Forced Vengeance (Jake Mudd Adventures Book 2)

by Hal Archer

  "Vos!" Jake addressed the mirror. "We need to talk."

  Jake couldn't get himself to call the man Baron. He knew failing to do so might not go over as well, but he wasn't in the mood to suck up to anyone.

  There was no response.

  Jake checked the hallway again. Clear. In the mirror, he saw the door he came through was still shut. He'd closed it when he came in.

  He glanced at the door to the Baron's cold room. He noticed ice on the bottom edge of the door.

  He looked at the mirror. "I have something you may be interested in."

  The mirror didn't change to reveal the Baron like before. Instead, Jake heard several people coming down the hall to his left.

  Maybe I should've said Baron.

  He pulled his blaster and turned to face the hall, thinking he'd rather shoot a few of Vos' thugs instead of dying with his weapon holstered, if it had to be that way. He wondered if Hyde would come down the hallway.

  He'd never been a team player, though.

  Three people jogged down the hall toward Jake—a man, a woman, and Vos' nephew. They didn't have their weapons drawn. The teenager was in front. Jake decided not to shoot him, at least not yet.

  The three came to the end of the hall and saw Jake with his blaster drawn on them.

  "I didn't come for trouble," Jake said. He waved the barrel of his blaster at them. "But I'll drop the three of you if you make me."

  The three stood at the edge of the room. The woman glanced at the man.

  "No," Jake said. "I'm only here to talk to the Baron." He gestured to them with his free hand. "Lose your weapons. You know the Baron will be pissed if you get his nephew killed in a firefight."

  They didn't move. Jake waited out their decision.

  "Kid," he said to the teenage boy, "maybe you can get your uncle for me. I have something he might be interested in."

  The boy looked pleased Jake was addressing him directly, instead of one of the two with him. The boy glanced at Jake's blaster, which was still pointed toward the three of them. He nodded. "Toss your weapons," the boy said to the man and woman behind him.

  The man and woman looked at each other. The man rolled his eyes. They both shrugged and took their blasters from their holsters and tossed them on the ground a few feet away.

  "Thanks, kid," Jake said, lowering his blaster. "Tell your uncle I'm not wasting his time."

  The boy nodded, then hurried back down the hallway.

  Jake grinned and waved the tip of his blaster at the two henchmen. "You guys weren't really going to shoot me, were you?"

  The man and woman looked at each other, then back to Jake.

  "No," the man said.

  Yes," the woman said at the same time.

  Jake chuckled and nodded toward the woman. "At least she's honest."

  The woman shrugged. "Well, I was going to shoot you."

  "You don't have to tell him that," the man said to her.

  She looked at him. "You need to be more honest. There's nothing wrong with shooting someone if it's your job. Ugh!"

  "What?" The man looked incredulous. "How does it being your job make it fine?"

  The woman crossed her arms. "Forget it." She turned her gaze away from the man. "This is why I broke up with you."

  "Because I don't tell the bad guy I was going to shoot him?" the man asked. "Seriously?"

  Jake couldn't help but chuckle over the two. The woman noticed.

  "He's always like this," she said.

  Jake glanced down the hall, looking for the Baron or his nephew, but no one was coming yet.

  "Tell you what," Jake said to the woman, "I'll let you pick up your blaster," he grinned before collecting himself enough to continue, "if you want to shoot him."

  The man looked concerned.

  The woman glanced at her weapon on the ground.

  "You can't be serious?" The man sounded alarmed.

  She looked at him, then at Jake. "Thanks, but I probably shouldn't."

  "Suit yourself," Jake said. He walked over to the two weapons on the floor and kicked them across the floor, to the far side of the room. Stepping past the two henchmen, he turned to the woman. "I would've shot him." He grinned and moved back to where he was and kept an eye on the hallway.

  "Mr. Mudd."

  Jake heard the Baron's voice behind him. He turned to the mirror, keeping the two henchmen in his peripheral vision.

