Protector (The Vigilante Chronicles Book 7)

by Natalie Grey

  I hate this kind of person, Barnabas told Shinigami wearily. If they suffer, everyone else has to as well.

  To Grisor, he said, “I don’t know. I’m willing to see you hang for it. Seems like you want this more than I do.”

  “You hate letting people get away!” Grisor was defiant. “I know you do, don’t pretend. And I don’t want much. I’ll tell you everything—as long as you don’t let them give me the death penalty.”

  Barnabas stared at him for a long moment. There was no resolve left in Grisor, no principle or even the memory of it. He was all desperation, and he was going to tell the truth.

  “All right,” Barnabas agreed easily. “Where’s Qarwit?”

  “You won’t let them give me the death penalty?”

  “I won’t let them give you the death penalty.”

  Grisor sagged with relief. Barnabas thought that if he were human, he might have wet himself. “Thank all the gods. Qarwit is on a ship shuttling between two moons.” He turned and projected the coordinates on the wall. “There’s extensive interference from the sun and the nebula, so it’s almost impossible to find, and the ship is stocked for years. He’ll be able to hide out until long after people have stopped looking for him, and then he’ll have the money to go start a new life.” He sounded resentful.

  “You always knew you might fail,” Barnabas said. He waited.

  “Yes,” Grisor admitted finally.

  “You feel like that money should be yours.”

  “Yes.”

  “Mmm. Well, since I can tell you told me the truth, we’ll go take care of Qarwit. In fact, we’ll do what you want to do to him for failing you. We’ll kill him.”

  Grisor sensed the danger. He looked up.

  “Then we’ll take you back to stand trial,” Barnabas said. “And you’ll take whatever punishment they give you.”

  “You promised me!” Grisor yelled.

  “I don’t make bargains with people like you,” Barnabas told him. He shook his head. “And I will not interfere in the Jotun process of Justice.” He turned to leave, then stopped. “Do you know,” he said conversationally, “it might not be a bad idea to let you live. Let you live with your failure, knowing that the Jotuns didn’t support you after all. That might not be a bad idea at all.”

  He was smiling as he left the brig.

  * * *

  The coordinates Grisor had provided lay not too far from Jotuna, so it was only a matter of hours before the Shinigami reached Qarwit’s ship. In that time, Barnabas ate, showered, and changed his clothes. Then he changed his clothes again.

  Then he changed into a loose-fitting black outfit and did every martial arts form he knew. When he was finished, he showered again and re-dressed himself in a brown suit that complimented his coloring. He was fastidious about the fit, the lay of his shirt, and the part in his hair.

  Shinigami, meanwhile, sent word that the Jotun Navy and Senate had put aside their differences long enough to seize every known member of the Committee, freeze their assets, and lock down their properties, guards and all. All technology found was confirmed to have been destroyed at once.

  None of it calmed him.

  He found himself wishing he had someone to talk to, but when he thought about just who he wished were there, any shred of calm evaporated.

  So he paced.

  Finally, there was a knock at his door, and it slid open to reveal Shinigami. She was wearing a positively restrained outfit of jeans and a black blouse.

  “We’re coming up on his ship,” she told him gravely. “I thought you might like company for your walk to the bridge.”

  “Am I being as obvious as that?” Barnabas joked. He grabbed his suit jacket and put it on as he accompanied her out. “Thank you,” he added, a few moments later.

  “Anytime.” She looked at him curiously. “Why are you so nervous about this one? This will tie it all up in a neat bow.”

  Barnabas only nodded.

  Shinigami looked annoyed for a moment, but then her face cleared. “Do you…do you not know why you’re anxious?”

  Barnabas gave her a quiet nod.

  “Man, humans are weird.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  Shinigami laughed then. “Well, whatever’s going on in your head, boss-man, I’m glad to have run this mission with you. I don’t think anyone else could have tracked them down quite like you did.”

