Forced Vengeance (Jake Mudd Adventures Book 2)

by Hal Archer

  Jake saw more movement inside the building through the open doorway. The Baron's other men, he thought. Shoot now and I'll have a fight on my hands.

  The Baron and the other man walked in Jake's direction. When they got closer he could hear what they were saying.

  "That wasn't part of the deal, Baron," the other man said. "But I'll take the license off your hands."

  "You think I brought it with me?" the Baron asked. "What's it to you, anyway?"

  "Money. Leverage," the other man said. "So, you've got it then? At your place? Good to know."

  At least I know he wasn't lying about having access to the license.

  Jake felt the voice of the other man was familiar. He waited for him to talk again.

  "I got him here," the Baron said. "Not my fault things didn't pan out the way you wanted it." The Baron moved his arms out wide in front of him as he talked. "I'm the one with three dead men now!"

  "If I just wanted to kill him," the man said, "I could've shot him myself. This was supposed to make him suffer. You and the Professor—I don't know which of you is more stupid."

  Jake recognized who the Baron was talking to, but he didn't want to believe it.

  "The Professor?" the Baron asked. "So, it was you!"

  "I got to him before Mudd. I knew what Mudd came to Eon to get. Only so many people who deal in such stuff. Wasn't hard to get the Professor's name off one of the locals."

  The Baron slowly shook his head.

  "I didn't know what he wanted the explosive for," Hyde said, then continued, "but when he told me it was to set you up, I was curious."

  "I don't understand," the Baron said.

  "He knew you'd wonder if he died and who was responsible. Sending Jake to draw you here was part of our deal."

  Jake saw Hyde laugh. He hated how much Hyde liked to prove how smart he is. He thought about shooting right then, but decided to let the conversation play out to learn what else he could.

  "Never can know who to trust, can you?" Hyde placed his hand on the Baron's shoulder.

  The Baron brushed his hand off. "You'd better get the hell out of here. This is my neighborhood."

  "I told you," Hyde said, "I'm not happy about how you botched my plan. But, I lied."

  "What?"

  "This is part of my plan," Hyde said.

  Jake saw a flash of light between the Baron and Hyde. The Baron collapsed.

  "There," Hyde said, "Mudd has killed yet another Eon citizen." A second later he looked around, then realized the Baron's men heard the blast. He saw them running toward the exit of the building, toward Hyde.

  Hyde ran before they spotted him.

  Jake stood, stepping out from the dumpster to aim his blaster for Hyde, but he was too late. Hyde had disappeared in the darkness at the end of the alley. He wanted to chase him down, not for shooting the Baron, but for being Hyde, for risking the children, for all the trouble Hyde had caused him for so many years.

  "What the hell did he mean?" Jake asked himself. Then he realized Hyde's plan.

  "Shit."

  He looked down the alley where Hyde ran. The wound on his leg suggested running him down wasn't the best idea.

  Too risky, probably wouldn't catch him now anyway.

  Through the busted doorway of the raided building he saw figures heading for the alley. He took cover again.

  The Baron's men spilled out. There must've been a dozen or more, all armed.

  Good call.

  Jake checked to make sure the shadows again draped over him.

  The men gathered around the Baron's body. One of them directed several of the others. Three teams ran off in different directions.

  Jake slid farther behind the dumpster and thought about his deal with the Baron to get the license, and his deal with the Professor.

  I was screwed from the start.

  CHAPTER 19

  "I 'm telling you, Squeakers, that was Jake!" Tiffin sat on her ratty couch, her drone controller resting on her green shorts. She had one boot off. It was on the floor below her foot. She still had the other boot on.

  She pushed the toggle sticks on Birdy's controls, flying her to a better position. She centered the alley dumpster on the screen.

  "What's he doing?"

