“And it’s going to be ours for a while.” He hovered Relic, then touched down next to the craft.
Jozi gently punched Ozzy’s leg. “Why didn’t you tell me you were thinking of using this to squat in?”
Ozzy shrugged. “No one will know we’re here. It seems perfect, plus we can walk around this castle without being cramped inside Relic all the time. Beats the asteroid I usually squat on.”
Plus, he wanted to explore to see if there were more rooms inside the castle.
He slapped a button, and the storage bay’s ramp opened, clanking when it hit the floor. Fresh air wafted through the storage bay and into the cockpit.
“The life of a criminal,” said Ozzy, leaning against his seat and rubbing Lily’s back, listening to her soft, sleeping breaths.
He kicked his feet up. “Turn on the news. Let’s see what lies they are spreading now.”
“Are you sure?”
He gave her a look. “No, but we need to. This is the life of a wrongfully accused, outcast criminal. You’ll have to get used to it.”
She switched the holotube on, turning the channel to the news.
“…and the Ministry, using technology undisclosed until now, defeated the Dunrakee. The remaining Dunrakee fleets are heading back to Earth.” A holovid image showed alien battleships, cruisers, and starfighters heading outbound from Mars’s exosphere.
Ozzy rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course. Don’t give credit where credit’s due. The ways of High Judge Robert Baldwin.”
“In other developments,” came the voice of the news anchor, “the Ministry, under the newly revised Terrorism Act, is raising taxes for military defense and is implementing a 10:00 p.m. curfew to all residents of Mars.”
“Turn it off,” blurted Ozzy, shaking his head. “They’re going to be taxing breathing, too, one of these days.”
An almost evil smile twisted on Jozi’s lips. “You want to screw him over?”
“Who?”
“Robert Baldwin. You know, expose some of his lies?” Jozi slowly nodded her head as if a diabolical plan were taking shape in her brain.
“What do you have in mind?”
She turned the com channel on, dialing up a number he didn’t recognize.
A man answered. The person was familiar, but Ozzy couldn’t place his face with a name. He had slick, black hair, hazel eyes, and white, pasty skin. He looked like he spent too many hours on the holocomputer.
He wiped his mouth, eyeing Jozi and then Ozzy. “Hi, Jozi. What do I owe the pleasure?”
“Can you hack into the news streams and send out some documents that would incriminate the High Judge?”
Holy red rock, it was the man the authorities called Anonymity. He had been on the most wanted list for years, hacking secret government files and exposing them to the public. How did Jozi know this guy? Wasn’t she supposed to be the one exposing him while she was in the Mars Ministry Police force?
“You helped me with getting information about the High Judge hiding important facts about my parent’s crash. I want that, and I have a few more things I want to send your way to expose him for the fraud and liar he is. Including recordings I’ve had with him the last few days.”
Anonymity rubbed his hands together like washing them with soap. He wore a black hoodie and a gold chain around his neck. His icy-blue eyes were piercing, and his stubble told Ozzy the guy wanted to look tough. “It’ll take time,” he responded, his eyes forward, his chin down. He spoke as if he was a shadow: his voice low and hushed. “Send me the materials. Give me a week to patch into the system. I also have video I took with more than a hundred drones. It shows who really turned the Dunrakee away and back to Earth. And it’s easy to tell it wasn’t the Ministry or the Martian Marines. Shall I include that as well?”
Ozzy nodded his head up and down. “Hell yeah.”
“If you want my services, the fee is five million auric.” He grinned like a weasel.
Ozzy’s eyes widened. Five million would render him almost penniless, and he worked his ass off to get what he had.
“I can’t. Sorry.” He had to save money for his trip to Europa—if that day ever came.
“Ozzy.” Jozi shot him a look. “The answer is yes. Don’t be an idiot.”
Ozzy glanced at Lily and then at Jozi and back to Anonymity. “One million auric.”
“No.”
“Two million auric.”
Anonymity leaned forward. “Let me say this again. Five million auric credits.”