  The doors to the bridge slid open, and Barnabas came in to find Tafa and Gar already in their seats. They nodded to him.

  “You look nice,” Tafa told him.

  “Thank you.” Barnabas sat in the captain’s chair. “What am I—ah, I see it, now.” In the static, he was able to see the faint image of a ship.

  “Yes,” Shinigami said, taking her place. “Even our scanners have trouble with it, but not so much that we can’t shoot them down—if that’s still the plan.”

  “It’s still the plan.” Barnabas wrapped his fingers around the arms of his chair and considered. “I’d like to do it.”

  Shinigami blinked in surprised but she nodded, and a moment later, a control panel rose out of the floor.

  “Press the button when you’re ready,” she instructed. “We’re already locked on to its trajectory. We can barely see it…and it shouldn’t be able to see us at all.”

  Barnabas lifted his hand and paused. Part of him thought he should bring Qarwit back to stand trial, but part of him recognized just how dangerous the Jotun male was. Outmaneuvered, lacking critical resources, he had nonetheless stepped out of the shadows and confidently ordered an entire fleet to go take over the Brakalon homeworld. When opportunity came for him, he had not wavered.

  Instead, he had ordered death, destruction, and slavery—and now he had the remaining prototypes with him on that ship. Barnabas had no doubt about that, while Grisor argued and pleaded for his life, betraying himself and his cause, Qarwit would play the reformed senator and escape to try the same thing over again.

  His eyes locked on the ship. Sometimes you had to go with your instincts.

  His hand came down on the button and a missile raced away. A few moments later, the ship in its sea of static spun out of control and disintegrated.

  There was no warning. Qarwit didn’t deserve one.

  Epilogue

  “I wish you hadn’t killed Qarwit,” Admiral Jeqwar stated testily a few days later.

  “Really?” Barnabas asked skeptically.

  She gave him a look. “No,” she admitted finally. “The bastard deserved it. He was a nasty piece of work. The more we dig, the more we find. I’m sure you’ll be unsurprised to learn that. But it does make it difficult to run the trials…and leave you out of them. You said you were going to let this be a Jotun process, if I recall correctly.”

  Vigilantes gotta vigilante, Shinigami commented over the Etheric comm. She flashed Barnabas a smile from her chair on the other side of Jeqwar’s office.

  I cannot begin to think how I’d translate that. Barnabas hid his answering smile. “It was a matter of self-defense. As I said, he did fire on our ship.”

  That was the lie they’d chosen, anyway. Admiral Jeqwar just looked at him wordlessly, and something about her flutters told him that she knew the truth.

  “Also, he had the rest of the prototypes,” Barnabas said. “I wanted them destroyed.”

  At last, Jeqwar seemed to agree. She made a soft sound. “You might have told me that sooner.”

  “We didn’t have any time without listening ears,” Barnabas countered. He hesitated. “I’m willing to let the punishments be determined by the Jotuns. Perhaps I will not agree with them, but there are limits to what I can do as a vigilante. I meant what I said when I argued that it was not my place to determine the course of an entire society, but I was not willing to let that technology exist. It was made to torture and to implant false thoughts. It was evil. As long as I have reason to believe there are those who support the Committee, I could not let those machines exist.” />
  “I understand.” Admiral Jeqwar did not waste time playing devil’s advocate, though he could tell she’d thought about it.

  He appreciated her restraint. Now he stood. “I will leave you to your work, Admiral.”

  “Mmm.” She watched him. “Are you sure you won’t stay to watch the trials?”

  “Quite sure. They would only raise my blood pressure to unhealthy levels.” Barnabas nodded pleasantly. “Admiral. I hope we will meet again under far more pleasant circumstances.”

  “Agreed,” she said at once. She held out a metal hand for him to shake and offered the same to Shinigami. “If you’re ever agreeable to an exchange of technology, we have some upgrades you might like for that cybernetic body.”

  Shinigami looked surprised, and the admiral laughed.

