay out of range, then,” I warned, lifting the data stick to drive home my point. “If you get close enough to me, I’ll activate the bomb. I don’t think your ship could withstand an explosion, do you?”

  In answer, he simply frowned. I wasn’t sure if he really bought my story or not, but so far, it was keeping him at bay.

  I flicked the little device between the fingers of my left hand and offered it to him. He leaned forward and snatched it from my grip.

  “Pleasure doing business with you, Renegade,” he said sarcastically.

  “I aim to please.” I feigned a bow. “Now, kindly get the hell off my ship.”

  The officer turned on his heel, his boots thumping over the floor as he returned to his shuttle. When he reached the cargo bay door, I whistled to get his attention. He paused and looked over his shoulder, not bothering to mask his irritation as he glared at me.

  “That bomb I planted has one hell of a radius,” I reminded him, my voice cool and calm as I bluffed my way out of this. “You try anything, I’ll blow you all to hell. All I want is my money.”

  “Noted,” he said as he stepped onto the shuttle. “At least you Renegades are easy enough to buy off.”

  Before I could retort, the shuttle doors closed. A red light flashed beside the cargo bay door, and the Star began to automatically close its own doors as the shuttle attempted to break the seal and take off.

  “Don’t worry, sir,” said Sigmond. “I’ve blocked their attempts to leave until our cargo bay doors are completely closed.”

  “Thanks, Siggy,” I said as I forced a strained smile and waved at the Sarknoian asshat in the shiny black coat. “I knew I could count on you to not let me die.”

  “Always, sir.”

  “Send a message to Ollie that the job’s done,” I ordered. “I want to get paid the moment I set foot on Taurus Station.”

  “Right away,” said Sigmond as the cargo bay doors finally closed. “Sir, the Sarkonian shuttle is disconnected from us and it is accelerating back toward the ship.”

  “Good riddance,” I muttered. “Turn on the cargo bay lights, and let’s get the hell out of here before they realize that there’s no bomb and that I was full of shit.”

  “Right away, sir,” said the AI as the lights flickered to life. “Setting course for Taurus Station.”

  I let out a slow breath and jogged up the stairs toward the cockpit. After this mess and the payday I’d get back at Ollie’s place, it would be high time I took a bit of a break.

  Even a Renegade needed time off now and then—and after nearly getting my head blown off by Sarkonians, I figured I’d earned a vacation.

  And booze.

  11

  With six SG Points between me and my payday, the days crawled by. Sleep had felt nearly impossible at times, but I still managed to get a few winks in during the longer rides through the different slip tunnels.

  The job hadn’t been perfect. Not many ever were, but this one had been a particular shitshow. Even with the tracer disabled, I felt like I had eyes constantly watching me at every turn. I kept wondering if the Sarkonians would hunt me down to keep from having to pay their fee, but that wasn’t how the Renegades worked. The money was locked until the delivery was done, and Ollie had it now, passed through multiple shell companies along the way.

  In the event that a job wasn’t completed by the hired Renegade, clients could get their credits back or wait for someone else to pick it up and finish it. RBO agents never screwed over their paying clients because they had a reputation to uphold. Without that, no one would give them jobs to dole out. It was a tenuous relationship, but I supposed it was that fabled honor among thieves that kept the whole shindig running more or less smoothly.

  Finally back on Taurus, I rubbed the back of my neck as I trudged through the crowds toward his shop. My eyes stung from exhaustion and poor sleep, and I couldn’t decide what I wanted first—a bed or booze. I thought about trying for both, with the addition of a warm and willing woman in my bed.

  Taurus station was huge, and it took me a fair amount of time to cross the massive platforms and make it to Ollie’s shop. When the sign for Trinidad’s Trinkets appeared around a corner, I impulsively stiffened. The last time I’d headed for my agent to get a payday, it had gone spectacularly wrong.

  Ollie didn’t have bodyguards, though, and he seemed to like breathing. Hopefully he wouldn’t test me, because I didn’t want to put a bullet through anyone’s brain today.

  I would, if it came to that, but I didn’t want to.

  There was also the possibility that Ollie would know what I had done by not giving the data stick over. That I had, in fact, not completed the job. Part
of me felt a little guilty for that, and I doubted Ollie would see things the way I had. This was why Renegades weren’t supposed to get involved.