  Baron Vos was on the screen in the mirror. He sat in his chair in the cold room, as Jake had seen him the first time they spoke. The Baron's nephew was connecting one of the black hoses from the wall behind the chair to the Baron's chest. The Baron looked frustrated with his nephew and waved his arm in front of the boy. "Alright. That's good. Now go away."

  The boy stepped out of the image Jake saw in the mirror.

  "Thanks for seeing me again, Baron," Jake said.

  "I told you before, Mr. Mudd, I can't help you. Why are you here again?"

  Jake tipped his blaster back, pointing the barrel at the ceiling to signal his peaceful intentions. "I came to bargain."

  "Not interested, as I said before."

  "Things change," Jake said. He glanced at the Baron's two henchmen. "Maybe you ask them to back off, so we can talk."

  "You'd better convince me soon, Mr. Mudd. Those aren't the only ones who work for me here. If I'd wanted you dead, you would be. As it is, I'm still deciding."

  "I went to see the Professor," Jake said, deciding he needed to make the Baron more interested in what he had to say.

  "Leave Mr. Mudd," Vos said.

  His two henchmen glanced at their weapons on the ground.

  "You can get 'em later," Jake said, gesturing toward the hall with the barrel of his blaster.

  The man and woman left, going down the hallway. Jake watched them until they turned the corner, stepping out of sight.

  He stepped closer to the mirror, looking at Vos.

  "He doesn't like you very much," Jake said.

  "The feeling's mutual. He's a pretentious bastard."

  Jake decided to play into the hand. "Yes, that was my take too."

  Baron Vos said nothing, but seemed interested to hear Jake out.

  "Someone told me the Professor could solve my license problem," Jake said. "Man, were they wrong."

  "You said you had something I might be interested in, Mr. Mudd."

  Jake chose his next words carefully, knowing he had one shot to convince the Baron of what he was about to say.

  "When I said the Professor doesn't like you, I was lying. The guy hates you. I couldn't get him to stop talking about it. Seems you two have a history. He gave me a drink and then went on for almost a half hour about how much of an asshole you are. Well, he said degenerate deranged miscreant, or something like that."

  Jake paused for effect.

  The Baron's eyes widened and his breathing became stronger—Jake saw the black tubes rise and fall and the exhaust increase from the machine in the wall behind the Baron's chair.

  Jake continued before the Baron could call for his men to have Jake killed.

  "Then he started telling me about how you're planning to steal his territory away from him. To be honest, I was ready to get up and leave, but the guy wouldn't let up. He shoved another drink at me and kept going. He avoided my question about getting a shipping registry license, but I had the sense he might be able to help me out. So, I put up with his talk for way too long."

  "A mistake I don't intend to make," Vos said. He raised his arm to gesture to someone off screen.

  Jake realized he'd better get to the point before more hired guns come down the hall.

  "He showed me his plans," Jake said. "What he plans to do to beat you."

  Vos waved his hand again at someone outside the view on the screen. He shook his head before turning back to the camera to look at Jake. "Ten seconds, Mudd."

  "In the end, he wouldn't help me with the license. I told him I was going to talk to you. He didn't like that. Had his men
try to take me out."

  Risky, Jake. Does the Professor even have men?

  "I barely made it out," Jake said. "Blew half the place to stop his men from getting to me."

  Is he gonna call the bluff?

  A few seconds passed in silence, aside from the sound of the Baron's breathing apparatus.

  "Word is already going around that I was responsible for the explosion," Vos said. "It hasn't come out yet whether he made it out alive. But I know better. If he was so easy to get rid of, I would've blown up his place myself a long time ago."

  Jake squished his lip to feign a little guilt at causing trouble for Vos.

  "He said the license was something you could get," Jake said, glancing at the hall to see if the Baron's men had arrived yet to kill him. "Said it was no surprise you were lying."

  "Why shouldn't I kill you, Mudd?"

  "Oh, yes, I almost forgot." Jake held his forefinger up and feigned a look of sudden remembrance. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the disc the Professor had given him. "I took the plans he kept going on about. I thought they might be worth the license. What do you say?"

