by Jake Bible
“Out with it,” Roak said. “But no killing.”
Sha raised his scaly eyebrows in surprise.
“Killing brings the law down too fast,” Roak said. “I need time to finish up what I need to finish up before getting off this damn planet.”
“Good thing I don’t need no one killed,” Sha said. “Just broken. Wait here.”
Sha rolled into the back room. Roak didn’t make a move towards the knives on the counter. Guy like Sha would be watching him in a personal holo feed every step of the way.
“I need you to deliver this package and a message with it,” Sha said when he came back out with a small box in his hands. “Name and address are on the package.”
“What’s the message you want me to tell the recipient?” Roak asked.
“It’s more a show than a tell,” Sha said. “You ask for this guy when you get to the address. He comes to the door, you hand him the package then snap his left arm right off. Bring me the arm and I’ll set you up with knives, boots, and body armor. I’ll even give you your eighty-five chits back.”
“Only if I bring you the arm,” Roak said.
“The left arm,” Sha insisted. “Right arm is no use to me.”
“Understood,” Roak said. “Is it possible I can get those boots now?”
“No,” Sha said.
“Didn’t think so,” Roak said. He took the package, read the name and address, then looked up at Sha, an eyebrow arched.
“Four blocks over, six blocks down,” Sha said. “Apartment bundle. Rough neighborhood, so watch yourself, Mr. Klo.”
“Please, call me Bex,” Roak said with a grin.
“Wow, I’m honored,” Sha said. “Hurry back now. I can’t hold your merch all day. Might be a customer that needs the exact same body armor, boots, and knives you do. I’m a good guy, but I gotta do business.”
“I’ll be back before you close,” Roak said. “Probably sooner.”
“If you’re back before lunch, I’ll throw in a second boot knife,” Sha said.
Roak nodded, turned, and left the shop. He bounced the package in one hand as he affixed the rebreather to his mouth, then set off to find the apartment bundle. It was a detour he couldn’t really afford, but then the gear he needed he couldn’t afford either. Roak had thought about taking out the Skrang, but he wasn’t kidding about how killing brought the law down fast. He needed some breathing room to get to Boss Teegg. Having the law on his ass would end that breathing room.
Roak walked four blocks then turned the corner onto the street where the apartment bundle was supposed to be.
6.
A Ferg opened the door and Roak had to stifle a laugh. Fergs were a diminutive race, barely much taller than three feet, looking something like a cross between a praying mantis and a beaver. The one standing in the doorway was stark naked except for a pair of pink underwear, her eight nipples on display for anyone that walked down the hallway and was unlucky enough to look down.
“I’m looking for Xcel’fell,” Roak said as he waved the package at the female Ferg.
She tried to snatch for it, but Roak kept it well above her reach. She hissed and showed him some very long, very sharp front teeth then growled low and turned her head to shout, “Hey, asshead! You got a package!”
She looked back at Roak and casually scratched at her crotch then at the nipple third from the top on the left side of her chest.
“He’ll be here in a sec,” she said. “You wanna come inside? Have a drink? I bet a tall guy like you is always thirsty.” She cocked a hip and the scratching of the nipple increased in pressure and speed.
“Not right now,” Roak said, not even trying to hide his disgust. “I’ll take a raincheck.”
“What?” a deep voice barked as a mangy-looking Urvein waddled to the doorway.
Being a bear-like race, the man was covered in thick fur. Mostly. He had several areas that looked like he’d been scratching the hair off obsessively. He shoved the Ferg out of the way and glared down at Roak.
“What?” he barked again. “Who the hell are you?”
Roak instantly knew what he was up against. Stim junkies. Not good.
An Urvein alone, even one as unhealthy looking as Xcel’fell, was a handful. One hopped up on stim? Sha gave him one bitch of a task. Roak had to quickly calculate if the gear he needed was worth the risk. It may have been preferable to kill the Skrang and deal with the law on his ass than tangle with a stim junkie as big as the one that stood before him.
