Deadly Ghosts, page 10
Lara laughed and then coughed. The pain from doing so causing her to wince and clutch her side. “He’s got you there.”
Uninterested in being mocked at this moment, I turned my attention to Alek. “What the hell was that?”
“It worked out for us,” Alek deflected. “What happened wasn’t a plan like you thought, but I got him to attack us first and it all worked out.”
“I could have used the sedative without the part where we got into a brawl,” Lara noted.
“Or he might have just given us the money if we had made it to the part where we asked for it,” Imogen added.
Alek dropped his head in shame. “It worked out, didn’t it?”
“It did,” I admitted. “But it almost didn’t and… I can’t believe I’m going to say this… your temper got us into a bad situation.”
“Yeah, that’s my job,” Imogen joked, and we all turned to look at her in surprise. “What?”
“That was actually pretty funny,” Lara admitted.
I nodded. “Yeah, I just don’t think of you as the type of person to make those kinds of comments.”
“Before the Inq—” she began but stopped herself midway through the word. “Before… I used to have fun and make jokes.”
“I have a hard time picturing that,” I admitted. “And you,” I said, turning back to Alek. “Do we have to worry about you every time we run into a Kyrog from another clan?”
We left the square and headed back out onto the sidewalk beside a street where every single passing car laid on its horn.
Alek looked over at me, and for the first time since we had taken him on, he was angry. “No,” he said.
“You have to give me more than that,” I said.
“No, you don’t have to worry about me with others of my species,” he said, and though he obviously didn’t want to talk about it, I knew this was something we needed to unpack lest it get us into trouble again.
“Ask him if it was the clan from when he was ambushed,” Ned suggested.
As soon as Ned spoke, I guessed he was probably right. “Were his people the ones who lured your detachment into the trap that left only you alive?”
Alek took a long moment to answer. “Yes, before my people completely decimated theirs because of that event. But, as I told him, I was gone by then.”
“So, when you saw him and he mentioned your tribe, you saw red?” Lara asked.
“Unfortunately,” he said quietly under the sounds of the road beside us. “But it won’t happen again.”
Ned suggested for me to say, “See that it doesn’t.”
“I know it won’t,” I told Alek, and I meant it, seeing the guilt and shame on his face.
“Hank,” Ned whispered. “You are going to have to keep these people in line. Alek was the one consistently levelheaded member of your team, and even he compromised the mission by acting irrationally. It might’ve worked out this time, but it could’ve gone a different way.”
He was right, but it wasn’t my style to admonish people. Lutch had heeled me a few times like any parent, but his style had always been to have me punish myself psychologically after he would tell me how disappointed he was in whatever mistake I had made. Without realizing it, I supposed that I had internalized that.
Plus, Alek didn’t seem like he needed to hear it from me. He was having his own complicated reaction to what he had done, and me busting his chops wasn’t going to do anything. When all was said and done, we had done exactly what we had set out to do.
It wasn’t long before we were back in the enclave and the two guards were waving us all in. I expected them to give us a hard time about bringing two non-hunters with us, but they didn’t seem to care. We passed through the little garden and into the building with computer kiosks and shops.
The woman behind the shop counter took one look at us and said, “Through there, through there.”
She pointed to the back of the room, and we made our way across. I looked out for the other hunter we had met earlier, but he was nowhere to be seen, and his stuff was gone.
We continued through to the far side of the room where there was a double door leading out to an open-air room with a small prisoner transfer starship and two more Conclave guards. They looked up from the newspapers and jumped to attention.
“Delivery,” I announced.
“Bounty number…” Lara said, and as she recited it, I realized that I should start getting better at remembering things like that.
One of the two men in their decorative armor punched the information into a nearby computer and nodded. He rushed over to scan the sleeping Kyrog. The other hurried over to ready the ship, activating the engines on the small rectangular vessel and lowering the cargo bridge, which led right up into a detainment area.
“Bounty confirmed, and your Falconer has been paid,” the man said from within his helmet. “Minus the cost of transport.”
“Thank you,” I said. “We also need to withdraw fifty thousand from the bounty.”
The man nodded and pecked at his keyboard. “Just head inside and you can get your money.”
“Thank you,” I said again, turning to head inside while Alek headed up the gangplank to drop off our bounty.
“Oh, and,” the man said, holding up a hand, “it’s a pleasure to meet you, Hunter Vex.”
“I’m sure it is for you,” Lara said with only a hint of gratitude, playing the role of Kilara Vex to a T.
“I remember reading about the bounty you collected on Ani-Rose 8.3 and couldn’t believe it,” he said enthusiastically, and it was amusing to see someone in the ornate armor of the Conclave gushing like a child meeting their sports hero.
“Yes, I’ve had an illustrious career,” Lara said, playing the part of a universe-famous bounty hunter perfectly. “Perhaps one day you will find someone to sponsor your bid and become a bounty hunter yourself.”
“Oh, yes, thank you,” the man said, and before another word left his mouth, Lara cut him off.
