by Taylor Smith
“A little late for a ride,” the man said with narrowed eyes. “We have an inn near the center of town, if you’re looking for a bed.”
Andy shook his head. “ISD problems,” he said and gestured upward as if he could see the Reaper in orbit. “Looking for a shop called ‘Tara’s Treasures’. The owner has been able to help us before.”
The man with the rifle stared quietly at Andy for a moment, and then pointed at his chest, and the Jolly Roger emblazoned upon it. “No trouble from you, now. This is a quiet town with good people. There’s nothing of much value here, either.”
Andy returned the man’s gaze and then held out his hand. “I’m Andrew, Captain of the Reaper.”
For a moment, Cade didn’t think the armed man would accept Andy’s handshake. His nerves finally settled after a few moments, though, when the man shook Andy’s hand.
“Martine,” he replied cautiously. “People call me Marty. I’m a Peacekeeper here.”
“All right, Marty,” Andy said. “No trouble with Yanna. The Yanna System is non-aligned. We only have problems with Aligned and Allied star systems. We just need some parts, and we’ll be out of your hair.”
Martine seemed to relax slightly before saying, “I’ve seen that,” he pointed at Andy’s chest again, “many times down here. Makes people nervous. But everyone’s behaved so far, no damage done. They’ve just never come so late at night, so I hope you can see why I’m just a bit uneasy.”
Andy held his hands up and shook his head. “If we could have waited, we would have. It’s a bit of an emergency.”
Cade was growing anxious. He knew better than to start trouble here, though. Clew needed this colony for an information hub. Causing problems with the law in the Yanna colony would just make it harder for Jerry to do her job, so he kept quiet and hoped his patience wouldn’t run out.
“Well,” Martine started as he rubbed his chin in thought. “Tara has been closed up for the past few days. Maybe she’ll open back up tomorrow. Can’t it wait until morning?”
“I’m afraid not.”
After a moment of thought, Martine seemed to come to a decision. “All right,” he said. “Leave your runner here. I’ll take you to Tara’s. It’s only a few blocks into town.”
They left the runner on the edge of town and followed Martine through the quiet streets of the colony. Cade couldn’t help but feel like he was in some sort of old-Earth western story. The buildings weren’t dilapidated, but were built using various forms of materials and construction methods. They all had a solid look to them, but the mismatching metals gave a jarring impression of efficiency over aesthetics.
When they neared Tara’s Treasures, Martine led them up the few steps and onto the small porch. Several notes were pinned next to the front door, and Martine glanced back at them before raising his hand to knock.
A sudden wave of nervousness fell over Cade. The stacked notes, the darkened shop and even the air somehow seemed wrong. If Jerry was in trouble, she would have met them by now. He stepped forward and grabbed the man’s hand before it fell upon the doorframe. “Wait,” he whispered.
Martine looked back to Cade in anger until he saw Cade’s worried expression. “What is –“.
Gunfire erupted through the front door and caught Martine square in the stomach. He fell backward with a pained look on his face as Cade, Andy and Criss jumped aside.
Cade dove off the porch to the side of the building and drew his Voger R2 handgun. He disengaged the safety and looked back to where the Peacekeeper lay on the porch. His stomach was soaked through with red where the man held on with both hands. Martine gasped for breath through clenched teeth as his face strained at the pain.
He looked for his friends to ensure they were safe, and found Andy beside the front windows and Criss creeping back up the front steps with her weapon drawn.
Cade jumped back onto the porch to get beside the front door when an explosion knocked him backward mid-air. The front door of the shop was thrown outward, over the wounded peacekeeper and into Criss. Glass exploded outward from the front windows and smoke filled the air.
When Cade realized he was on the ground, he lifted his head and had to growl through the pain. The throbbing in the back of his head was gone, just to be replaced by a solid waterfall of agony. His ears rang so loudly he couldn’t hear anything else.
It was then that he noticed the side door was opening. He scrambled to his feet and moved toward the door, trying to shake the blur from his vision and ignore the torrent inside his head. He was almost there, when a figured dressed head-to-toe in a black suit emerged into the shadowed alley.
Cade raised his weapon and fired a short burst at close-range. Three, two-millimeter rails flew through the air and impacted the side of the shop. He shook his head and fired another burst before the figure leapt toward him and drove a fist into his left hand. He didn’t feel the impact against the metal of his prosthetic arm, but it was enough that his weapon flew to the ground.
Through the ringing in his ears and the pain in his head, he had no time to react before a solid kick landed against his left side. A new pain shot through his ribs but he was able to catch the leg and hold it against him. He put all his weight into one right-punch to the face and missed as his attacker ducked and twisted low to Cade’s right side. He was still recovering from the missed right hook when he felt the flat end of an armored fist slam into the right side of his head.
He dropped the figure’s leg and fell to the ground.
Chapter 6
Haley drew her weapon and pointed it at Cade’s head as he lay unconscious before her. She could hear her rapid breath and feel her heart pumping blood and adrenaline through her body. Her finger began to compress the trigger, and she willed herself to finish the job, but she hesitated.