Of course, if Roak couldn’t handle the Urvein standing there in nothing but hole-ridden boxers then how could he think about taking on Boss Teegg’s men? That was what he asked himself as he extended the package to the mangy asshead.
“This is for you,” Roak said. “Can I come inside?”
“I don’t know you,” Xcel’fell said. “Get lost. Take your stupid box with ya.”
“Come on, honey,” the Ferg called from inside the shadows of the apartment. “Let the man in. Maybe he wants to party.”
Xcel’fell growled low, did his own scratching, then stepped aside.
“Give me the box,” Xcel’fell grumbled as Roak walked past him and into the less than pleasant smelling apartment.
“In a second,” Roak said as he pulled the package out of the Urvein’s reach and moved quickly into the front room.
A quick look around told Roak it was the only room, other than what he thought must be a bathroom behind the only other door in the room. The kitchen was shoved into a corner, counters folded up against the wall to make more space. The stink of the place was coming off the stained mattress stuck in the opposite corner. Roak tried not to gag.
“Well?” Xcel’fell snapped. “Is that for me or isn’t it?”
“It is,” Roak said.
His eyes roamed the room, looking for anything that could help him complete his task. He sure could have used one of Sha’s knives, but that wasn’t part of the deal. So he settled on the next best thing.
Roak tossed the package to Xcel’fell then moved closer to the Ferg woman. She liked the movement and took a couple of steps towards him. He forced himself not to flinch when her hand began to stroke his thigh.
“You ever been part of a Bilionna Threesome?” the Ferg asked.
“Not that I remember,” Roak said, his eyes locked onto the package as Xcel’fell opened it.
“Oh, you’d remember,” the Ferg said. “Trust me, baby, you’d remember.”
Xcel’fell let out a small gasp as he opened the package and stared at the contents inside.
“Sha,” he whispered as he plucked out a long, gold chain and held it up in front of his face.
On the end of the chain was an ear. An Urvein ear. That was when Roak noticed that Xcel’fell was missing his left one. It shouldn’t have been a detail that slipped his notice, but the Urvein was so ugly and mangy that he must have thought he was just looking at another bald patch.
“You’re gonna take that Skrang piece of shit a message for me,” Xcel’fell said as he tossed the box aside and shoved the chained ear out at Roak. “You’re gonna take the exact same message to him.”
“You want me to give him your other ear?” Roak asked.
The Urvein roared and lunged. Roak dodged to the side and snatched up the Ferg, landing a hard blow behind the woman’s left ear, knocking her senseless. She went limp in his arms and Roak lifted her higher as Xcel’fell slashed out with his thick claws.
Blood splattered across the Urvein’s face and he stopped his attack, his face looking shocked and stricken at what he’d just done.
Roak didn’t waste that hesitation. He pulled back the Ferg’s lips, exposing those sharp, long teeth, and slammed the woman’s head into Xcel’fell’s shoulder. The teeth sunk through fur, flesh and muscle, going straight to the bone. Roak twisted and swiveled the unconscious Ferg and more blood spilled out into the apartment, but that time it was the Urvein’s.
Xcel’fell roared in pain and let the chain
and ear go so he could slash out with that claw. Roak moved with the enraged Urvein and continued to saw, using the Ferg’s insanely sharp teeth as his cutting tool.
He was more than halfway through when Xcel’fell finally was able to land a blow.
Roak went flying across the room, his chest feeling like he’d just been hit by a speed roller. He landed in a heap on the soiled mattress and began gagging from the smell that wafted up around him. He had to shove the thought of what he may have been lying in out of his mind so he could then shove his body up and off the mattress as Xcel’fell leapt at him.
Roak rolled aside and the Urvein landed right where he’d just been. The Ferg was all the way across the room, coated in blood, two teeth snapped off and a couple others cracked and hanging loose. Roak hoped he’d cut through enough to not need the Ferg anymore.
Before Xcel’fell could regroup, Roak jumped onto his back and grabbed the wounded arm by the furry wrist. He yanked up and back and felt the arm loosen from the socket. The Urvein screamed and thrashed, but Roak hung on, his knees planted into the stim junkie’s back muscles.
