by J. N. Chaney
I ran a hand through my unkempt hair and began to pace slowly through the lounge as I processed what they’d said. At this point, I couldn't lie to myself anymore. There was truth to this, or at the very least, they believed it was the truth.
“So, what now?” I asked. “You want me to play taxi and take you home to Avos after you killed my target and cost me money?”
“We can't go back,” answered Edwin. “It's our family home, the only one we've ever known, but we can't even step on our own property because the Union put surveillance on it. They know the three of us are missing. Avos isn't even in Union space, but they’ve found a way to control it. They had no right to do what they did, but--”
“We’ll find a way,” said Ruby, finally speaking up.
The room went eerily silent. I stared at the floor and rubbed my jaw, unsure of what to say next. How was I supposed to handle this? Did I drop them off on some rock in the middle of nowhere and tell them to piss off? They cost me money, sure, but they’d done it for a reason I could understand. Maybe it was stupid of them, maybe shortsighted, but they were still just a bunch of kids. And they’d lost their entire family. I couldn’t blame them for being angry.
There was also the matter of the dead body that was still bleeding on the floor in my cargo bay. I hadn’t even had time to clean it up. If the Parliament didn’t want his body, I’d kick the evidence into a slip tunnel and pretend this whole job never happened.
“So, what now?” asked Edwin.
I looked up to find all three of them watching me. From the expression on Edwin’s face, I guessed this was a rare moment where he didn't know what was going to happen next. He had laid it all out for me to see, and now he was waiting for a verdict.
Even though Decker hadn’t gotten his trial, they’d all just had one of their own, with me as the judge and jury.
It was a fair question. I knew plenty of Renegades who would shoot the three of them dead right there in the lounge. There were plenty more who would take them to slavers to try to make a little cash off this botched job.
That just wasn't my style. Plus, I didn’t feel like cleaning up more than I absolutely had to.
“I'll see if Avos still wants the body,” I told them. “If they do, I'll take you to a dock on the other end of the planet and drop you off where you can go undetected by the Union. If Parliament doesn’t want the body, I'll kick you off at the first docking station we find, and you can do whatever the hell you want after that.”
“So, you're letting us go?” asked Edwin, unable to mask the surprise in his voice.
I shrugged. “Lucky for you, I’m feeling generous. We’ll go our separate ways,” I continued. “After this, I want you to leave me the hell alone. Don't you ever screw with one of my jobs again. Next time you cost me money, I'll kill you.”
Ruby and Hunter sneered at the threat, but Edwin whistled to get their attention and shook his head, urging them to keep quiet.
“Fair enough,” said Edwin, looking at me once he’d reined in the other two. “We'll leave you be. Are you going to untie us?”
I scoffed. “Hell no. You'll stay nice and comfy right there until I find out what Avos wants to do with the corpse you gave me.” I looked at Hunter. “And I’m keeping the guns.”
“What? Hey, hold on a second!” barked Hunter.
“It’s either that or your scalp,” I said as I walked back toward the bridge. “Consider it payment for costing me my bounty.”
5
I was late getting back to Taurus Station, thanks to dropping off the Carson siblings at a spaceport on the southern end of Avos.
As it turned out, Avos was willing to pay me for Zacharias Decker’s corpse after all. It was a pittance compared to what I should’ve gotten, of course, but at least I’d salvaged something.
I walked through the crowds on the main promenade, my hands in my pockets as I relived that final glance Edwin had given me over his shoulder.
Cold. Calculating. Like he knew something I didn’t.
Given how familiar that kid was with the inner workings of the criminal world, I figured he knew plenty of things I didn’t. It pissed me off and made me a little nervous, and I wondered if I shouldn’t have left them alive after all.
Too late to do anything about it now. I just had to keep going, get more work, and move on with my life.
Though I wanted another job to make up for this one, I took my sweet time getting to Ollie’s shop of junkyard treasure. I kept thinking about the Carsons. The bullet hole in Decker’s forehead. The way the Avos Parliamentary Chairman had nearly upchucked her lunch when she saw him tied to the metal chair in my cargo bay. The corpse and the chair were gone, now, but the conversation with the Carson trio in my lounge still rattled through my brain.
The Zacharias Decker job had wounded my pride, sure, but I was man enough to shake it off.
The universe went on, the known planets still circled their stars, and there was always another job waiting for me somewhere in the void.
Two kids bolted through the crowd around me, nearly knocking me over and laughing maniacally as they elbowed their way through the throng of people. Someone called after them. I looked over my shoulder to see a bald man waving his arm, trying to get someone’s attention as he shouted at the two kids running away from him.
Street urchins, probably, and I’d bet a thousand creds they had just fleeced the guy. If they were smart, they’d lie low and enjoy their spoils, but kids were rarely wise enough to quit when they were ahead.
Everyone seemed to be in a hurry, and I took the chance to simply watch the world around me as I meandered through the bobbing heads of tourists and locals on their way to do gods knew what.
