The Complete Razia Series, page 50
"Um…he's my…" she thought for a moment, wondering how to define him before realizing that was just stupid. "He's whatever. I just don't want to go. Period." She paused for effect. "I don't wear dresses."
"But I would love to see you in a dress," Relleck said, pulling her into his arms and she gagged at the smell of him. "Actually, I'd love to see you in nothing—" And he was kissing her again, passionately, and in such a way that made her breathless and wonder if she should let him onto her ship. But she couldn't relax; it still felt weird when he tried to be affectionate towards her. Especially now, when all she could think about were the frilly dresses at the balls her mother used to throw.
She roughly pushed him away. "I can't do this right now."
"You never can do this any time," Relleck huffed. "What are you even doing?"
"I'm working," Razia said evasively. Relleck had been tangentially involved with the Pymus fiasco and her bounty, and she wasn't eager to discuss the subject in depth.
Relleck was too self-absorbed to notice her worry, as he whined loudly, "So you would rather work than spend time with me?"
Razia pursed her lips and stuck her hand on her hip. "You sound like a girl."
"Well, one of us should, I guess," he muttered. Razia wondered why that hurt a little bit. Maybe Lizbeth had rubbed off on her. "Can you at least tell me where in Leveman's you've been over the past month?"
She cocked her head to the side. "Was out of the area taking care of business."
"What kind of—"
"Why do you want to know?" She finally stepped back from him and narrowed her eyes.
"Because…" he trailed off, and she filled in her own blanks.
"Exactly," she said, pushing him off of her.
"I'm trying, Razia," he said, pulling her back in, "but you're making it so damn difficult to figure you out." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and she didn't like the intimate touch. "What are you so afraid of?"
She stepped back from him. "I'm not afraid of anything."
"Clearly." He rolled his eyes and let her go. "Look, if you want to go to the party with me, hit me up."
Razia watched him leave the alley. She was perplexed and confused, as she usually was when they parted. He was as much a stranger now as before they'd added the physical aspect to things.
But Relleck was a conundrum for another day. She had work to do and pirates to impress.
Without another word, she turned around and began walking towards her first quarry.
CHAPTER TWO
Gunnar Bodhi was an easy capture. She stalked the tenth most wanted pirate for only two days before he made a mistake, drinking too much and then leaving with a girl instead of his burly body men. Razia brought him to the bounty office before he even knew what hit him. She made sure that everyone else in line at the bounty office knew that she had a top-ten bounty.
But predictably, when faced with actual proof of her abilities as a bounty hunter, they opted to just ignore her.
The moment she left the bounty office, she was already on the heels of her next target, Jarvis Loeb. He was the ninth most wanted pirate and the difference between him and Bodhi was night and day.
After the first week, she knew everything there was to know about this pirate. He'd been in Protestor's web for fifteen years and was primarily interested in hijacking ships, though he'd dabbled a bit in bounty hunting. What made him such a different sort of pirate is that he was a teetotaler and went to Temple (where the faithful worshipped the Great Creator at Leveman's Vortex) at least once a week if not more.
Razia knew there was one small house of worship on D-882, but after spending a week trailing Loeb, she was now more acquainted with it than the Temple at the Manor where she grew up.
She snorted; not as if she'd spent much time there either.
She sighed and checked the time on her mini-computer. It had been an hour since he'd gone inside for services, so he would be coming out any time now.
She sat back and took in the sight of the small Temple, crammed between a bar and a cathouse. It was barely recognizable as a house of worship, with a nondescript door and a hanging light out front. Only the small etching of Leveman's Vortex distinguished it from the rest of the buildings.
She'd been there once before, when Vel was still her intern. He hadn't believed her when she told him there was one on the planet, so she'd brought him there to prove it. It still amazed her that Vel adhered to the whole "organized religion" thing, especially since they'd come face to face with the real deal. He'd explained once that he found comfort in the predictability of the religion. Thanks to her childhood priest constantly informing her she was a bad soul, she'd never found comfort in anything related to Temple.
She did miss Vel's presence, especially now that he was out of range for the next three months. She wondered how he was doing alone on that planet by himself. He seemed awfully needy of human contact, after all. Being alone for that long might kill him.
Without another thought, she fired off a quick message to Lizbeth, wondering what the investigator was doing. A few moments passed with no response. Razia sighed and kicked the ground absent-mindedly.
She looked at her mini-computer and considered messaging Relleck, but then he might expect more than just kissing. And as much as the idea of that excited her, at the same time, it was a bit nauseating.
He'd asked her out to the Pirate Ball of all things. Razia heard more about it from Harms when she'd stopped in a few days ago, but it still didn't sound like anything Razia wanted to do. She recalled with vivid and disgusting clarity how the pirates stared at her mini-skirt during her ill-fated infiltration of their secret meeting. They would just love an excuse to leer at her again.
Then again, she'd also taken to wearing a little eyeliner. And the idea of a dress, of looking pretty and feeling as good as when Lizbeth put makeup on her, was kind of tempting. It wasn't an everyday thing, of course (she scoffed at the idea), but once in a while, to be the pretty girl…
She tamped down that idea quickly, refocusing her rambling thoughts back to the problem at hand. She could be pretty and girly, or as much as she could stomach, when someone put a bounty on her head. Until then, she needed to keep her nose to the grindstone.