Ozzy’s gut wrenched. “Are you kidding me?”
“Send the funds right away,” Anonymity said. “And Jozi, I’m sending something over the com channel. It will appear shortly, and it’s something I think you’ll be very interested in. I found it a few days ago when I was hacking Robert Baldwin’s files.” The com channel blipped off and then back on. A picture of someone’s birth record appeared.
That was odd. Ozzy ignored it for a moment and rubbed his temples. He sighed loudly, speaking through gritted teeth, “I can’t keep a damn dollar to save my life.” He paused, thinking. He had to do it. He had to get rid of Robert or else the guy would plague him for the rest of his life. “I’ll send the money.”
Yet, Robert will know who funded this—somehow. He had his ways. He was going to be beyond pissed, and he’ll be sending everything he could at Ozzy.
Screw Robert.
He hugged his daughter, feeling her warm breath against his arm.
Jozi chimed in. “Ozzy? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“What?” Ozzy glanced at the holoscreen. “Yeah, it’s a damn birth certificate. I don’t know why Anonymity would send it, but—”
He closed his mouth sharply. The birth certificate read Robert Baldwin Ryan.
“That can’t be right,” said Ozzy.
Jozi’s last name was Ryan, and this certificate before him was showing plain as day that Ryan was Robert’s last name.
Jozi threw her hand to her mouth. “He’s my dad’s brother. That means—” She held onto her pendant.
He gave her a serious look. “He’s your uncle.”
Epilogue
Olympus Mons, Mars
Ozzy jerked awake and glanced around. Where the heck was he?
Lily was on his chest, sleeping soundly. Jozi was drooling, fast asleep in the copilot chair next to him.
In front of him was the Martian craft, glowing its golds and silvers. He remembered—he was in the castle inside the mountain.
“Robert Baldwin is Jozi’s uncle?” he said to himself, a jolt punching him in the heart. This new information of Jozi being Robert’s niece would not sit well with him, and it definitely would not sit well with Jozi.
Hell, did Robert keep it a secret from her this entire time? For the moment, he was glad she was asleep.
The com channel rang. He flinched, the excruciating sound blaring in his eardrums.
Jozi woke, wiping away the slobber from her lips. “What? What’s going on? Where am I?” Her eyes darted around the cockpit, landing on the com channel holoscreen.
Private number.
It could be Robert. It could be Anonymity. It could be Jonas.
Maybe even Wildly.
They all seemed to have Ozzy’s number.
He covered Lily’s ears so it wouldn’t wake her up. “Let it ring.”
Jozi stretched, nodding her head and drooping lower in her chair, trying to get more shut-eye.
It kept ringing.
Shit.
He pressed the answer button. Gragas appeared.
“Well, if it ain’t my old buddy who disappears into La La Land after he helps me,” said Ozzy.
“Ozzy, we have a challenge.”
Those infamous words. Gragas never liked to use the word problem. Instead, he opted for challenge, as if that helped ease matters.
Ozzy flung one hand in the air. “I’m tired of challenges. Can I have a break for a few days at least?”
“Not if you want to keep your daughter safe and secure.”
Jozi tilted her head, staring at Lily.
Ozzy glared, and his words were slow, full of rising anger. “What do you mean, Gragas?”
“Quad, the bounty hunter, is on his way.”
Ozzy swallowed hard, giving Gragas a double take. “I know Quad.”
Quad was the biggest, baddest bounty hunter in the galaxy. His success rate was off the charts. Robert being Jozi’s uncle was far less significant compared to Ozzy being on Quad’s bounty list.
Yet, why would Quad wish to harm Ozzy’s child? That didn’t make a lick of sense.
Gragas set his gaze upon Lily. “Quad wishes to ransom your child in order to get you.”
Ozzy let out an exasperated breath. “Look, I’m sure if you let this Quad prick know that the one who put the bounty on my head, the Dunrakee terrorist leader at Dawes, is dead, then he’ll be on his way. He won’t be getting any bounty whatsoever.”
