by test
“Repeat the last word,” she whispered. Her heart stalled in her chest. She moved her feet further apart, and held her breath as he answered.
“Sammy,” he breathed huskily, edging way too close to her. She snorted.
“Wrong
answer,
ASSHOLE! ” she shouted, feeling strength flow through her. Something gave way inside of her when her heart began beating again. She’d doubted Tyler’s love, and she would be forever sorry for that. “You are so fired! You don’t need to play the part of Tyler Cassidy anymore,” she said in a shockingly calm voice, raising the setting on the phase rifle. She shot a burning hole right through his chest. “Game over!” she stepped over the lifeless android.
Some jerk hadn’t done their research.
The Tyler Android had been placed to purposefully distract her and break her down. But it hadn’t worked. They hadn’t programmed it with one pivotal piece of information. Tyler never called her Sammy, plus they didn’t know about her other talents...talents she had to start using more before her lack of using them got her killed. If she’d kept herself open, she would have known it was a machine before her heart had almost given out.
Something told her to look up, and when she did, she was met with several tiny cameras capturing the whole drama. Intense hatred, the likes of which she had never experienced, and might never experience again, welled in her heart. She was no freaking puppet. She wasn’t a plaything and somebody was going to learn his lesson the hard way.
“Have you seen everything that you want, you son of a bitch?” she screamed, taking out the one camera, and then whirling on the other camera. “You picked the wrong woman to screw with! I’m going to hunt you down. Don’t worry I’m smart enough to know that you aren’t even on this bloody ship. Hell, I’m even smart enough to know that Crenshaw isn’t the one that I want dead. He’s only your patsy. But just you wait, when I find you, your days of making my life, hell will be over. I’m going to give you a taste of your own medicine, Samantha Cassidy style,” she promised, raising her middle finger in a silent salute to the camera. She pulled the phase rifle up with her other hand. “This will be the only pleasure you’ll ever be getting from me! ” she shouted, shooting the camera and falling silent.
Since that unpleasant moment was now over, it was about time that she got her sorry ass off of this ship, and back to where she belonged. Into the arms of the man that she would continue to fight for until her last breath.
* * * *
Samantha raced through the winding corridors, and began to get really pissed off, when she didn’t run into another human being.
“Who the hell is running this bloody ship anyway? Androids?” She snorted, as her mind began jumping to all sorts of possible conclusions. They wouldn’t have been stupid enough to leave the ship, with no pilot or would they be that idiotic?
She picked up her already speedy pace, and half-ass listened to her heavy boots clang along the metal planks that served as the floor. Except for the steady thrumming of the ship, they were the only noise that she could hear. She knew she was on a moving ship but she still hadn’t decided if it was a space ship or a submarine of some sort. Or maybe it was a large hover transport.
She skidded to a halt, and found herself outside of what seemed to be the main bridge.
She pressed the button to open the door and stood gaping in incredulous awe at the view screen in front of her.
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She made a weird noise in the back of her throat as she rushed to the console.
“No! You son of a bitch! You’re not going to get me that easily,” she threatened, trying desperately to reprogram the self-destruct sequence, which was ticking off seconds on the view screen. “Okay, who the hell am I kidding?” she whispered, directing her phase rifle at the control module.
She fired at it blowing it up. Almost immediately it began to sizzle. Smoke filled the air.
Ah, ha. She’d done it. Grinning, she stared in triumph at the view screen. It flashed to a blank screen. And she blew out a long rush of air.
“Phew! ” she breathed, rubbing the droplets of sweat off of her forehead.
Her eyes almost bugged out of her head when a klaxon began ringing. She dropped the phase rifle and tried plugging her ears. Damn it! Where was the freaking klaxon so that she could shut it off? Everyone knew she could hear things no one else was able too, and the loud shrieking noise was enough to drive her up the wall.
She stared back at the view screen when a blinding flash filled the room.
“Oh, crap! Oh double crappers!!! ” she gasped, reaching for her discarded rifle.
Seconds still ticked by on the view screen telling her that she hadn’t been successful in deactivating the self-destruct. Though she had been successful in losing herself twenty minutes.
She now only had FIVE minutes, and it was quickly becoming four.
“Oh, shit! Samantha, when will you ever learn that you are no Einstein?” she chastised, falling into the habit of talking to herself because she was all by herself.
She’d be fine, as long as she didn’t start answering her questions, because then she’d simply have to commit herself to a loony bin.
She sprang toward the door and cursed a blue streak as she found that it had locked securely again.
“No way am I going to die inside of a tin can!”
She at least knew from the set up of the bridge that she was on a submarine. And it wasn’t even that sophisticated since the technology seemed to be at least fifteen years out of date.
So, in essence some cheap skate had bought a second hand submarine and yet they’d been willing to splurge on the most recent Android model, just so they could torture her. This was all freaking unbelievable. She wasn’t going to die!!!