  As they walked out into the Jotun sun, crossing the sandy beach to their landing pad, Shinigami looked at him curiously.

  “I have to ask… You said at the start that maybe this wasn’t a mission for a vigilante, but I can’t imagine you being easy with that.”

  “Neither could I,” Barnabas admitted, “until I realized that it’s not a limitation. It means I get to hightail it out as soon as the fun part is over and the bureaucratic mess begins.”

  Shinigami laughed. They headed up the ramp and she stopped in the hallway, frowning. “So where are we hightailing it to?”

  “Amarell Station.” Barnabas smiled. “I got a message and need to meet up with the person who sent it.”

  “You got a message?” Shinigami stood still as she sorted through her data banks. “What message?”

  “You’re not the only one who can be sneaky, you know,” Barnabas retorted with a grin, then sauntered off without explaining himself.

  Amarell Station wasn’t close, and Shinigami, in an effort to make Barnabas cave and explain himself, took the slowest route she could. It was three days before they reached the station, and he was fairly sure that she guided them into the dock with all the speed of a drunken sloth.

  He didn’t cave. He also expressly forbade any of the crew to follow him off and into the station. He left them huddled in a desperately anxious group and made his way into the bustle of the remote station, whistling as he went.

  Not long after that, he was sitting in a booth at one of the shadier bars, staring dubiously at a mug of beer.

  “It’s legit,” Aliana told him. “I checked.”

  Barnabas took a cautious sip, unsure if she was messing with him, and was pleased to find that the beer was decent.

  Aliana watched him as he drank, smiling slightly, then said, “So, rumor has it you can read minds.”

  Barnabas spat out a mouthful of beer. When he looked up, she was sipping her own beer, one eyebrow raised.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “I…can. If I want to.” At the moment, he was doing his best not to read hers, but she was making him very curious.

  “You probably should.” She looked like she was going to start laughing at any moment. “Otherwise, how will you know why I brought you here?”

  “Oh, I didn’t say I’ve never read your mind,” Barnabas told her blandly. “Your first thoughts upon meeting me were particularly illuminating.”

  She laughed, throwing her head back, her whole body shaking with mirth. “Ah, I’ll bet. I remember one endless string of profanities.”

  “Mmhmm.” Barnabas, absurdly pleased to have made her laugh, took another sip of his beer. “So you’re not going to tell me why we’re here?”

  “Nope.” Aliana shook her head, setting her brown ponytail swinging. She gave him another look as she drained her beer, then leaned forward with a smile. “Last chance.”

  Barnabas gave her a slow smile and was pleased to see her blush. He lifted his shoulders. “What can I say? I like a mystery.”

  “Huh.” From the look on her face, she hadn’t expected that, but she pushed herself up from the table and gave him a mischievous grin. “Until next time, then.”

  “Until next time,” Barnabas agreed. He watched her thread her way between the tables and head out into the station, and he raised his glass to his lips. “Let the games begin.”

  FINIS

  Author Notes - Natalie Grey

  December 16, 2018

  Thank you so much for reading Protector. I can’t tell you how much I’ve loved working on Barnabas’s story. Though he and Shinigami were an amazingly unlikely pair of friends, they gave each other exactly what they needed—for her, a sense of the gravity of her actions, and for him, the ability to trust his own judgement. She helped him unbend, he helped fire up her sense of morality.

  As their ragtag group grows, I’ve enjoyed each new character, world, and storyline. I can’t wait to bring you more of Barnabas’s story!

  I want to send my thanks out to all the usual suspects: my beta reading team, the JIT group, all of LMBPN Publishing, and, of course, Michael. Thank you to T & M, the cutest coworkers (curled up by my feet right now), B & L (who make everything tick), and the numerous friends who put up with me jumping up and leaving the room to write down story ideas.

  If you’re looking for more to read before the next Barnabas stories come out, I encourage you to check out The Dragon Corps or Bound Sorcery, and definitely check out the new LitRPG series Michael and I are collaborating on!