Another hard yank and twist and the arm tore free. Xcel’fell screeched in agony, throwing Roak off with a wild, full body buck. Roak tumbled across the floor and came to rest against the far wall. The way out was exactly between him and Xcel’fell.
Roak looked down at the arm he held in his grip. The Urvein’s pained eyes were looking at the same object. They moved at the same time.
Roak was up and on his feet before Xcel’fell. He sprinted towards the door, his ribs feeling like they did before Veha had put him in the med pod. He was gonna need some patching up before he could take on Boss Teegg, but he’d worry about that later. At that moment, he had a one-armed Urvein racing at him with nothing but murder on its mind.
Roak skidded into the wall of the short hallway that led to the front door. He ricocheted off that wall and into the opposite one, which saved his life as Xcel’fell’s remaining fist slammed through the spot where Roak’s head had just been.
Roak lashed out with the severed arm and caught Xcel’fell across the face, tearing the creature’s cheek wide open with his own jagged upper arm bone. The Urvein howled and clapped his hand to the floppy skin that hung down.
“My face!” he roared. “My beautiful face!”
Xcel’fell dropped to his knees and screamed over and over about his face as Roak reached the door.
“See ya,” Roak said as he raced outside and hurried down the hallway to the stairs.
Three floors later, he was in the dank, dirty lobby of the apartment bundle. He walked to the security desk that was manned by a snoring Leforian, grabbed his rebreather from the spot where he’d left it, slipped that on, and was out the airlock of the apartment bundle before he’d let more than three drops of Urvein blood splatter onto the soiled tile of the lobby floor.
7.
Sha Tog let Roak use his med pod that he kept in the back. It took two hours out of Roak’s schedule, but it was worth it to knit the ribs back together. Sha didn’t even haggle a price for the use of the med pod. Probably because of the look in Roak’s eye when he came walking back into the shop. The Eight Million Gods themselves would have been fools to argue with Roak at that moment.
The light body armor wasn’t a perfect fit, it wouldn’t hold up to heavy pistol fire, but it was enough to slow any blades from piercing Roak’s flesh. He tugged at the collar and pulled at the hem of the sleeves, frowning the whole time as Sha watched him with an amused look on his face.
“You want to know what that was all about?” Sha asked Roak. The Skrang held Xcel’fell’s arm in his hands and was swinging it back and forth as he watched Roak make several small adjustments to the armor. “I bet you’re dying to know.”
“Not really,” Roak said.
“You sure?” Sha asked.
“Not hard to figure out,” Roak said. “The Ferg used to be your woman.”
Sha looked shocked. “That skanky whore? Are you joking?”
Roak stopped his adjustments and glanced at Sha. “I’m wrong?”
“Way off, stranger,” Sha said. “I sold that Ferg to Xcel’fell. His credits bounced. I told him I’d take a hunk of his flesh instead. The stupid Urvein thought I was kidding. Now he knows I wasn’t.”
“And so does every low life that may think about welching on you in the future,” Roak said, instantly understanding. “Sorry.”
“For what?” Sha asked.
“For assuming you had a thing with that Ferg,” Roak said.
“I’d be dead of six million different diseases if I even looked too long at that piece of yuck,” Sha said. “Urveins have immune systems that rival anything in the universe. I was lucky Xcel’fell bought her off me.”
“This is as good as it gets,” Roak said as he tugged at his armor one more time before pointing at the knives on the counter. “You said I’d get a second boot knife.”
“I did,” Sha said. He fetched it and tossed it next to the others. “Good luck.”
“Thanks for the use of the med pod,” Roak said as he grabbed the knives, put the big one on his belt, and the two others in their respective spaces in his boots. “I appreciate it.”
“I’ll remember that,” Sha said. “Perhaps you will do me a favor someday in return, Bex.”
“Perhaps,” Roak replied, ignoring Sha’s obvious mocking of his fake name. “But, probably not. I’ll be needing to leave the planet as soon as possible once my business is concluded.”
“That so?” Sha asked. “And how do you plan to do that?”