  Squeakers climbed onto the couch to feast on the piece of bread and bits of cheese Tiffin left there. She'd forgotten her lunch when she spotted teams of men leaving the Baron's place and making their way through the back alleys toward Rayna's neighborhood. She knew that men of the Baron's people crossing into someone else's territory couldn't be a good thing.

  "He must be in trouble," Tiffin said, glancing at Squeakers, who was working through the pile of food as quickly as he could. "Did you see the door to the building? It was knocked out of the wall."

  She kept Birdy flying high above the alley intersection to make sure she didn't draw attention from whoever Jake was trying to avoid.

  "You don't think he was in one of those groups of men who went into the building, do you? Or, maybe they were after him."

  She sat with her attention fixed to the screen on the controller. Jake didn't move. She waited. She had the field of view from Birdy's camera wide, so she could see the entire spread of the intersection of the alleys.

  "OK," she said, leaning in toward the controller on her legs. "Who are these guys?"

  She saw two men come out of the building. She could see Jake hadn't come out from behind the dumpster. She watched the two men. It looked to her like they didn't know Jake was forty feet away, hiding.

  The men stood just outside the busted doorway.

  "I've gotta know what's going on," she said, pushing a button on the controller to turn on Birdy's microphone. She eased the sticks on the device downward at an angle, taking Birdy lower, closer to the two men. She released the toggles when Birdy got within thirty feet of them.

  "Oh, wow. It's Baron Vos!" Tiffin jerked back from the screen when she saw the face of the other man. "That's him. The one who tried to kill me. Hyde."

  She glanced at Squeakers, then at the door to her apartment before looking at the screen again.

  "Hope they don't look up." She took a deep breath. "Good thing Birdy's quiet."

  She flipped up another small controller stick and nudged it around with her thumb, moving a small crosshair on the screen until it was over the two men. Their conversation came through the speakers on her controller.

  "I think you'd better pay up," the Baron said.

  "That wasn't part of the deal, Baron," Hyde said. "But I'll take the license off your hands."

  "You think I brought it with me? What's it to you, anyway?"

  Hyde shrugged. "Money. Leverage. "So, you've got it then? At your place? Good to know."

  Tiffin listened to the two men's conversation unfold. Squeakers prodded between her leg and the couch for a crumb, but she didn't notice. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

  Hyde laid out for the Baron how he had played both him and the Professor, and all for one purpose.

  "Jake," Tiffin said to herself.

  She watched the two men and listened to them. And she waited to see if Jake would come out from behind the dumpster. Part of her wanted him to, but part of her hoped he'd stay hidden and safe.

  A flash between the two men lit the spot on the controller's screen.

  Tiffin lurched back. Her sudden move caused Birdy's controller to slip off her legs and topple to the floor.

  She scrambled to get it, picking it up and quickly taking the controls to move Birdy higher before taking her around the side of a building to make sure she wasn't spotted.

  She paused and stared at view of one of the buildings near the scene she'd just witnessed. Her breathing was fast. She looked at Squeakers and opened her mouth, but nothing to say came to mind.

  She decided to fly Birdy back to where she could see the alley again. She didn't want to look at the Baron, or his body. And the thought of seeing Hyde again made her quiver. But she needed t
o see if Jake was still there.

  She saw several men dragging the Baron's body inside the building with the busted door. Then she saw Jake coming out from behind the dumpster. She watched him make his way down the alley. He took a side alley and went to the main street. Tiffin knew better than to take Birdy there, so she flew her home.

  After Birdy came through the window and was safely on the floor, Tiffin slumped back into her couch and sighed, setting the controller aside.

  "Now what?" she asked Squeakers. "What about Hyde? He's still out there and he's looking for Jake."

  Squeakers was lying quietly against one of the couch pillows. All the cheese and bread that was Tiffin's lunch was gone.

  Tiffin slowly nodded. "I can stop him." She looked at Squeakers. "Hyde, I mean. The checkered hats."

  Squeakers continued napping.

  "Of course it's risky," Tiffin said to Squeakers. "But I've got video of him killing the Baron. They'll have to take him in for that."