As if proving her point, the doors to the temple opened finally and a few patrons came pouring out, Loeb and his two giant guards included.
She scowled and slunk back into the alley. So much for that plan.
***
Another two days passed, and Razia was starting to get pissed off. She'd never had this much trouble cornering a bounty. She actually went inside for a Temple sermon, just to see if there was a chance she could get Loeb alone, but his bodyguards sat nearby, and all she got was a reminder about how the Great Creator was keen on damning wayward souls to Plethegon.
She walked out into the late afternoon sun and let the memories of childhood settle on top of her before considering her next move. She was so lost in thought that she walked right by the U-POL officer whose uniform was flecked with gold.
"Hands up, pirate."
She stopped mid-stride and groaned. The officer, Opli, was one of the Universal Police's Special Forces, the elite group charged with eradicating piracy and led by none other than Lyssa's own brother Jukin. Thanks to Dissident and the other runners, all the Special Forces were allowed to do was march around D-882 and check identification.
"Oh, come on, junior, you know this is futile," she scoffed.
"ID, please," Opli said with the ferocity of someone who could actually arrest her. She rolled her eyes and made a big show of comparing her two IDs. Having multiple aliases was expressly illegal per the UBU, and also one of the main ways pirates stayed hidden from bounty hunters. Though Opli had no idea that her other ID said Lyssandra Peate, she could still flaunt her disrespect for his rules in his face.
"Just want to make sure I'm giving you the right one," she said, eyeing the two side-by-side, making sure to hide the name on her Lyssa Peate ID. "Here you go, champ."
Opli snatched her card away and swiped it in his handheld reader. She added an extra layer of obnoxious indignation as she waited. She knew he knew who she (Razia) was. He'd been there when she and Lizbeth prevented the assassination. He'd been there with General State let them both out, overriding Jukin and Opli's protests.
Razia cocked her head to the side and wondered if Opli knew about just how far his idol had attempted to go. Jukin, the self-proclaimed bastion of moral superiority, was not only complicit in the assassination attempt, but also planned to blame pirates for it. When the plot was discovered, Jukin was a hair's breadth away from ruined, if not for Razia. For some reason, she'd felt compelled to save his ass.
"What are you looking at?" Opli snarled, almost throwing her C-card back at her.
"Just thinking about how awesome it was to save the UBU a few months ago." His face reddened and she smirked. "Remember when you had to let me out of jail? Bet that absolutely killed you."
"I remember that your little girlfriend was assisting a known pirate," Opli shot back. "And if you aren't careful, I might just take a trip to S-864 and arrest her for violation of the Piracy Act, as she's not covered by your stupid laws."
Razia narrowed her eyes at him and bared her teeth. "Yeah, and if you lay a finger on one of her golden curls, I will end you and your stupid boss. Slowly, painfully, and totally."
Opli snarled back, and for a moment, she wondered which of them would break first. She certainly had nothing else to do than stand there and glare at her mortal enemy, but Opli apparently had other priorities. He stepped back, looking annoyed to have done so, turned on his heel and stormed off.
She watched him go with an empty sort of satisfaction, still picturing his face if she had handed him Lyssa Peate's ID card. She mostly kept the two lives separate because her DSE funds allowed her an untraceable source of income, allowing her to move around without being spotted by other bounty hunters.
That is, if other bounty hunters actually wanted to spot her.
That nasty little thought brought her back down to reality and she grimaced, checking her own bounty again to see if it had changed in the last five minutes.
It hadn't, just as it hadn't in over a year.
She grumbled and stuffed her hands in her pockets, as she ran through a thousand scenarios for how she could entrap Jarvis Loeb.
***
"Another one, darlin'?" The young waitress at Eamon's paused by Razia's table. The other woman's shorts were barely covering her butt, long tan legs filling a pair of sky-high heels that would make even Lizbeth cringe in pain.
"Yeah," Razia grunted, pushing her empty glass towards her.
It had been three weeks, and Razia was as close to capturing Jarvis Loeb as Dissident was to adopting her. Loeb was also apparently in a committed relationship and wasn't prone to spending the night with loose women. So all of the usual methods for capturing a pirate were, in effect, out the window. No matter what creative solution Razia came up with, there seemed to be no way to get past Loeb's mammoth bodyguards.
Razia continued to pursue him out of pure stubbornness. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that she might have been smarter to let this one go and find someone else. But she couldn't, and every day she grew more and more irrationally attached to the idea. The only way she could quiet the grinding thoughts was to drown them in suds.
Besides, Lizbeth was always crowing that Razia worked too hard (which was rich, coming from Miss-I'm-Too-Busy-With-A-Government-Investigation-To-See-You). At least the next time they spoke, Razia could shove it in her face that she took a night off.
