Bounty Hunter 2: Redemption (2 page)

“Shush!”
Cass hissed.

The
words flashed on the screen once more before the “TWO” became a scrambled mess
of jumbled letters. The words faded away and then came again, displaying
Burke’s false identity:

SCANNING.

ONE
HUMANOID LIFEFORM DETECTED.

CONFIRMED
AS JACK PORTER.

PAYMENT
WILL BE WITHDRAWN UPON DOCKING.

“Very
good. You’re getting better at that,” Burke said and grinned.

“The
hardware you bought could falsify the report on its own, but I want to learn in
case we lose it. You never know what might happen after, well,” her voice
trailed off.

She
was talking about his old partner turning on him and he knew it. He gave a
short nod and then got to his feet. They had a few days of down time and he
wanted to get his prisoner set up before they were into the jump.

Pond
was still on the floor and looked like she hadn’t tried to move. There was a
small amount of blood that had congealed around her face but it had stopped
flowing from her broken nose. Her eyes were open and snapped to his the moment
he turned the lights on. She was smiling.

He
opened the cell door and stepped inside. He untied her hands and left the knot
around her feet for her to deal with herself. He locked the door again and went
to leave the room. He only stopped when she started laughing behind him.

“Tough
man thinks that he’s done something, huh? You haven’t done shit.”

“I
know,” Burke said simply.

“Whoever
hired you is fucking stupid. First, for hiring an unknown amateur like you.
Second, for wanting me alive. I’ll be out of prison in a matter of months.
Weeks, even.”

“I
know,” he repeated.

“How
does that make you feel, asshole? What will you do then?”

“I’ll
kill you,” he said, just as plainly.

“You
can’t,” she grinned, showing her teeth. One of them was missing. He had hit her
harder than he thought. “Your bounty says alive, not dead.”

“True,”
he nodded. “But after you get out, my contract will have been expired for,
months? Weeks, even.” He grinned then, showing his teeth. None of his were
missing.

He
didn’t wait for her reaction. He didn’t need to. He turned the lights off again
when he left the room.

* * *

Geoff’s
bar was quiet when Burke arrived. It was located on one of the many space
stations in the most populated system in human territory: Prime. Prime had an
abundance of resources on many habitable planets. Each one of them had at least
one space station, with several others on the outskirts of the system. Foras
was a station among the latter group, and it was there that Geoff ran his bar.

The
local time was early morning as Burke sat and waited. Everything in the station
was always open and staffed. You could never be sure what time people might be
on when they visited. Burke ordered some fresh food—a rarity when he was out on
a contract. Despite the luxury of the meal he had barely touched it. He was out
of his aegis and not on his ship, two things that made him uncomfortable.

“He’s
taking his time,” Cass’s voice came as if she had spoken directly into his ear,
stimulated by a tiny implant in his left cheek. His hand instinctively went to
his augmented leg when he thought of it. The implant had been necessary to properly
bridge the gap between his brain and the artificial nerves of the leg. Cass had
taken the liberty of requesting ability to communicate through it, one that
Burke found acceptable.

“He
likes his sleep,” Burke muttered. “And his drink.”

“We’ll
be here for a few days anyway.”

He
grunted. “Are you still tracking Pond? Keep me updated.”

“For
the third time today, yes,” Cass said sweetly. “Why such an interest?”

“She’s
a mark I would have killed for free before we were stranded. Recovering stolen
goods is something I can charge for. Retrieving a thief, sure. A slaver should
just be put down. We’re so close to being back to the old days that it kills me
to still be desperate for the money.”

Cass
started to speak but Burke’s eyes shot up when Geoff walked into the bar.

“Just
keep an eye on her,” he muttered before he got up and met the old man half way.

They
sat down at the table and Geoff waved over one his servers. He was brought a
bottle of vodka and drank a shot of it straight. Burke watched his frazzled eyes
pop after he grimaced, then settle back into a blurry haze.