  She stared at the open window for several seconds. "If I don't…" She looked at Squeakers. "What kind of a friend would I be to Jake?" Saying she was Jake's friend out loud made her feel different, somehow. She let the feeling linger, though she didn't understand it entirely. She looked at the poster of Erith for a moment.

  "I have to do it," she said loud enough to wake Squeakers from his slumber.

  She got up from the couch and went to her pile of random electronic and mechanical parts. She rummaged through them until she found what she was looking for.

  "Here it is," she said, holding up a slightly damaged comm device. The bottom of it was cracked with a piece of the casing missing. A couple of wires were hanging out of it. It had the emblem of the checkered hats on the side.

  She grabbed her small tool pouch and began opening the comm device.

  "I can get this working and use it to feed the video from Birdy directly to the checkered hats." She smiled as she glanced at Squeakers who was back at his carpet roll, tucked halfway inside. "They'll have this out to all of their men in Eon."

  She focused in on the parts of the comm device checking what needed repair.

  "Jake won't have to worry about him," she said to herself as she worked.

  CHAPTER 20

  J ake walked for a few blocks to make sure he wasn't likely to be spotted by any of the Baron's men. He knew mixing into the crowds on the main streets would give him cover. The illuminated signs on the buildings and the shuffle of countless lives drew attention everywhere but to himself which was a good thing, he thought.

  The streets were as busy as always—in stark contrast to the alleys lurking behind. It was noisy, but that added to his sense that he'd go unnoticed. He watched the people going about their business. They didn't seem as shady as they had before, when he first arrived on this visit to Eon. Compared to the shadow world behind these buildings, these are the decent people, he thought.

  Even if some of them smell funny.

  His leg bothered him as he walked, but only because he didn't know what else to focus on. The blast wound wasn't too bad, but without the quick healing technology of his ship's med bay it'd take days to heal. That realization annoyed him more than anything. He'd forgotten about the shot which grazed his arm.

  He walked for a little while, but didn't know where he was going. He didn't have a plan anymore. He thought about finding Hyde and killing him, but, despite how deep the bad blood between the two of them ran, he just wasn't feeling the idea of tracking him down.

  Should've taken the shot when I had the chance.

  Then it dawned on him—he might've gotten the license from the Baron after all if he'd stopped Hyde from killing him.

  "Well, shit."

  He leaned left, then right, moving past several people walking down the street in the opposite direction. People was a loose term still in Eon. Some of the passers-by were green, some a dirty yellow. Some of them had eyes on the side of their heads.

  How the hell do they see where they're going?

  Jake cut through the stream of them and stepped to the side of one of the buildings. He leaned against it and took in the sight of the strange creatures, citizens of Eon, or at least travelers just passing through, he thought.

  Never seen so many colors of ugly.

  He didn't mean it in a hateful way. He wasn't even turned off by the fact. But, from his perspective, they were ugly and that somehow entertained him.

  After several minutes of watching the crowds he realized what he liked about seeing all the different creatures was it made him feel at home.

  That thought soaked in strong for a few seconds. Then it soured in him.

  "What am I doing here?"

  He thought about Sarah, and how she was home to him, or at least what they had was as close to home as either of them would ever get to have.

  How's she gonna take it? No license.

  In his head, he ran through the events since he arrived, questioning how things could've worked out differently. His stomach felt sick as he recalled how the children were almost killed in a raid he willingly took part in. He decided it was time to leave Eon.

  He pulled his comm device from his belt and called Sarah.

  "Who is it?" Sarah said.

  "What do you mean, who is it?" Jake sounded frustrated. He checked himself.

  Score one for Sarah.

  "Oh, is this Jake?"

  "You're funny."

  "Yeah, well. You about done?"

  Jake paused, searching for the right words. "I'm ready to leave."

  "Good. Get your butt over here and let's blow this joint."