Razia had to threaten her way in the back door, as she was still technically banned from when she had discovered the top pirate watering hole was really an elaborate ruse to discover secret aliases for pirates. But Eamon's was still the place to be seen. Glancing around the bar, Razia counted no less than ten of the most well-known pirates—Conboy Conrad and Max Fried, along with Eli Stentson and some others from Dissident's web.
Sliding her mini-computer over to herself, she refreshed the transaction history of the bar, hoping a little game of "who's who" would amuse her and maybe turn up an unknown alias.
Eamon's
Time of Transaction
Account
Amount
UT20015-08—10-90:45
Henry, Samuel
15C
She glanced up at the terminal and spied Arpad Bernal, a member of Contestant's web. But she knew she'd see him there as this alias wasn't hidden.
Eamon's
Time of Transaction
Account
Amount
UT20015-08—10-90:47
Diesel, Ky
15C
She didn't recognize the guy, but saw him walk over to Waslow Needler. That figured, she supposed. While Ky wasn't a top pirate, he was on Needler's crew. And crews always got in on their boss's dime.
Eamon's
Time of Transaction
Account
Amount
UT20015-08—10-90:49
Leon, Jamison
50C
She grimaced and slunk lower in the booth to delay the inevitable. That was Sage's very first alias, which he continued to use even after she'd pointed out how close the last name (Leon) was to his own name (Teon). But if he was there, that meant he brought his crew as well, and so it was only a matter of time before…
"Hey gorgeous!"
The voice belonged to the generally most obnoxious man Razia had ever come into contact with, Ganon, Sage's pilot. His voice echoed across the room as only his could, and he nearly skipped over to her table. She hissed at him to go away, but he ignored her completely and sat down in the booth next to her.
"Drinking alone looks good on no one, babe," Ganon said with a impish wink that enraged her. He stood up in the booth and waved to catch the attention of the rest of the crew. One by one, they appeared at the booth and sat down: Sobal, the young computer hacker, Keal, the mechanic, and the three giant bodyguards, crowding her uncomfortably into the small space of the booth.
Then finally, the last of the motley crew appeared, three pitchers of beer in his hands. Sage's eyes settled on Razia and his face lit up. He was a year or two older than Razia. She'd known for as long as she'd been a pirate and begrudgingly accepted him as helpful at times. He was such an insufferable asshole that whatever positive virtues he had were drowned out.
As to prove his point, he ordered the men in the booth out with a flick of his head, and slid in next to Razia before she could make her escape. The rest of the crew filed back in, effectively trapping her.
"There now, are we all comfortable?" Sage said, sliding the pitchers of beer around. "Enjoy."
"Thanks, boss!" came the chorus of replies as the men went to town on the pitchers. Sage sat back and watched the melee; the pitchers were gone in a matter of moments. Even Razia's beer was refilled, thanks to Ganon.
"Ah," Sage said, leaning back into the booth. "Happy crew, happy boss."
Razia snorted and drank some of her beer. She was a little buzzed, enough to support civilized conversation with Sage and his crew.
"So what did you do?" she asked, licking foam off of her lip.
"Oh, the guys and I just finished a couple million credit job," Sage said as if it were all in a day's work. "Real fine work, gents. Truly a sight to behold."
Razia nodded; that was about as much interest as her current state of inebriation would allow. She zoned out, feigning a nod and a smile when needed, while he described his conquest.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Sage grinned at her.
"Yep," she said. Her beer went from half-filled to full again.
"You've been hanging out on'882 a lot lately."
Her head spun around. "You been watching me?"
"Harms said you've been by a bunch lately," Sage said with a small cough. "You done with that scientist stuff or what?"
She smirked. "Actually, I got someone to cover for me for a while."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, get this," she said with a slight slur, "so, I got an employee now."
"Poor guy." Sage laughed. "Did you leave him on a planet, too?"
"Get sucked. Vel was…eventually fine," Razia hissed at him. Before Vel knew her secret, she "accidentally" forgot him on a planet for a few days.
"And so you've been playing pirate while he's covering for you?"
She scowled. "I am not playing pirate."
"Well, what have you been doing? I haven't seen any news—"
She stiffened and mashed her teeth together. "You wouldn't see any news, would you?" The runners controlled what went into the main pirate news feed, which conquests were featured, which people were captured. None of Razia's activities since the kidnapping fiasco had ever been posted.
"Simmer down, I meant from Harms. You captured Bodhi a few weeks ago? What have you been doing since?"
"Stupid Jarvis Loeb, but he's being a pain in the ass."
"So go after someone else."
"No." She gulped down her beer again. "I want Loeb."
"See, this is what gets you into trouble," Sage said with a shake of his head. "You get obsessed with something and then you don't stop until you get it."
"How is that a bad thing?"
"Because you often make stupid decisions to get there. Then, I have to bail you out."
"Like one time." She dramatically rolled her eyes. "And I've never asked for your help."
"Uh-huh."
"Except that one time when I did, but that's because Lizbeth made me."
"And so you're telling me that you think if I hadn't saved your ass all those times, you would have been able to worm your way out yourself?"
"Uh, yes."
"Right." Sage sat back. "And so you're not going to give up on Loeb, even though he hasn't been caught in nearly ten years and it would take a damned miracle to capture him?"