“How do you mean?” Roak asked. “Space elevator, just like everyone else. I made arrangements.”
“Everyone like you does,” Sha said. Roak didn’t respond, simply stood there, his eyes on Sha. “The authorities on this planet are bought and paid for.”
“Well aware of that,” Roak said. “It’s not unusual. Like I said, I made arrangements.”
Sha held up a single finger. “Something tells me those arrangements were made before you got yourself into the trouble you’re in?”
“Who says I’m in trouble?” Roak said. He sighed. There was no point. “Let me guess. You have a way off the planet? How much?”
“Me? Nah,” Sha said. “I don’t deal in transportation.” He waved his arm around. “I deal in this.”
“But you know someone that does,” Roak said.
“Perhaps,” Sha said. “I tell you what, you go take care of your business then hurry back here afterwards and we’ll see what I can do for you.”
“How about you tell me who I need to deal with directly?” Roak said. “I don’t think you’ll want me coming back here after I take care of what I take care of. Might be a little hotter than you want.”
“Might be, might be,” Sha said, seriously thinking it over.
“I don’t have time for this, Sha,” Roak said. “You gonna give me the name or not?”
Sha tapped at his scaly lip with a clawed finger. He narrowed his lizard eyes at Roak then shook his head.
“Don’t know why I’m doing this,” he muttered. “Okay. You go see Ally over at the–”
“Tavern,” Roak said. “Yeah, I met her earlier. She can get me off planet without being noticed?”
“I don’t know how unnoticed you’ll go,” Sha said, “but she can get you off this planet and up to your ship. I assume you have a ship waiting for you in orbit on the station?”
“I might,” Roak said.
“Good,” Sha said. “You tell Ally I sent you and she’ll get you to that ship.”
“This another favor I owe?” Roak asked.
“Let’s just say that the previous favor has grown in size,” Sha said.
“Okay,” Roak said and nodded. “Let’s just say that.”
He tipped a finger to his brow and turned to leave.
“Oh, and Bex?” Sha called out.
“Yeah?” Roak replied.
“I don’t know you, you don’
t know me, and you were never here,” Sha said.
“Goes without saying,” Roak replied.
“I’d still like to hear you say it,” Sha said.
“Sha who?” Roak said and grinned before pulling down his rebreather. The airlock hissed open and he stepped through.
The sun had begun to set, which was good since Roak obviously looked like he was going to cause some trouble. Most of the citizens of the town were dressed in simple garments made of simple cloth. Roak’s light body armor meant he stuck out like a sore thumb.
He looked one way then the other to make sure he wasn’t being watched before jogging across the street and ducking into a narrow alleyway. He followed the alley to the back then hopped a short wall that separated the space from the next street over. No one was on that street except for a couple of old men sitting in rocking chairs on the porch of what Roak assumed was a barbershop. Neither of them had rebreathers on, but then neither of them were human. They each had six arms and long, segmented bodies. Roak had no idea what race they were, but the six arms thing had to be handy in their line of work.
Roak jogged in the opposite direction of the two aliens until he reached the end of the street and faced a wall of jungle. Trees everywhere, thick underbrush, heavy vines hanging down, the jungle made itself known, that was for sure. Roak figured the town must have had one helluva maintenance budget to keep the jungle at bay. All it would take was a couple of weeks of neglect and the trees and vines would be filling the streets.
It took him a few minutes to find his way, but he discovered a hidden path that wound through the trees. He quickly followed it, hoping the path would spit him out where he thought it would. After close to an hour of hiking, he was rewarded by the sight of Boss Teegg’s compound walls peeking through the trees. He didn’t come out exactly where he’d hoped, but he was close enough.
Now it was a matter of waiting, watching, and picking the right time to strike.
Roak skirted the compound, his eyes on the wall at all times. He looked for ways in, but couldn’t find any. Before, he’d walked right up to the main gate and presented the cargo box. That got him inside the compound. Once inside, things hadn’t gone how he’d liked, but he’d made do and forced his way to Boss Teegg. The rest was painful history.