“That’ll be all,” she said, and he nodded. He then rushed up into the ship after Alek.
Imogen smiled at Lara. “I didn’t realize you were so famous, too.”
“Yes,” she said, turning to follow me inside. “And not just for being rich and drunk.”
“Right,” Imogen said miserably.
“No,” Lara amended. “Sorry, that was unnecessary.”
“It was,” Imogen agreed. “But it was also true. I was famous on Emortium for being young and hot, and you’ve earned a reputation through action.”
“Stick with us, and you will too,” Lara said, trying her best to be kind though she was obviously still struggling with anything to do with the young woman.
“I would like that,” Imogen admitted. “It would be nice to be known for something positive rather than as a spoiled rich kid or Inquisitorial Acolyte.”
I smiled at her. “If this meeting goes well and your uncle Vince is able to convince the Consortium to listen to us, you will have played a role in saving the universe.”
The young woman beamed but didn’t say anything, and I realized it was one of the few times I had seen her smile.
“We’re here to collect the money,” I said as we stepped up to the little shop in the corner.
“I got your request right here,” the woman said enthusiastically in an accent that was decidedly not Threen. “It’ll take me a minute to count out the money, but while you’re waiting, you can look at my other wares. I have everything a bounty hunter on the road could need.”
“I’ll take another set of injectors,” Lara said, “and some Hospigel if you have it.”
“’Course we do,” the woman said with a smile, setting down the money she had been counting and reaching under her desk for the supplies. “Want me to take it out of the fifty thousand or charge your account, sweetie?”
“My account,” Lara groaned, opening the gel tubes and immediately beginning to apply it to some of her wounds. “I have a hard time picturing any bounty hunter wanting to be called sweetie.”
“You’d be surprised, hon,” the woman said, laying it on thick.
“And you,” she said, glancing over at me. “You are just one tall drink of water, and I certainly hope you’re allowing one of these ladies to have a sip.”
Lara looked up at her, my friend’s mouth a perfect circle, and Imogen whispered something inaudible before turning away to snicker.
“I’ll take that compliment,” I said with a smile and then ran my hand through my hair in the way I had seen handsome celebrities do.
The woman behind the counter squealed with delight, kicking her little legs against the desk and rattling all of the weapons sitting on top. She was perfectly incongruous with the place she worked, and I found that totally amusing.
“Here’s your money,” she said, handing forward a stack of bills.
“Interestingly,” Ned said, “paper money had entirely gone extinct by the time of the War. Not surprised to see that we’ve gone back to it given the fact that everything seems to have gone backward since then. But it’s utterly perplexing to me that a society would use physical currency when digital is so much easier.”
Sometimes I wanted to tell Ned that I preferred when he was constantly nervous about getting caught and didn’t talk unless he absolutely had to, but I also knew that many of the things that he taught me did eventually come in handy, even if they didn’t seem like they were going to at the time he told me.
“Thank you,” I said to the woman, reaching out and grabbing the bills just before she placed her hand on top of mine.
“The pleasure was all mine,” she said and then winked at me.
“Amazing,” Imogen muttered under her breath, and Lara simply continued to stare at the situation unfolding in front of us.
Pulling my hand and the money away, I didn’t know what to say so I didn’t say anything, and Alek walked into the room slowly, rubbing his wounds and drawing everyone’s attention.
“I’d like to take you up on that offer to go back to the ship now,” he announced, and Lara didn’t have time to say anything. He added, “and you should come with me. Need someone to play Warhero against, and that’s gotta be you.”
Lara looked at me as though I was going to insist that she join us, but I disappointed her. “Best thing you can do now is get healed up and be ready for whatever comes next.”
Having made the point twice now, I could see she understood that I wasn’t going to budge, and she nodded. “I wanted to play some cards anyway.”
I looked down at Imogen, “Let’s go convince your uncle to save the universe.”
11
After parting ways with the other two, Imogen and I headed straight back to the bar in the crack across from the stadium where Brody excitedly took the debt and smiled his toothy smile. As soon as he had laboriously counted every single bill to ensure that nothing was out of place, he set two tickets on his crumbling bar and slid them to us, kicking up a small plume of dust when he did so.
“If these are fake, I’ll come back here and put a bullet between your eyes,” I said, and I meant it. I didn’t want to be jerked around, and when we had approached the bar, the crowds were already there, and the line to get in even longer than it had been previously.
“No problem,” Brody said. “They’re legit.”
I took the tickets and shoved them in my jacket pocket, thanking Brody and then turning to leave.
“Tell your friends about this place,” the bartender shouted after us.
On the other side of the crack, the space was a thick soup of life. Tourists and locals pressed against each other as they surged in every direction around the stadium. Even more shops, booths, vendors, and cook stations had been set up, and even more creatures were swooping down, slithering in, or sneaking around to try to nab crumbs.
I felt Imogen’s hand clutching the back of my jacket when I began to push through the crowd in the direction of the stadium. It wasn’t far, but it was slow going, and it wasn’t long before a strange old man fell in behind us.
