Martian Ark
Page 21
“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.
Ready for the next installment?
Link: Martian Insurrection
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