The crowds on Taurus Station never seemed to diminish. It didn't matter when I arrived or when I left to go on another job—there were always people, and always a lot of them. A few women ahead of me had outlandish hats, roughly three times the size of their heads and all of them the bright yellow hue of a sun. Tall as I was, I could still barely see over them.
I scoffed. Tourists.
People swarmed in front of and behind me in every direction on the massive station, all headed about their days and vacations. It never ceased to amaze me how many people congregated here, in the middle of nowhere, on a space station outside of Union and Sarkonian space.
And yet, Taurus Station was a hub. I could find almost anything here except a decent coffeemaker for a good price.
When I finally reached Ollie's shop, I walked in and found him talking to a customer by the counter. He didn’t look up as I entered, and I took the hint to make myself scarce until she was gone.
I walked along one of the walls of art, pretending to browse as the woman held one of his sculptures aloft. She turned it back and forth, studying it in the light.
Morbidly curious at what piece of scrap metal he was currently conning her into buying, I snuck a peek over my shoulder. It was a dancer posing mid-movement, and it didn't look half bad. Ollie had even added a long skirt that swished around the metal figurine, as if he had captured a moment in time.
Impressive.
Ollie sure enjoyed his little hobby, and even if the end result was conning rich people into buying warped and twisted metal he had salvaged from the garbage compactors, at least he was having fun. Judging by the quality of the sculpture this woman was holding, he even seemed to be getting better.
The customer glanced at me warily, and I forced a smile. She winced, like it was painful to even watch me attempt fitting in with her world, and she quickly looked back at the sculpture.
Sure, I didn't come off as the friendly sort, and I didn't exactly look like I belonged in this shop. Normally, I would have ignored her, but I didn’t want to have to get a new RBO agent or scare off Ollie’s clientele.
This place meant a lot to him, and even if I didn’t understand the appeal, I could pretend to like it for his sake.
I preoccupied myself by looking over the art covering
the walls, and I was surprised to see a few new pieces. He’d been busy while I was off capturing Decker and nearly getting shot by a rogue crime family. I wondered what else he had in that back workroom just waiting to go on the wall.
“Thank you,” said Ollie, flashing his customer a warm smile as he placed her sculpture in a box and stuffed it with tissue paper. “The credits have transferred, so I’ll package this up for a safe trip home, and you can be on your way.”
She said something in a hushed tone I couldn’t hear, but I didn’t care what she was saying. Probably more of the same, this is such a steal and how do you price these treasures so well, Mr. Trinidad? nonsense I’d heard over the years.
He cheated them out of their money—or, sometimes, their husbands’ money—and they always seemed to thank him for it.
I watched Ollie from the corner of my eye as he taped up the box and handed it to her. Seconds later, she stepped out with a satisfied smile on her face, never giving me a second glance.
With her finally gone, I dropped the act and my fake smile—only to look down to find a bloodstain on the collar of my shirt.
Oops.
Oh, well. To hell with fitting in.
Ollie clasped his hands together and walked toward me, lowering his voice to a hushed tone as he spoke. “Welcome back, Jace. Another rousing success, I take it?”
“Hardly,” I said.
“Hardly?” he repeated. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, it’s you,” said Ollie, as if he were confused. “The great Jace Hughes, all suave charm and pistol-whipping, ready to handle whatever life throws at him.” He gave me a wink.
“You’re an idiot,” I said.
“The point is this is all easy for you, Jace,” said Ollie, gesturing to me. “You usually come back early and make some quip about how smooth the job went.”
“Yeah, well, not this time.”
“Well, let’s hear it, then. What went wrong?”
“Decker was killed. Got himself assassinated.”
Ollie’s eyes widened. “What? Why didn’t you call ahead and tell me?”
“I did, but you were out of the shop.”
“You didn’t leave a message or call back?”
I shrugged. “Figured I’d see you in person soon enough.”
“Did you find out who it was?”
I paused, but only briefly. I’d already decided not to share what I knew about the Carson kids, even with Ollie. Maybe I was feeling sorry for them and wanted to make sure they stayed off the grid… or maybe I just didn’t want Ollie knowing I’d lost my mark to three infants. Either way, he’d only find out if he needed to. “Couldn’t say,” I told him. “They sniped his ass and took off before I got a good look.”
“Damn,” he muttered. “Too bad.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I lied, trying to make it seem like I wasn’t bothered, when in reality I wanted nothing more than to wring Hunter Carson’s neck. “Someone with a grudge found an angle with a clear sightline into my ship. They shot him as the cargo bay door closed. He was on the Star, Ollie, tied up in a little bow and just waiting to be delivered. I was this far away from being home free.” My pointer finger hovered over my thumb, almost touching as I remembered how close I had truly come to the full bounty. “They got the drop on me at the last minute.”
“You must be losing your touch, Jace,” said Ollie with a wry grin.