“I’ve let the bounty hunters know this. To my surprise, most of them turned around and headed back to their worlds. Quad, on the other hand, ignored me. I have a feeling he was hired by the High Judge to take you out, and since you’re almost impossible to find, the rumors are that he will go after your most cherished—your daughter. If he can’t get her, then on to another family member of yours until you show your face.”
He only had one other family member alive—Lou, his brother.
“So, you’re telling me that Quad was hired by Robert to take me out?”
“Yes,” replied Gragas.
Ozzy shook his head. “I’m down to a few million auric credits, Gragas. That’s not enough to get me to Europa where I can rid this red shithole of a planet of me and my daughter.”
That meant he’d have to go into forbidden archaeology for a little longer so he could buy the Class-14 Quadruple Engine Electrohydrodynamic Ionic Thruster 113 SX Eagle he needed to fly to Europa.
“You can join the Galactic Knights, Ozzy. You would have a home with us.”
Ozzy didn’t join cults. “You know my answer.”
“That’s what I thought, but we understand.” He bowed his head. “I’ll be watching you and doing my best to keep you and your family safe.”
The com link turned off.
Ozzy slumped his shoulders and then stood, holding his sleeping child in his arms.
He laid Lily on his chair and stretched his lower back. “I guess this is what I get for saving Mars twice. How many times am I going to get penalized for doing the right thing?”
“You weren’t saving Mars, Ozzy. You wouldn’t have done it if you didn’t have Lily in your life. You did it to save her.” Jozi stood, stretching as well.
She was right.
Ozzy turned to walk out of the cockpit.
“Where are you going?” Jozi asked.
Ozzy could tell she wanted to talk about her new predicament—the knowledge of who her uncle was.
“To get some fresh air,” he said. It was an expression. Getting fresh air anywhere on Mars was a joke. He wanted to stroll outside of Relic to get his mind off things.
He jimmied through the cockpit and slid down the ladder, landing on the storage bay’s grated floor. He walked passed the Ark and strolled out of his ship. He marched under its belly, running his fingers across the smooth metallic finish.
Finally, Ozzy came to the Martian craft. He gazed up at its gleaming exterior, gawking at how gorgeous it was.
Ozzy then jerked back in a start as a sound reverberated around the corner and down the hall.
Footsteps echoed to his ears, and his face slackened.
Who else is here?
No one should be in here but him, his daughter, and Jozi.
He hurried forward and curled around a corner, heading toward the shadowed shield—the entrance the first time he wandered inside Olympus Mons.
He stopped dead in his tracks. “Sonya Zeld,” he whispered to himself. It had to be her footsteps.
He remembered he had left her in the castle when he escaped with the Ark, just after he bandaged her up.
He forgot to take off her daggers, her holstered guns, and her rifle when he left.
Crap.
He hurried to the shield, bending down to where he had left Zeld. He touched the ground. It was warm. He glanced out of the shield, seeing several EVA suits outside, along with the two capsules.
He couldn’t tell if she had quickly put on a suit and left. If she had, she was faster than shit.
He stood, walking as quietly as possible. If Zeld were around, she’d be hiding somewhere, and if she were hiding, she was up to something.
And that something couldn’t be good.
Ozzy let out an exasperated breath. All he wanted to do was chill and relax, and now it was like everything just hit him on the head.
He glared into the cavern, remembering his mom’s words: “Take one day at a time, do one thing at a time, and take one step at a time.”
Easy for her to say, she was good at it.
But that’s what he’d have to do from now on. And right now, looking for Zeld was what he had to do. Fixing his situation with Quad and figuring out how he could use Robert’s new uncle status to his favor would have to wait.
Ozzy scowled. “This is going to be a long day.” Hell, it was going to be a long month, even a long year, and most importantly, he was determined to make it a long damn life for himself and those he loved.
Martian Insurrection
Mars Colony Chronicles Book 3
1
Tunnel Downs, Mars
A bloody slit lined her neck from ear to ear, and thick, red liquid oozed to her collarbone and dripped onto the couch. She wasn’t pale or blue, which indicated she might not have died that long ago.