“A
little early, isn’t it?”

“Best
cure for a hangover. One shot and you’re good,” Geoff explained.

“That’s
a load of shit.”

“Of
course it is,” he said and laughed. It came out of him in a wheeze, like it was
squeezed out with the air in his lungs.

“How’s
your daughter?”

“Still
not talking to me. How is your wife?”

Cass
burst out laughing in Burke’s ear. He shook his head and smiled.

“Well,
right now she’s laughing. So, happy I guess because of you.”

Geoff
nodded and set the bottle of vodka aside. The server came over with a plate of
hot food without being asked. It was the usual breakfast of eggs and ham that
he always had. He ate quickly while Burke picked at his steak.

“How
was the job?” Geoff asked with his mouth full.

“It
was fine.”

“Ask
him already,” Cass said.

“Anything
I can do for you?” Geoff asked.

“There’s
your opening,” she said.

“No.”

“Just
the tracer, then?” Geoff said.

“Yes.”

“How’s
the ship?”

“Acceptable,”
Burke said. “For now, at least. With the tracer we’ll be bringing in a lot more
money. It won’t be long until we can get a better ship. Can you send it
straight to me when it gets here?”

Geoff
nodded as he chewed his food. Eating was sobering him far better than the vodka
had.

“How
long?” Burke asked.

“Four
days at most. Do you want another job in the meantime?”

“No,”
he answered. “I’ll take the time as a break.”

“Hah,
that’ll be the day. I’ll be lucky if you’ll come back out here. You’re in the
ship too much.”

“He’s
right,” Cass said.

“I’ll
see you, Geoff.”

Burke
paused when he was back on his ship. The doors closed behind him and sealed him
away from the rest of the station. He stood in the cargo hold and closed his
eyes. His right leg felt like it was throbbing, a temporary side-effect of the
transplant. Without an augmentation he thought he would be experiencing phantom
limb pain in those moments.

Instead
the situation was met with a conflict, as if he was rejecting the synthetic
muscle. The leg itself was made out of the same material as his aegis. He no
longer wore that part of the leg’s armor and had it was permanently a part of
him. The leg was bulletproof and felt like steel to the touch. He couldn’t feel
pain from the connected nerves there, just pressure and the presence of
different temperatures. He was told the instances of pain would lessen in time.

When
it subsided, he started walking through the ship. It was still a constant
reminder of his time spent stranded with only Cass, even if they had changed so
much of the inside to suit their needs. The cargo hold had been halved and
filled with the single jail cell. The rest of the lower level had originally
been the crew’s quarters. They had been changed to the armory and supply
storage. The engine was behind them at the rearmost point of the ship.

The
top floor was now only two larger rooms: Burke’s room, the control room, and
the corridor that connected them. He disliked the layout but he had to admit it
met his needs. The rest of the ship was less pleasing. It had no weapons and
was too slow. The only tools he now had at his disposal were ones he added
himself: Cass, the identification blocker and, soon, the identification tracer.

“Cass,
did you copy everything Geoff said?”

“Yes.
He gave you two openings to ask him for help. He has enough money to lend to
you to buy two new ships, never mind one. He’s your friend, Burke. He saved
your life.”

“No.
He did save me, but I won’t ask him. No debt to anyone. That’s one of our
rules. We didn’t buy a single thing until we paid him back for his help. We’ll
get the new ship ourselves.”

Cass
huffed. Burke was always surprised by how human she could be. He continued
talking. “Did you hear what he said about the tracer?”

“Yes.
Do you want to start sorting through the open contracts now?”

Burke
nodded. His leg still ached as he climbed the stairs to the upper floor and
walked to his room. It was barely furnished: a small bed, a computer terminal,
and a space for clothes built into the wall. He walked to the corner farthest
from the door and pulled out a compartment from the wall. He’d had a treadmill
installed when he first got the leg to make sure he was adapting to it enough
to run. Whenever his leg ached he found running could get the pain under
control.