  -Nat

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  December 16, 2018

  THANK YOU for not only reading this story but these Author Notes as well.

  (I think I’ve been good with always opening with “thank you.” If not, I need to edit the other Author Notes!)

  RANDOM (sometimes) THOUGHTS?

  I’m now fifty-one years old, and yet I can remember the impatience I would have for Christmas to approach.

  Then, it was something different when I went out on my own (as our younger sons are doing now) and then different yet when I had young kids of my own.

  It was at THAT stage of their lives (very young to … now practically) that Christmas became a lot more challenging to enjoy.

  Why? Because I have to admit something which is kinda embarrassing. I SUCK AT BEING SANTA CLAUS.

  there, I said it. I admit it (and I’m not just talking about the fact that I don’t have white hair (and until rather recently) didn’t have the big stomach.

  No, I suck at being Santa Claus because I always wait until the last moment to get gifts. Before the last couple of days, I just don’t want to be bothered with the effort. Then, I rush to the stores to go through the shelves which have already had people who get up early to do Christmas buy everything.

  ENTER GIFT CARDS

  You would think that I could handle the simple five minute effort to get gift cards on time. But, I can flat out screw that up to.

  ENTER GC CARDS THAT EMAIL

  Finally, a product has come to market that I can use. Emailable gift cards. I like giving them, and I am happy receiving them.

  Unfortunately, feeling this way makes me think of myself as a closer cousin of the Grinch than St. Nick.

  I like the decorations, the food, the lights (although going on ‘a family drive’ to see lights bugs me… see, Grinch!)

  I could probably go on and on about Christmas. I would like to blame getting older. But, I think it is really just that I’m too lazy for the season.

  I am going to have to work on my ‘Ho Ho Ho!’ At some point for the grandkids…

  Oh Geez, I hope that isn’t for another decade!

  HOW TO MARKET FOR BOOKS YOU LOVE

  We are able to support our efforts with you reading our books, and we appreciate you doing this!

  If you enjoyed this or ANY book by any author, especially Indie-published, we always appreciate if you make the time to review a book, since it lets other readers who might be on the fence to take a chance on it as well.

  AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

  One of the interesting (at least to me) aspects of my life is the ability to work from anywhere and at any tim
e. In the future, I hope to re-read my own Author Notes and remember my life as a diary entry.

  12/16/2018 at Las Vegas Mccarran Airport - American Express Lounge.

  I’m sitting on a little chair with a footrest, near the front of the lounge (I can see out the front doors to the “techonthego” store across the way.)

  I should be landing in Dallas/Fort Worth right now but our flight was oversold. The lady behind the American Airlines desk placed a call saying she was willing to compensate up to 6 people willing to move to the 1:30 AM flight and they would voucher us $900.00 a ticket.

  I’m not too proud. I can be bought for $900.00 a ticket.

  So, now that I have extra time, I’ve spent the last few hours working on the 6th book in the Soldiers of Fortune and Fame Series. Specially, the book 06 beats. Once I finished those I figured I’d better get the author notes for this book done (they are due tomorrow night.)

  I have a certain feeling I’m going to be wiped out.

  I don’t do too well with flights that early in the morning. Red eye for me means Michael is a cranky person the next day.

  For those who I have meetings with me tomorrow, I’d like to offer my apologies in advance.

  However, $900.00 a ticket was too much of the green stuff, I just couldn’t pass it up.

  FAN PRICING

  If you would like to find out what LMBPN is doing and the books we will be publishing, just sign up at http://lmbpn.com/email/. When you sign up, we notify you of books coming out for the week, any new posts of interest in the books and pop culture arena, and the fan pricing on Saturday.

  Ad Aeternitatem,

  Michael Anderle

  Books by Natalie Grey

  Shadows of Magic

  Bound Sorcery

  Blood Sorcery