  I had made my decision based on my own personal beliefs. If every Renegade tooks jobs and changed their minds after learning about their cargo, the business would collapse. We weren’t vigilantes. Far from it. Still, I knew deep in my gut that I had made the right choice. In any case, it was done. I couldn’t go back and change it, all I could do was move forward and hope it didn’t bite me square on the ass.

  As I stepped into his shop, Ollie was nowhere to be found. I stood by the open doors and scanned the interior, not entirely sure where he could be. In the back, working on more of his creations, or on break. For all his attempts at looking inconspicuous, I knew he had enough hidden cameras in this place to impress a Union officer. Point was, he knew I was here and I doubted he would make me wait long.

  Trying not to look guilty or nervous, I leaned against the nearest glass display and grabbed a small figurine from the counter, then I twirled it in my fingers as I examined the welded metal and golden paint. His fake art didn’t look half bad, and if the people buying them were happy, I guess I couldn’t judge what they spent their money on.

  As the crowds passed by with only a short distance between me and the open door, I frowned. It was time to look like a casual shopper—just a regular person there to buy stuff. Definitely not a Renegade out to collect his bounty for delivering stolen Union intelligence to the Sarkonian Empire.

  I shook my head, still baffled at how quickly the situation had devolved. Deep down, I knew this wouldn’t be the end of it, no matter how much distance I put between me and that data stick.

  “...it’s true!” I heard Ollie say through the open door frame on the opposite wall.

  I lazily tilted my head, not bothering to move as he stepped from his back room into the shop. He laughed, gesturing with his hands as he looked over his shoulder.

  A tall woman with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes followed him out, and my chest panged as I recognized her.

  The second her eyes landed on me, she froze and her smile fell. Even as Ollie walked into the center of the shop, she just stood by the far wall and rubbed her face in irritation.

  “Are you following me?” she grumbled, shooting me one of her now familiar death glares as she pointed a finger at me from across the room.

  “You two know each other?” Ollie asked, his gaze darting between us.

  “Not in the biblical sense,” I said with a wry grin, forcing myself to pretend I was still very much at ease as I leaned against the counter behind me and crossed my arms.

  “You must be tailing me.” She set her hands on her hips, ignoring Ollie altogether. “Why the hell are you here?”

  “Think really hard about that question,” I told her regarding her with an air of superiority. What could I say? I really enjoyed pushing this woman’s buttons “How many RBO agents are on Taurus Station?”

  She scoffed and gave me her back with a toss of the shiny black hair.

  “Well, regardless of whatever this is,” Ollie said, gesturing between the two of us. “I’m sorry, Miss Drapier, but my answer is no. You just don’t have the experience I’m looking for, Calista.”

  So her name was Calista, then. The woman was fiery, a quality that I usually enjoyed in women, but this one despised me. Sure, rightfully so, but it put a damper on things and I found her more annoying than anything.

  I rubbed my jaw, pretending not to care or even listen to what they were saying as I pushed off the glass display and meandered around the shop, eager for them to finish already so I could get paid.

  “Try me,” she said, turning her attention to Ollie this time. “Give me a shot. I’ll prove to you I can handle this.”

  “You don’t have a ship,” Ollie said while he started moving some of his trinkets into a more prominent position on the counter, the pride he took in his work evident on his face. “You can’t take jobs if you don’t have a ship. It’s that simple.”

  “Still looking for that agent to give you a shot?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I watched her. I paused near the front door and looked over my shoulder as her cold blue eyes darted toward me.

  “You stay out of this,” she warned. “You’ve done enough.”

  Instead of answering, I just laughed quietly to myself.

  “Look, Calista,” said Ollie, turning away from his creations to look at her. “Here’s what I can do. I have a few friends on-station who have some delivery work and odd freelance jobs. I’ll connect you with them. Pool a bunch of jobs together, hire a Renegade to take you to each of the delivery gigs, and save up some money for a down payment on a ship. When you’ve got a vessel, we can talk again about lower-risk jobs to start you on. That’s the best I can do. You can’t be a Renegade and take public transport.”

  She sighed, and despite my better judgement, I felt kind of bad for her. Her shoulders drooped as she looked at the floor, defeated.

  “Fine,” said Calista with a small shrug. “Give me your contacts and a list of Renegades I can pick from.”