  Jake grinned. "OK. Hang in there. I'll be there as soon as I can."

  He couldn't bring himself to tell her he couldn't get the license. He didn't want her to know she'd sat in lockup all this time for nothing, but mostly he didn't want her to know he failed.

  "Soon as you can."

  "Yeah. I'm not sure how far I am. I'm walking, so it may take a little while."

  "Did you get lost?"

  Jake thought about how right her question was. "Seems like I've been lost since I got here. Eon has changed."

  "Or maybe you have," Sarah said.

  Not sure I have.

  "I'm on my way," he said.

  "Great. Oh, great job on getting the license."

  Her kind words made Jake feel like shit.

  "On my way."

  He cut the comm link before he had to say anything else.

  CHAPTER 21

  T iffin awoke to banging at her door.

  "Huh?" She lifted her head from the arm of the couch and shuffled her legs, knocking a few spare electronics parts onto the floor.

  Someone banged on the door again. It took her a second to come to her senses, then she swung her feet around and got up. She staggered for a second, forgetting she had only one boot on.

  "Tiffin!"

  She recognized her neighbor's voice. He never came to her door. That was the unspoken agreement among the four people living on her floor, including herself.

  Not good, she thought as she rushed to the door.

  "What is it?" she said before she reached for the handle.

  "You gotta leave! We all gotta get out of here!"

  Tiffin opened the door and saw her neighbor, a scrawny man, twice her age. He wore oversized black boots, which he'd gotten from a dumpster. They were loose at the top, leaving a gap between them and his brown pants.

  He looked panicked. "Checkereds! They're on their way up."

  Tiffin stepped outside her apartment and glanced at the stairwell door.

  "Are you sure?" she asked.

  "Saw them out my window. Must've been twenty of them."

  "Why would they come up here?"

  Her neighbor said something but she didn't hear him. She realized the checkered hats must've pinpointed the location of her message to them.

  "Oh, no!" she said. "We've got to get out of here."

  "That's what I've been telling you
," her neighbor said.

  She nodded to him. "Thanks."

  "Yes, of course. You can make it? I'm gonna try the fire escape. I think I can get down without them seeing me."

  "It's twenty-six floors," Tiffin said. "Are you sure?"

  "Only chance we've got. You coming?"

  Tiffin thought for a second about climbing down the metal stairs outside her neighbor’s window.

  "You go ahead. I've got to get Squeakers and grab a bag. Don't wait on me. I have a way."

  "A way? What do you mean?"

  "Just go," she said. "I'll make it."

  He looked at her, but didn't argue.

  "If I don't see you again," she said. "You were a good neighbor."

  He smiled. "You too, Tiffin. Take care of yourself."

  "Yeah. You too."

  He nodded, then ran down the hall toward his apartment.

  Tiffin rushed back inside her own apartment and looked around for Squeakers. She spotted him walking along the wall beside her bathroom door.

  "There you are," she said. "We've got to get out of here. Pack what you can. I'm not sure we're coming back."

  She locked the door to her apartment.

  She turned and scanned the room, looking at the pile of electronic parts and her backpack on the floor. After a couple of seconds, she grabbed her backpack. She picked up her drone controller for Birdy and clamped it onto one of the straps on the side of her backpack, so it dangled there but not too loosely.

  She looked around the room at her poster and her couch and the projects on the floor. She knew she had to abandon those things. So many checkered hats coming up meant they weren't on their way to ask her questions. She knew how things went down.

  "Oh, this is not good." She darted to the couch and hunted around it for her small tool pouch and her stinger. She found them and stuck them into her backpack, then put it on.

  "Squeakers?" She glanced around until she spotted him. "It's time to go."

  The mouse made a noise. Tiffin pulled out a piece of cheese from her pocket and knelt to give it to him. Squeakers took it and she picked him up, putting him in the cargo pocket of her vest where there was more cheese. She closed the flap on the pocket and snapped the button.