She hissed a breath out and leaned closer, and pressed the barrel of her weapon hard against his head. She couldn’t do it. Her shoulders dropped in a sudden feeling of defeat. If she couldn’t kill him, she could at least take something he cherished. She reached down and ripped the red Jolly Roger from his coat.
Dust and sand suddenly sprang into the air from beside her and she looked up to see Andy rounding the corner from the front of the shop. More rounds impacted around her, and she abandoned Cade to return fire. She jumped away from the openness of the alley and shoved her back into the side of the shop.
Her left shoulder had gone numb, and she couldn’t move it well, so she quickly holstered her pistol. From her waist, she drew out a small item, activated it, and then threw it toward the front of the building.
A dense curtain of smoke burst forth from the device as it landed, and cut visibility between her and Andy to zero. She drew her weapon again and trained her sights on the still unmoving Cade once more. A shudder moved from her chest and up through her neck. She cursed under her breath and ran. The town would be waking up from the blast, and she needed to be gone… now.
Haley made her way through the colony in the opposite direction of her ship. The main street, the Pirates of Clew and undoubtedly, by now, the law would be in her path. She’d have to get away from the buildings and skirt the city the long way.
Several times, she had to duck into a dark corner as she came across colonists rushing toward the commotion. The going wasn’t difficult, but her emotions were ramped up at seeing Cade and Andy. They’d surprised her as she was leaving the shop, and she was forced to blow the charges in Jerry’s office to cover her tracks.
It was a sloppy mess, and she’d been shot in the process. With a few movements of her cheek, she checked the medical readouts in her suit. It told her that her left shoulder had been compromised and the suit had immediately injected numbing agents. She wished her suit would react that way to blunt force trauma. Unfortunately for her, if the suit wasn’t damaged, it seemed not to care.
“He actually shot me,” she muttered to herself. Cade had no idea who she was, nor did he know that she was still alive. But, seeing him for the first
time in three years had triggered something, something that she didn’t want to feel. “I hate them,” she reminded herself as she plodded on through the shadows.
“You couldn’t bother yourself to save me in a year, but you rush to Jerry’s aid in three days?” she ground out.
She stopped in the shadow of a small shed and crouched. It wasn’t fair. Her life had been ruined, and she couldn’t work up the nerve to shoot the bastard who ruined it. She needed air.
Haley depressed the small trigger at the base of her neck and her helmet withdrew. She closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated on her breathing. The cool night air filled her lungs, and she found herself calming down.
All wasn’t lost, though. She reached to the small of her back and patted the case that held the mainboard of Jerry’s system. They’d never piece the wreck she left behind together enough to know a part was missing. Now she just needed to get the board, and Jerry, back to Lordell.
The colony’s quiet night had dissolved into shouts and the clatter of doors. Behind her, where the burning shop pushed back the dark, people were gathering. Lights were flickering into existence as more and more townspeople woke up. She needed to get out of town, and quickly. She estimated only another kilometer and she’d be able to make a break for the desert.
Haley reactivated her helmet, and accessed the cameras she had placed in town as soon as the faceplate was secured. The few that were in the shop weren’t registering, and they wouldn’t after the blast, but she had four around the perimeter that showed the scene. Someone had pulled the peacekeeper off the burning porch and into the street, and he was being tended to by several who looked like they knew the business of saving lives. Criss Hulbert was near him, also being cared for. Then she spotted Cade, still unconscious and lying next to the peacekeeper.
Her heart raced, and she almost felt badly for him. But, something else caught her attention. “Where’s Andy?” she asked herself. She frantically panned her cameras about to find that he was nowhere near the shop. She cursed under her breath for stopping when she should have continued on.
“Where’s Tara?” came a voice from behind her.
Her heart dropped. Another sloppy move, but she’d been taught that many mistakes would be made. As long as she learned from them, she wouldn’t be decommissioned.
Haley turned her head slowly to find Andy standing ten feet from her, his sidearm pointed at her head. He must have come around the shed that shadowed her and doubled back.
“Where is the proprietor of that store you just torched?” he repeated.
She didn’t dare answer. Instead, she slowly stood with her hands slightly lifted. The man had streaks of blood running down his face from small lacerations. He must have been near the windows when she detonated her charge. It made him look quite frightening. Aside from that, Andy looked the same as he did three years ago. Perhaps he held a stronger air of command than he did the last time she’d seen him, but it was still the same man.
“I’m not asking again,” he threatened and took a step toward her.
She didn’t move a muscle, nor did she reply. She needed him closer. There was no chance of survival if she tried anything while he had such a bead on her.
“Fine,” he ground out. “The hard way. Toss your sidearm. Move too quickly and I fill you full of rails.”
She nodded once, and did as he demanded. With two fingers, she drew her weapon and tossed it to the ground.”
He drew a set of hand-clasps from his coat and tossed them to her saying, “Put these on.”
She didn’t flinch, and let the clasps bounce off her chest and fall to the ground.
Andy glowered at her. “I should just shoot you now,” he said, and moved closer several paces. “Turn around.”
She knew with Cade and Criss sitting useless back at the scene, Andy had no backup, and he couldn’t wait all night.