  Baron Vos sat quiet and still for a moment. His breathing tubes didn't move and the exhaust from behind him eased up. Jake half wondered if Vos had suffered a heart attack or aneurism.

  Vos laughed. Jake was relieved he hadn't killed the guy.

  "I like you, Mr. Mudd," Vos said.

  Jake smiled and holstered his blaster as a show of good faith. "So, we have a deal?"

  "Don't get ahead of yourself. Right now, the deal is I don't have you killed."

  "That's a good start." Jake put the disc back into his jacket. "You get the plans when I have the license."

  Baron Vos signaled again to someone nearby. "No. I get the plans now. You stay here… as my guest, until I review the disc."

  Jake hated the way Vos said the word guest. It really didn't sound the way he thought the word was supposed to be said. He heard Vos' henchmen coming down the hall.

  "If the disc contains what you say it does, then we have a deal. If not, you'll die." He gazed up, as if thinking. "Maybe I'll have my nephew do it. The experience might do him some good."

  Jake thought about pulling his blaster from its holster, but restrained himself. It took all his willpower to fight the instinct for self-preservation, but he knew this was the only way to the license he came to Eon to get.

  Five armed henchmen came into the room, weapons drawn. They aimed them at Jake.

  A woman stepped out from behind the five. Jake recognized her as the woman he'd earlier offered to let shoot her fellow henchmen. She walked over to the weapon Jake had made her drop. She picked it up and looked at Jake. "I would've shot you earlier, but I guess I can't now. Can I?"

  "Sorry," Jake said to her. "Boss' orders." He smiled glibly.

  She went over to him and took his blaster from its holster. "Your turn."

  Jake winked at her. "Take good care of it for me, would you?"

  The woman was clearly thrown off guard by Jake's behavior. She cracked a smile, but then quickly took it back. She scrunched her brow into a less friendly look, turned, and walked away.

  One of the henchman stepped out from the group, waving his blaster at Jake. "Down the hall."

  Jake, having committed to his gamble with the Baron, did as the man said.

  He had a troubling thought as he walked down the hall with the armed men in front and behind him.

  And if the Professor lied about what the disc contained? Shit. Could've thought that one out ahead of time.

  CHAPTER 16

  T iffin clipped a new battery into Birdy and set her on the floor of her apartment in front of one of the open windows.

  Still kneeling beside the drone, she looked at Squeakers. "I know he said I should stay here, Squeakers. But he didn't say anything about Birdy."

  She stood up and went to her couch, where she grabbed the drone controller. Sitting down, she flipped the toggle to turn the controller on. Birdy responded with a chirp.

  Looking at the screen between the sticks under her thumbs, she talked to Squeakers. "I need to see if that man, Hyde, is still out there. If he's still alive."

  Squeakers came out from his carpet roll and scurried over to Tiffin. He retrieved a few cheese crumbs from the floor and ran back to his hiding place.

  "What if he finds Jake?" Tiffin asked.

  Squeakers was silent. Tiffin looked up from the screen and then at her mouse. She realized she wished Jake hadn't left.

  Talking to herself more than to Squeakers, she answered her own question. "Jake can take care of himself. Right?"

  She pushed the sticks on the controller. Birdy's blades spun up to lift-off speed and she rose a few feet off the floor.

  "He said I should find some people to talk to, to hang out with." She turned to Squeakers. "I think he couldn't bring himself to say it, but he was talking about himself."

  She tipped her head back, looking at the shoddy ceiling. "How could I be so blind? He was practically asking to be friends." She looked at Squeakers again. "Wasn't he?"

  Squeakers made a tiny noise which was all she needed to confirm her notion.

  She flew Birdy out the window. Then she rose from the weathered couch and walked to the window with the drone controller in her hands.

  She flew Birdy fast, taking turns to get views of the streets and swooping alleys with a skill she'd honed first with Butterfly and then with months of flying Birdy.