“There
are hundreds of open contracts. Any preference?” Cass spoke a few minutes into
his run.

“The
most expensive.”

“Are
you sure? Shouldn’t we ease back into this?”

“No,”
he said. “No more Eva Pond’s getting away so easily. The most expensive, as
long as the work meets our standards. Nothing questionable. I’ll trust you to
be the judge of that, you’re good at it.”

Burke
was sweating by the time Cass had collated the results. He slowed his run to a
comfortable jog so he could speak without losing his breath. His other leg hurt
now as well but it was a good pain, one he was used to.

“Five
top contracts that meet out criteria,” she began. “Two military contracts.
Three public ones.”

“Give
me those three first.”

“First
up is someone willing to pay an absurd amount of money for rhymaw horns? They
want five of them. What are those?” Cass explained.

“A
large, dangerous, pissed off animal. That would be tough. Do they want the
heads attached as proof?”

“Uh,
let me see. Yes. Yes they do.”

“Then
no. The horns grow back. We don’t have the equipment anyway, but we can
restrain and cut them off. I’m not killing the things for no reason.”

“A
man is looking for his missing wife,” Cass began. “She’s been missing for
several years. This contract has been up for a while now.”

“No,”
Burke wiped sweat from his forehead. “Maybe when things are slow. Too high of a
chance that she just left him and he’s too rich and stubborn to admit it.
What’s the last one?”

“Someone
is looking for a thief here in Prime. The pay is better than the other two. It
says there’s no interest in what was stolen, only catching the person who did
it.”

“Hah,”
Burke shook his head. “Sounds like someone has a lot of pride and even more
money. There are a lot of planets in this system and the ones around it.
Someone would have a lot of hiding places without using a gate. Keep that one
for now. What about the military contracts?”

“A
criminal and a deserter, I—”

“Not
interested in deserters. I don’t agree with them but I understand them. They
don’t deserve the execution they would get. Tell me about the criminal.”

“This
one has a name. Frank Copper. He was last seen the in Stratos system. Wanted
for undisclosed crimes.”

Burke
let out a low growl. “Is he wanted alive or dead?”

“Either,
but preferably alive. They are paying much more for that. You usually don’t
like it when they don’t say why they’re wanted.”

“Yes,”
he said. “But if they want him alive then I’m open to it. That’s the most
promising one, but look into the other thief as well. Will four days be long
enough for you to sort through all the data?”

“Please,”
she said in such a way that if she had a face, Burke knew she would be smiling.
“I’ll have it done in two. There’s something I don’t understand. Why are these
open contracts paying more than the private ones we get?”

He
turned off the treadmill and stepped off it. The back of his shirt clung to him
with sweat and his leg no longer hurt. He stretched while he spoke.

“Some
private ones can be more, but not until we build a name back up. The cheaper ones
usually know the location of their target. They pay less because there’s less
chance involved.

“The
open contracts usually have little information. They’re open because there’s
too many places for one person to look. They rely on people getting lucky and
looking out because the price is so high, or they attract higher caliber
hunters that have better tools to get the job done.”

“Tools
like me?” Cass said proudly.

“Exactly
like you. And the tracer we’ll get in a few days. There’s still a measure of
chance involved. Before I got you, we had our own share of empty attempts. If
the target has access to an identity blocker like we have, then the chances of
finding him are nearly impossible unless he’s reckless. Most often are.”

“Because
you’re never reckless either.”

Burke
laughed and went for a shower. Cass began her search for relevant data. They
had four days of time to kill.

* * *

Frank
Copper’s face was on the screen at the helm. They had undocked the ship from
the station after receiving the tracer and replenishing the ship’s supplies.
Burke was eating his final fresh meal that Geoff had sent him. On the screen, Cass
was cycling through the information she had gathered.

“This
is all I could find,” she said. “There are no reports of him leaving the system
but I still went through all the matches to his facial structure that I could
find since the bounty was posted.”