She just had to slow down long enough to think of a way to get her ass off of the bridge and into an escape shuttle. But she knew that was easier said than done. She looked down at the setting on her phase rifle, set it at its highest frequency and placed it in front of the locked door.
She then dove for cover and instinctively placed her hands over her head, as the charge overloaded.
The door blew apart and she jumped up. She ran quickly through it, stopping as she suddenly remembered something. She rushed back onto the bridge and stared at the layout of the entire sub that was displayed on the wall.
“That’s where I want to be!” she muttered, brushing her finger across the tiny icon that signified the shuttle bay.
Now as long as she made one hell of a mad dash, she might be able to make it off of the sub, by the skin of her teeth. She had to get her booty going, or her booty wouldn’t have a body to make beautiful anymore. She might be able to use her abilities to withstand smaller explosions but a ship this size, she didn’t think her telekinetic force field could withstand that sort of pressure.
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She flicked on her jet pack and used the extra momentum to get her there on time. With only minutes to spare, she arrived in the shuttle bay and groaned when she realized all of the escape shuttles had been taken.
Oh, hell! Samantha, what did you expect? Her stomach plummeted down to the floor, and she realized how foolish she had been. Had she really expected cold-blooded murderers to leave her a shuttle, with an invitation on it?
“Get real, Samantha. Wake up and smell the coffee.” She sighed as she felt an intense craving for her favorite drink. Stop! Think, and let your brains get you out of the mess that you’ve created for yourself. She had come too damn far to be blown into tiny little bits and scattered through the Gyniss Ocean.
Her eyes desperately scanned the shuttle bay and a tiny flicker of hope flared in her heart when her eyes rested on the oxygen tank and scuba gear.
“Yeah. Like I can make that work! ” she scoffed rolling her eyes. But she didn’t have any choice. It would have to do.
The suit was made to fit over a person’s clothing. By the
looks of it, it was outfitted for any unforeseen problem. She quickly pulled it up around her average sized frame and then reached for the rest of the equipment. She stared over at the pool, which obviously led out to the Gyniss Ocean, feeling her knees weaken slightly.
She had to shake it off and get a hold of herself! It was the only way out. If she didn’t take it, she’d be a goner. No second chances. No time to take her sweet assed time. It was now or never.
Since she normally jumped in headfirst she took a deep breath, and dived into the pool.
She swam through the tunnel that led out into the ocean and had only gotten a few meters away from the ship when inspiration struck her. She would never make it far enough away from the ship before it blew up and killed her with the massive blast. At least she had possessed enough foresight to have removed her jet pack and slung it on the outside of the scuba gear.
Now she realized there was no certainty it would work beneath salt water but she had faith in Dylan.
When he had designed it he’d promised her it would weather her lifestyle with ease.
Then he’d laughed and joked that it would work even while all hell was breaking loose. Well, all hell was about to let loose and if she wasn’t mistaken, she knew Dylan would’ve been intelligent enough to dream up every possible scenario. Though she teased him a lot, she knew they had one of the, if not the best engineer in the Milky Way.
“Don’t let me down now, Dylan!” she prayed, activating the jet pack and shooting through the water.
The ship blew up and the concussive blast sent her barreling even further. Luckily, she had been far enough away to avoid any hazardous fragments. When she got back to The Excalibur, she was going to give her favorite monkey boy, one big slobbery kiss on the cheek.
She kept swimming away from the wreckage deciding to slowly swim toward the surface.
She didn’t know what the hell she was doing but she was keeping her fingers crossed that everything would turn out the way it was supposed to.
She was going to find the real murderer and tie his balls in a knot. Yes, that would make her feel much, much better. She had swum for only a few more meters when she felt something create a tidal wave sensation through the water. She was nearly to the surface and then she would have her many problems nearly solved.
Her stomach rumbled with hunger. She dreamt of the food that she would eat once she RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 145
got back to civilization. Maybe she would have chicken and veggies, or fish and veggies. She came to an abrupt halt as her eyes got their fill of what was in front of her.
“Oh, HOLY MOBY DICK!!! ” she gasped out, nearly choking on the sudden lump in her throat.
She froze in petrified awe and felt a large breath assault her. If she could smell beneath water she knew that it would stink like shit.
“Now what do I do!” she murmured out loud, as three yellow eyes blared out at her.
She swallowed thickly, feeling clammy all over. Why didn’t I just read that stinking book on Sea Monsters of New Monaco? She had heard that New Monaco had ugly water life but had never in her wildest dreams had she imagined something so hideous.
No dolphins or whales or sharks existed here. No siree Bob! New Monaco only had really big scary looking sea creatures. Yep, this was probably what the Loch Ness Monster had looked like, if indeed it had existed.