She held his gaze through her visor for a moment, and slowly turned away from him. With her cheek, she activated the small video pickup in the back of her helmet and watched as he crept cautiously forward. The clasps were only a foot or two away from her, and she kept close watch on his eyes.
The moment he was close enough, he looked down to retrieve the clasps. She swung her fist around and connected with his weapon, but Andy held firm. That was all the opportunity she needed, though. Her left arm was useless to her, but she didn’t need it as she continued her turn with a sweep-kick to his legs.
Andy fell hard, but wasn’t stunned for long. Still lying on his back, he brought his sidearm back toward her and fired.
Haley had already darted in too close for him to get a good read on her. The shot went wide. She dove on her opponent and caught his right, gun-bearing arm across her shoulder. As she fell, she landed her right knee into his ribs and wrapped his right arm up at the elbow.
Andy swung his left arm upward in a panicked punch, only to land on her already numbed left shoulder.
She pulled hard at his arm and heard the crunch, but she didn’t wait to relish it. She immediately let his arm go and put all her weight into a headshot across his temple. His scream lasted for less than a second before he was unconscious from Haley’s attack.
She fell back on her heels and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. The commotion in town was now loud enough that his scream shouldn’t have drawn attention. But, the gunshot might have.
Haley looked back to Andy, scarcely out of breath and shook her head. That’s how it was done. That’s exactly why she spent two years in hell. It was almost too easy and she basked in the first real payback that she’d been afforded.
She took a deep breath and thought about taking him with her, but it would be impossible and against orders. Her ribs were still on the mend and with her left arm useless to her, the task would be unmanageable with the time she had. People were awake and about now; there would be no escaping with another prisoner tonight. Besides that, her orders were clear. No matter how much she despised it, no matter how much it confused her, she was not to kill or capture any member of the Neese family. Jonas had made that very clear to her. “The future of the entire operation depends on it,” he’d said.
She pulled Andy closer to the shed and its shadow so he wouldn’t be easily found before he awoke on his own, retrieved her sidearm and turned to leave. She had a long trek ahead of her, and dawn would be upon the colony soon.
As she made her way closer to the edge of the small town, she smiled. She’d gotten what she’d wanted tonight: a piece of Jerry’s equipment, and a small parting gift from the three pirates. She drew the patch from an inside pocket and held it up to the light. Cade and Criss were hurting back at the shop, and Andy wouldn’t soon forget about the broken arm and ass-kicking she’d just given him.
***
By the time Haley had reached her Strix, the sun had peeked over the horizon. Half-way through the trip, feeling began to return to her shoulder, which didn’t help. The suit’s medicines were wearing off, and she needed to tend to her wound quickly. She could only imagine the pain her suit was currently blocking.
She boarded her ship and sat heavily on the small seat just inside the hatch. Removing her suit wasn’t easy with one arm, but she managed. It was when she tried to remove her shoulder piece that the situation went south.
Several of Cade’s rails had impacted her armor, where they still protruded harmlessly. One rail, however, had struck the thinner material between her shoulder and left arm, and was still buried beneath the skin. It took several minutes of misery for the extractor tool to dig the metal out and patch the wound. The work was field-grade, so she’d have the medical team at Lordell take a look when she returned.
Once she was cleaned up, she returned to the cockpit to catch up on events. She was worn out, but wanted to know the state of the situation before resting, so she called up her video and communication feeds.
Tara’s Treasures was now a smoldering ruin. Only a few people remained near the blackened husk and se
emed to be gathering the scattered firefighting equipment. The pirates were gone, but she recognized several dark patches in the sand and dirt that could only be the remnants of where they, and the peacekeeper, lay only hours before.
She flipped through the various feeds that she had, and found the same results, so she accessed the captured communications logs for the past night. One of the emergency calls indicated that the peacekeeper was still alive at the time, and taken to the local hospital. None mentioned the pirates.
Haley sat upright and accessed the colony’s spaceport mainframe. Visitors were few here, so it wasn’t difficult to find the billing records that indicated that an unknown shuttle had landed late last night. She scrolled through the information and found that the same shuttle had departed only thirty minutes ago.
She leaned back in her chair and thought about that. Her ship didn’t inform her of any traffic, especially when they arrived. She would have been more alert and prepared if she’d known the colony had visitors. There was also the fact that there had to be a ship in orbit; also unreported by her systems.
She immediately began a check of all her data taps. The orbital satellite tap was working fine. There were two haulers in orbit, both at low power and probably awaiting their next ore shipment from the planet. There was the small orbital transfer facility, which had three or four crew aboard at the maximum. That was all the system reported as being in orbit around Yanna Two.
The colony’s air traffic control system had no contacts, nor did it register the arrival and departure of the pirate’s shuttle. Only the spaceport logs held any data related to that shuttle, which were probably entered manually for finance tracking.
She turned to glare toward the aft of the ship, where Jerry’s body lay in cold storage. “Sneaky bitch…” she whispered. It had to be the answer. Jerry had tampered with the colony’s systems and encouraged them not to report on Clew movements. It was the only thing that made sense. The fact that she was tapped into the same system just meant she was monitoring falsified data, or simply missing the omissions altogether.