  “That’s the spirit!” said Ollie, though his smile fell as he watched her. “Sort of.”

  As I stood by the front door, studying what I had come to generously describe as art that hung along the wall by the exit, Calista and Ollie leaned over a data pad and whispered to themselves.

  Part of me wondered if it would be worth it to take this taxi job and chauffeur her around the galaxy, but I figured she would make my life hell for the duration of her time on my ship. Since I still had her gun, it was probably better not to offer.

  Besides, I still assumed she was the sort who would try to knife me in my sleep, even if she did seem down on her luck.

  When she and Ollie finished talking, she walked up to me and stood there like I was in her way. I stared back and waited for her to make the first move, thumb already on my holster, ready to unsnap it and draw my gun if she needed a hint as to what to do next.

  “Go around,” I said.

  She frowned and stepped around me as Ollie and I watched her leave. When she was gone, having disappeared into the throng of people outside, I turned back to him and wiped the smile off his face with a hard look.

  Ollie raised a finger and wagged it in the air. “First thing you need to know about this life you chose, Jace, is to not take things so personally. I’m a businessman who deals in many trades.”

  “You’re going to get her killed,” I warned. Annoying or not, the woman was just trying to make her way and didn’t seem to know what she was up against.

  “She’ll be fine.” He waved away the thought. “Besides, you can’t stop a woman like that. She’s headstrong and too determined to quit. Might as well make it a little easier for her to get started.”

  I shook my head. “This job isn’t easy, Ollie, and you know it. She can’t fight for shit, either. She won’t last two minutes as a Renegade.”

  Ollie frowned, pausing mid-stride as he looked me up and down. “How do you know she can’t fight?”

  I paused, and for a moment I didn’t know what to say. “That’s irrelevant.”

  “Uh-huh,” said my RBO agent dubiously. “Look, Jace, let’s just get down to business. You let that young woman live her life, and if she gets herself killed, that blood isn’t on your hands.”

  “Fine, Ollie,” I said, fanning my hand at him.

  He had a point, after all.

  He glanced around his shop before tapping on his data pad. “I got your message about the delivery. You made good time. The client was impressed, though they said something about a standoff when you delivered the goods. Any trouble?”

  “Nothing I couldn’t handle,” I said, hooking my thumb in my belt.

  He gave me a toothy grin and passed his pad to me. I entered my account number and passed it back.

  “And, it’s done,” he said.

  I tapped my ear. “Siggy, check my account balance. I shou
ld’ve just received one hell of a deposit.”

  “That is affirmative, sir,” replied Sigmond. “Everything is accounted for, and by the looks of it, Mr. Trinidad didn’t take anything he wasn’t supposed to.”

  “Well, how about that,” I said to Ollie. “Looks like you’re a man of your word. I’m getting the feeling people like you are kind of rare in this line of work. It appears we have the beginnings of a good professional relationship, Ollie.”

  “Yeah, I’m a keeper.” He grinned and lifted one of the trash sculptures on his counter to polish it with a cloth.

  “Do you have any other jobs offering a large sum of credits?” I asked.

  “Only a few small gigs at the moment,” he admitted. “Nothing like what you just earned. Do you want something quick and easy?”

  “All I want right now is a drink and a bed,” I told him. “Let me know if you get anything good, but otherwise I’ll come back in a few days once I’ve had some sleep.”

  “Sure thing, Jace,” said Ollie with a nod. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but you look like shit.”

  “Thanks,” I said dryly.

  At least Ollie didn’t pull his punches. I could respect that.

  12

  After scamming the Sarkonians out of advanced military blueprints and nearly getting my ass blown off by pirates, I figured I deserved a break.

  Namely, the biggest, juiciest steak I could find.

  I sat in a restaurant classy enough to have white tablecloths as relaxing music piped through the speakers overhead. With my back to the wall toward the rear of the building, I surveyed the bustling steakhouse as waiters darted between tables. Each of them carried black trays over their shoulders as they delivered elaborate dishes piled high with rare foods, some of which I’d never even seen before.

  The sizzle of meat crackled through the air, mingling with the hum of conversation as the darkened windows created an intimate atmosphere within the restaurant. With carefully placed ferns, most of the windows onto the Taurus Station’s promenade deck outside were blocked, either partially or entirely, and the overall ambiance was one of relaxed sophistication.