  She stood at the window for twenty minutes, looking at the screen on the controller, checking the faces in the crowds and the scattered people she found in the shadowed corridors behind the buildings in the surrounding neighborhoods.

  She couldn't find Hyde or Jake.

  "I don't know, Squeakers. What are we going to do?"

  She turned her view to the poster of Erith on the wall. After staring at it for a few seconds, she huffed, then continued to watch the screen on the controller and fly Birdy around more of the city.

  The city was a big place, but one she knew well. She'd tracked people many times. Spotting a target among the sea of different Eon residents and visitors was a ready skill of hers.

  She stood at the window another ten minutes, using Birdy as her eyes on the streets and back alleys.

  She grew frustrated. Finding either of the two men seemed impossible. She feared Hyde might track her down. She feared she may never see Jake again. Both possibilities scared her.

  CHAPTER 17

  J ake heard footsteps outside the door. He'd been sitting on a cot in an empty room for several hours. He heard the large bolt slide across the other side of the door. A man opened the door.

  "Your lucky day," the man said.

  Jake spotted his own blaster tucked into the man's belt.

  "Baron wants you to come along." The man stepped back from the door and gestured for Jake to get up.

  Jake rose from the cot and exited, following the man down the hall.

  "Want to tell me what's going on?" Jake asked.

  The man glanced back at Jake but said nothing. He continued walking.

  They took a turn at the end of the hall. A few seconds later, another one.

  The man leading Jake stood aside, nodding to a door. "He's waiting for you."

  Jake glanced down at his blaster in the man's belt, then stared the man in the face.

  "You'll get it back," the man said. "Don't keep him waiting."

  Jake opened the door and stepped inside.

  The room was large, a chair on either side of the door. There was a big table five feet in front of Jake. Four men stood, two on either side of the table. They all looked up at Jake when he entered. On the far side of the table, Baron Vos was seated in a large chair. It had large metal boxes on the sides of it and black rubber hoses coming out of the back of the chair. Two of the hoses attached to patches grafted to his chest.

  The room felt cold to Jake, but not like the freezer room Jake saw Vos in on the
mirror's video screen.

  "Mr. Mudd," Baron Vos said, "I'm glad you could join us."

  Jake took measure of the four henchmen around the table, deciding who he would take out first if it came to it.

  "Sorry if I'm late," Jake said. "I was detained."

  Baron Vos stared at him, apparently unmoved by Jake's attempt at humor.

  "Today you get to prove yourself, Mr. Mudd," he said. "The plans you brought to me seem to be the real thing. But I've decided to put you to the test before we conclude our deal."

  "Oh?" Jake asked. He knew he wouldn't like the explanation, but he stared back at Baron Vos and waited for it.

  The table had a metal border around the top, framing a large piece of glass across the surface. Vos touched his hand to the glass causing a computer rendering to appear within it.

  Jake looked the image over. "Map of the city?"

  "Part of it," Vos said. "The neighborhood the Professor and I have been interested in, as you've heard. Rayna's territory, I think he mentioned this to you."

  "OK. So, how does this lead to squaring away our deal?" Jake asked.

  Baron Vos raised his hand slightly from the glass, as if gesturing for Jake to be patient for a moment. He looked down at the digital map of Rayna's territory. He touched the glass over the image, then moved his hand around. The map shifted as his hand moved. A couple of seconds later, he stopped and pointed to a building he'd centered on the table.

  "There," he said. "According to the disc you gave me, the Professor has determined this location is one of Rayna's weapons caches. But more importantly, for the last several months it's been serving as a vault for her more prized possessions.

  Jake didn't like being forced to listen to the Baron's briefing, but to stick with his plan, he bit his tongue… mostly. "Let me guess, you're after her jewelry? I didn't figure you for the type."

  Vos ignored Jake's attempt to rile him. "Weapons are fine, of course. But we have plenty of our own. Taking the ones at this location would do little to slow her down. She's smart enough to have more than one cache of them in her neighborhood. But the temporary vault—she must have moved everything there when the city authorities started giving her trouble months ago. Maybe they got too close."