by RyFT Brand
strong enough to read through walls, and mine was the only body that registered ninety-eight point six degrees.
“Move!” I shouted and drove Geeter back with the revolver. High caliber pellets rained all around us. Geeter kept flinching and covering his head with his knobby hands. I even heard him scream a couple of times. It was like a symphony in the key of Jazz. One of the bvorc’s in the working clothes made a run for the back. I flipped open the zoom-stick and hit him, left handed I might add, square in the back, dropping him with a high voltage tazer charge. When I did Geeter made a grab for my pistol hand, like I’d take an eye off of him. I pulled the trigger and blasted a hole through his hand. He cried out, grabbed his hand, and fell onto his back. And yeah, I was feeling good about my plan right then. I cocked the macdaddy’s hammer, trained the barrel on his left eye, and fished the glow-dart gun from out of his concealed shoulder holster. “A deferred species carrying, Boss?” I gave him three condescending tongue clicks. “I’m going to have to confiscate this…for your own good.”
When the last demon fell, Ship’s bullets cut a high arc across the length of the roll up door. The arch shaped hunk of door fell forward, and, blowing dust around the room, Ship glided in. He settled on the floor behind me. His wing mounted guns were smoking, and the plasma bolts beneath glowed orange with mallow charge.
Geeter’s massive head swiveled side to side as he took in the carnage all around him. Black blood seeped between the fingers that were keeping pressure on his wound. Then he began to cry. “You stinking idiot!”
“What?” I asked, unable to keep my head from sliding back in complete surprise at his superior attitude and utter lack of fear.
He looked up at me from the floor and I had no idea how to read what was on his cratered face—hate, revolution, utter helplessness? “This is madness…look what you’ve done. This was a game was all, play acting. You’ve gone too far.”
“Play acting?” I shouted and let the anger pour though me. “You tortured a flower ward, a sprite blessed by life itself. Do you have any idea what that means? How do you call that play?”
Geeter rubbed a hand down his face, smearing black tears. “This is utopia, paradise for you people,” he said pointing at me.
I laughed, really laughed. “Not for me, monster.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said and sat up. “We’re monsters, and you’re not, you’re so far above us. But look around, look what you done. Remember how I used to have two ears? Geeter pointed at the hideous scar on side of his head. “Yeah, you did that too because you’re not a terrible monster, right?”
“Jazz,” Ship said into my ear. “Someone called the Enforcer Corps. There’s a whole squadron on its way. Your name was mentioned.”
I stared at the little troll, but, no matter how I tried, I couldn’t feel bad for him. Mickey I felt bad for, but I’d been wrong about him. Mickey wasn’t a monster; he was from Earth, just like me. But yeah, just like me, he was willing to do whatever needed doing.
I holstered the revolver. Then, using the calling stone sewn into the palm of my glove, brought the zoom stick back and slid it into its sheath.
“Hey, see, that’s twice today you had a heart,” Geeter said.
“What are you talking about?” I could feel my impatience growing.
“First you rescue the flower fairy, then you let me live. See, even you aren’t all bad.”
I felt a little bile rise up my throat. And yeah, it was probably just the Not Now Stone starting to gurgle in my belly, or maybe it was something Boss had said. Either way I still had a lot of work to do before I died. “Just because I’m going to let you live, Geeter, don’t assume I’ve grown a heart.”
“They’ll know, they’ll know you did it, Monster Collector, then what will you be, huh, answer me that, then what will you be?” he shouted at me as I walked away.
I stopped walking and turned back. “The Enforcer Corps are on their way. When they get here they’ll find you and all your special packages, and then they’ll find me and give me a medal for stopping whatever you were planning.”
Geeter laid his head back and laughed, and man, dwarf trolls can laugh really loud. “That’s right, my plan. See, you won’t leave me here because you can’t stand not knowing what my plan is, and I’ll only tell you if you take me with you.”
“Ship,” I said into the mic. Ship flipped his tall, forward mounted canopy up. “People change, Boss.” I grabbed the leather flight cap from the seat and switched it for the helmet then, letting the chin straps dangle, sat down and belted myself in.
“Fine, leave me here, human,” Geeter stood, still clutching his bleeding hand, and shouted loud enough for me to hear over Ship’s twin avi-star thrusters. “Despite all we’ve been though, all the fun, you go ahead. But don’t think for a moment I didn’t plan for this, not for a moment.”
“I won’t,” I said and took the last Petri dish from my belt container. “Just for old time’s sake, catch,” I said and slung the dish at him Frisbee style.
Unprepared, he reacted and caught the dish, but far too hard. The glass broke and he cried out. “What? What did you do?” he shouted, then, looking truly scared at last, froze in place and cantilevered face down to the floor.
In one smooth motion, Ship lifted off, turned, and closed the canopy. We shot out the opening he’d so conveniently cut though the door, and then up and away at maximum speed. I wanted some distance between us and the Enforcer Corps. It would be best if they found Geeter’s highly illegal contraband before they questioned me or my team. I was pretty sure there was even a reward for Geeter’s hide and my people could use that money to start over.
Ship was unusually quiet, which was admittedly unsettling, but also welcomed as I had a lot to think about. Ship took us high above the commuter zones and leveled off at the edge of space. “Where to, Captain?”
“Quit with the insults and head for the Fields of Joy with all haste. I want to cut thought the between lands on the way.”
“Of course you do,” he moaned in his lilting wine but set the course and skipped all the neurotic warnings. I’d kept a promise I made to Boss Geeter, but I had another promise to keep, one that I’d made to a king, but first I had a fairy to return home…
…to be continued
-Next Time-
Jazz is a dead monster collector walking, and with nothing to lose, she’s setting sights on Mananama and his kingdom of wood elves. Her primary obstacle is getting DJ, her trusty and loyal sidekick safely out of the elven city of Forestdeep before extracting her final revenge. But the magical healing stone she’d swallowed has other plans. Blinded by the pain of the stone going into an early backlash, Jazz will be lucky to survive another torturous moment, let alone save anybody.
Jazz, Monster Collector, Episode 13, Promise Kept
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I hope you’ve enjoyed this Jazz adventure.
If you’d like to learn more about the monster collector, or me and my other works, please visit:
www.RyFTBrand.com
Ranting at www.RyftsRants.com