A sickeningly sweet stench made Ozzy stumble back almost losing his balance. He pressed his hand over his mouth and nose as he stood next to her body. His insides felt like liquid and he was unable to blink even though his eyes burned from the smell.
He swallowed hard and gulped down his fear and sorrow.
This was the last thing he wanted, especially for his brother’s wife. She was gone, and there was nothing he could do to bring her back.
A chair lay on its side, books were strewn about on the floor, and there was a trail of blood streaking from the middle of the living room to her final resting place on the couch. From the way it looked, she must have crawled to the couch before her heart gave its last beat.
There were scratches along her arms and skin underneath her fingernails. Freshly smeared, bloody footprints traced the killer’s escape from the living room to the front door.
Ozzy kept his mouth covered with one hand and held up his other hand and pointed at the open doorway. “Don’t touch anything, and keep Lily out of here.”
Jozi stepped back, her eyes wide and confusion clouding her face. She was still outside and couldn’t see what Ozzy was witnessing. She shielded Lily, keeping her a few steps outside the door and in one of the dimly lit tunneled streets of Tunnel Downs.
“Daddy, is Auntie Gloria here?” Lily asked as she moved her head, trying to catch a glimpse around Jozi’s leg. She was bouncing foot to foot. Lily and her mom, Venessa, lived only five minutes away, and Lily knew Gloria well.
Ozzy peered around the corner and feigned a smile. His daughter’s innocent eyes were looking back at him. He cleared his throat, rubbing his temples. It appeared Gloria had been attacked in the middle of the day when the majority of people in this town were at work, including his brother, Lou, and she had bled out from an intruder’s knife.
“No, she’s not here Lily-bug.” Ozzy swallowed hard a second time, keeping the lie down as far as he could. “Let’s get you to your mom’s house, okay?”
That’s why they were in Tunnel Downs: to get his daughter to his ex-wife and to get Lily and her mom into hiding as fast as possible.
In fact, he was also going to tell Lou and Gloria to go into hiding. A
bounty hunter named Quad was on the planet, wanting to kill Ozzy for a crap-ton of auric credits, most likely hired by High Judge Robert Baldwin. It was rumored that Quad was going to use Ozzy’s family as bait to draw him out and kill him.
The High Judge wanted Ozzy dead and would stop at nothing to see this accomplished, and, apparently, so did Quad.
But Ozzy was too late. Quad’s deadly cut had struck fast. He hoped Lily’s mom, Venessa, wasn’t also on the receiving end of Quad’s knife.
Blood continued to drip from the couch and splash on the tile, creating a glistening pool of ruby-colored liquid. Finally, Ozzy looked away and stared at the floor.
“I’m sorry, Lou,” he said under his breath. His brother wasn’t going to take his wife’s death well at all, and he’d, of course, blame it on Ozzy.
But so be it.
When he located his brother, he’d get him to safety anyway.
Ozzy walked around the corner, past the kitchen, and to the entryway where he grabbed his daughter’s hand.
He glanced over his shoulder. “Jozi, be aware of everything around us. Quad might be lurking in the shadows.”
Jozi straightened her lips and narrowed her eyes. “Already on it.” She curled her fingers in a fist, her eyes sweeping the room and surrounding area. She bent her legs slightly and was ready to pounce on any attacker that may come her way. She was badass, but Ozzy didn’t think even she could take on Quad, the most ruthless bounty hunter in the galaxy.
“Who is Quad?” Lily asked.
Ozzy picked up his pace. “Just a mean guy. We don’t want to see him.”
“Give him a hug. It always makes me feel better when I’m mad,” said Lily.
“Good idea,” he responded.
Good idea if he wanted to die a similar fate as his brother’s wife.
He stiffened in his walk. The High Judge, Robert Baldwin, who was the head of Mars’s government, known as the Ministry, had hired a bounty hunter to kill him because Robert couldn’t find Ozzy himself.
Martian Quadrilogy Box Set Page 42