“Hello, Nessie!” she muttered, trying to think of a way to escape the monster, just as Nessie opened her cavernous mouth. “Oh, shit! Don’t mistake me for lunch!” she whispered, turning her jet pack on to the highest speed and swimming away from it, as if her ass was on fire.
She was definitely going to have chicken for dinner because at the moment, she really wasn’t in the mood for any type of aquatic creature.
She blasted to the surface and turned around as Nessie rose to the surface behind her.
“Look, I really don’t need this right now!” she muttered, staring at the monster as it blinked its three eyes in unison. She flinched. “Yuck. That is beginning to give me the creeps!”
she said, as if the monster could understand her. Unbelievably, the monster stopped blinking in unison and instead blinked one eye at a time. “Urgh, I’ve got to get out of here. This is some freaky shit!!! ” she tried to discard her scuba gear, while she held onto her jet pack.
She slipped it back beneath her sopping wet leather jacket, and frowned when the sea creature playfully splashed her. Okay, so Nessie wasn’t going to eat her, she was trying to play with her. New Monaco was one screwed up place. She felt like she was in someone’s twisted fairy tale, and she wanted out as soon as was possible!
When she had thought that the creature was going to eat her, it had probably only been yawning. First, there was shrinking men, then a genetically engineered freak, then an android that was programmed to look and act like the love of her life.
Now, she was frigging looking at a monster that wanted to be her friend. She was sick of all of the science fiction crap and she wanted out. Why couldn’t she just have a normal day filled with space pirates, and madmen?
“Nice Nessie,” she murmured cajolingly, wringing out her soggy ponytail.
She activated her jet pack and let out a bellow of delight, as she arced through the air.
The suns were slowly setting. She was going to go back to The Excalibur, take a breather, get some sleep and decide what to do next.
As of now, she had no possible leads on the identity of the murderer. Though she did know a few things. Firstly, they wanted her and her whole family dead. Secondly, they wanted Tyler to take the rap for what they did. Thirdly, they had a lot of cash at their disposal, because they had a freelancer like Fred Crenshaw willing to work for them. And last, but not least, they believed they were going to get off Scot-free.
Well, Samantha Cassidy was on the job, and they were going down, even if she had to boot them in the ass herself.
It was rush hour and she had to maneuver through a lot of traffic to get back to The RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 146
Excalibur. She was certainly glad she’d been called on to do a few hunts on New Monaco in the past, because with her direction problem, she would’ve never been able to make it back to The Excalibur.
She had also studied the route that Devlin had taken and since Crenshaw hadn’t managed to get her very far away from the Caterra Casino, it didn’t take a brain scientist to find her way back. Judging by some of the brain scientist’s that she knew they sometimes weren’t any smarter when it came to directions than she was.
She glanced at some of the flashing bulletins and slowed down her progress to hover in front of a very entertaining news flash.
Some brilliant cameraman or woman had captured part of her fight at the Caterra Casino, and she or he had gotten her at the prime of her ass kicking. She smiled, admiring her finesse and skill.
Damn she was good!
Then the camera footage faded and the news flash, switched quickly to an outside view of the Gyniss Harbor. The announcer was saying they had taken the footage exactly ten minutes after Devlin and she had gone underwater.
Her mouth went dry and her hands nearly shook as she recognized a pristinely white yacht a few feet off in the distance. It wasn’t the same one that she’d known on Notting Prime, though it had been designed and built in its likeness. That yacht was definitely no fairy tale, it was her worst nightmare resurrected.
“Ah, freaking wonderful! Why couldn’t you have just stayed dead, you stupid asshole?”
she muttered, shutting off her hovering capability. She began zigzagging through the thick traffic.
Now she knew who had been behind her kidnapping and who was trying to implicate Tyler. It was none other than the biggest son of a bitch that she had ever had the displeasure of knowing.
Jarrod Rodgers.
When she killed him this time, she was going to make sure she checked for a pulse. She wasn’t going to leave anything to the imagination. Nothing at all!
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She could see the spacecraft docks in the distance and her heart became full as she imagined spending a semi quiet evening mulling over the best way to find and take down Rodgers.
Her heart jumped up into her throat. She approached the docking area. This couldn’t be!
She was dreaming, or hallucinating, or quite possibly she was trapped in her own worst nightmare.
She lowered herself gingerly to the ground and shut her jet pack off, as despair welled inside of her.
“Why can’t you just cut me some slack? ” she yelled up to the heavens shaking her fist all of the while. “Why do I always have to be tested? This isn’t fair. Give me my bloody ship back!!! ” she raged, flinging her hands up in the air.
Her family was gone. The Excalibur was nowhere to be found. It had quite simply vanished. And now she was royally screwed.
* * * *
Samantha plunked her butt down on the cement, and tried to come up with an alternative plan. She knew that The Excalibur had to be around somewhere, but her communication device had been taken by Crenshaw. He’d managed to miss her jet pack but the bastard had somehow RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 147