We both took note of him, but when he muttered something and reached out to stroke Imogen’s hair, she spun around and grabbed his wrist. “Absolutely not.”
His eyes went wide in surprise, and he said something so heavily accented that I couldn’t understand it. He pulled his arm away and disappeared back into the crowd.
“I hate it here so much,” Imogen seethed. “I don’t know how Uncle Vince lives here.”
“I’m pretty sure his version of Parm is pretty different from where we are right now,” I reminded her. “I don’t need to tell you that the rich live entirely different lives from the poor even in the same place.”
“You’re right,” Imogen said. “I’ve seen both sides now. Seems like every place in the universe has two versions of itself: one for the wealthy elite and another for everyone else.”
Ned scoffed. “She means us when she says ‘everyone else.’” I couldn’t do anything but nod in agreement. I had been everyone else for my whole life, and even though I had made some money as a bounty hunter and was beginning to build a little following, I knew I would never be the type of person who lived at the top of the tower looking down on the rest of the planet.
It was an interesting notion that an artificial intelligence thought of himself as being lumped in with the impoverished masses, but in this case, when all was said and done, Ned saw himself as, and was, a soldier. A grunt who had been promoted because he had been paired with one of the greatest captains in the universe, but he still saw himself as a simple soldier at the end of the day.
“You ever miss it?” I asked.
“Yes,” she answered plainly. “I miss it right now. I would much prefer it if we could have taken a private shuttle to the landing pad on top of the stadium and walked directly to my uncle’s box.”
“I’ll admit that sounds pretty good.”
“It has its problems too, don’t get me wrong, but certain parts of your life are made a lot easier,” she explained as we made our way just beneath the stadium and to the line that stretched around the side. It was cordoned off with what looked like bailing twine tied between links of wrought iron dropped into cracks between the shattered tiles.
We followed around until we reached the back and began waiting. It was moving slowly, but at least it was moving. Between all the horns from the nearby roads, and the shouting offers, I felt like I needed to yell just to be heard over the din.
“I think the truth of the matter is, life is easy or hard based on the people around you more than the circumstances of your life. Don’t get me wrong, things seem a hell of a lot easier if you have money, but all that wealth didn’t stop your parents from being assholes, and all my poverty didn’t prevent my father from being kind.”
“They really are,” she said, pulling at the sleeve of her faux military jacket. “Assholes, I mean.”
“I knew what you meant,” I said. “And sorry if I put it too bluntly.”
“They sent me to the Inquisition because they were worried my actions might damage their reputation,” she said and sighed. “You can call them whatever you want.”
“Fair enough.”
“What was he like?” she asked. “Your father.”
“Well, I don’t know my birth parents, but Lutch was a kind and generous man who struggled with an internal conflict I’ll never understand,” I told her, fondly remembering an afternoon just prior to his death when he asked me to toss him a bolt and we ended up spending the rest of the day chucking nuts and washers at each other. I managed to plunk him from almost the entire opposite side of the shop.
“Another fascinating dichotomy,” Ned said. “Humans put so much value on blood relations, but it was an unrelated man who took you in and called you family while Imogen’s own flesh and blood sold her out.”
“What kind of an internal conflict?” Imogen asked.
“Gambling,” I said flatly.
She gave a quick little nod. “For my parents, it was the drink. Think that’s why I enjoyed it so much, and also why I’ve all but given up on it.”
“After this morning, I might stick to Bussel Brews for a while,” I said and then wondered if they would sell them inside before deciding that they almost certainly wouldn’t.
“Your father was a Kyrog, right?” she asked. “He ever go off on someone from another clan?”
“Almost, but nothing like we saw today.”
“It was a real surprise,” she said. “Seeing Alek act that way.”
I nodded and then she continued. “I guess we never really know what’s going on inside a person. And honestly, it was nice to see that he has the fire within him also. The one thing I can say for all of us is that we certainly have passion.”
“Well, we all have something we believe in.”
“The Inquisitor had something he believed in too and was also deeply passionate. But it was ugly, disturbed, and perverse… it’s an honor for me to be around people trying to do something good.”
She locked eyes with me. “Thank you for letting me be a part of this.”
“We are happy to have you,” I told her honestly. “Especially if you can convince your uncle to help us.”
“I believe he will.”
“Anything I need to know about him before we meet?” I asked and saw that we had made it nearly to the front of the line.
“I’m sure you got a sense of him even in the short video call,” she said. “He’s a tough man with a tough job and doesn’t tolerate people wasting his time. I want to get right down to business, and you’ll have to present your case as quickly as possible.”
“I have a disk with all the relevant information,” I told her.
She shook her head. “He’ll take it. Maybe he’ll have one of his assistants look at it, but you need to sell him on it. Politicians get pitched all the time and have to say no all the time. And looking around, I’m sure you can imagine he gets it worse than most.”
“I see,” I said, realizing that I was going to have to play this just right. “And you expect he will want something in return even if he is willing to help?”