“For your own health and safety, I'm going to ignore that,” I warned him. “Anyway, Avos promised half the bounty in exchange for Decker’s body. That’s something at least.”
“I suppose it is,” Ollie said. “We’ll need a bigger catch on the next job.”
“I know,” I said with a nod. “It didn't even cover the fuel for the trip.”
“Well, not every job can be a winner,” said Ollie as he patted me on the back. “The next one will be better.”
“While we’re on the subject, what others do you have?” I asked.
“There isn't much available right now,” confessed Ollie. “Not for your talents, anyway.”
“You said you always have work,” I reminded him.
“Jace, I just sold that lovely woman a sculpture made from spare machine parts and welding glue, all while claiming it’s imported from a planet that doesn’t exist.” He nodded toward the counter where he’d boxed up her figurine. “Just because I have something to offer you, it doesn’t mean it’ll be in your best interest to take it. There are loads of jobs on the net, but none of them are worth your time.”
“Fair enough,” I muttered.
“Look, you’ve got credibility now. I can’t let you take any odd job that passes by me anymore. If you want to start commanding the kind of prices that get you the high-profile clients, you need to be picky about what you take.”
“Hey,” I said. “I have high-profile clients. We just need to rope in a few more.”
Ollie laughed and gestured through the shop’s front windows, out toward the crowds enjoying their time on Taurus Station. “Maybe use this chance to take some time off. Just relax, Jace. Unwind a bit and get your head right. Once you’re ready, I’ll find you something really worth your time, okay?”
“Maybe you've got a point,” I admitted, albeit a little grudgingly.
After all, I didn’t usually let jobs get away from me like this. Maybe I had been pushing myself too hard for too long. Come to think of it, a break might do me good.
Ollie was quiet for a second, his eyes going distant, like he was recalling something. “There was one thing I found strange, but I dismissed it. Looking back now, though…”
“What is it?” I asked.
“About the job. Someone was digging into the posting’s details, trying to get info on who took the job. I've got a high security code, so they shouldn’t be able to figure anything out,” he added with the reassuring smile. “But it looks like someone's interested in you.”
“Someone’s trying to find out who took the job?” I asked.
He nodded. “It happens from time to time. Usually, the only time you have to worry is if it’s the Union or the Sarkonians, but I always know before they get too close, and then I cycle out the username and ID number with another. Keeps them running in circles. This was different.”
I didn't like the sound of that at all.
“Do you know who it is?”
“I don't,” confessed Ollie. “I’ve looked into the access codes, but I don’t recognize them and they don’t show up when I run my own search. I’ve still got feelers out on it, though, so maybe something will come up.”
“This sounds like trouble. You should’ve told me sooner.”
“Says the guy who waited to tell me about the assassination,” said Ollie. “Look, it’s probably nothing anyway, but I just wanted you to know about it.” He waved my concern away with a flick of his wrist. “Just go and enjoy your time off. I promise I'll keep digging into it. We'll find out who it is.”
That didn’t reassure me. After all, if he brought it up, it meant he was worried about it. No amount of hand-waving could convince me otherwise.
I crossed my arms as I thought about it. “Two thoughts strike me,” I said. “Either someone wants revenge on me for letting him get shot… or someone else wants to kill him and they’re trying to find out where he is.”
“My bet is on the second option,” said Ollie.
“The first would be bad business for you. If I die, you lose a shitload of potential credits.”
“Which is why you’re in good hands,” he pointed out. “One way or another, you’re fine. I’m not going to let anyone touch you, especially not over someone like Decker.”
That might’ve been the truth, but I didn’t rely on anyone except for myself. I knew Ollie well enough to know he’d do what it took to keep me—and his own business interests—protected. It was the mark of a good agent, if nothing else.
“Anyway,” cont
inued Ollie, “it seems like the Deadlands is better off without Decker, one way or another. Whoever killed him probably did the Galaxy a favor.”
“Yeah,” I said, remembering the story those kids had told me. “Maybe they did.”
6
Ollie had told me to take a break, and I’d just have to do my best.
I groaned and rubbed my eyes as the world around me spun from the liquor. I laid out across the lounge sofa on the Renegade Star, one leg dangling over the edge and the other propped on the armrest. I stretched my hands above my head, my body taking up the full length of the sofa.
The heady buzz from too much alcohol hummed through my brain like the Star’s engines, and it took me a moment to remember that they were, in fact, off—and that I was still docked at Taurus Station.
I lifted the bottle of whiskey, the label going in and out of focus a few times before I gave up trying to read it. Whatever I’d bought, it had made me forget where the hell I was.
That was an unquestionable success, as far as I was concerned.
I lay back again, the bottle hanging limply in my hand as the bottom clanked against the lounge floor. Sure, I could have gone to the room I kept on Taurus Station, the one Ollie always let me use each time I came here, but I’d just wanted to be on my ship.
Maybe a buzz wasn’t the best thing for me right now, but I needed some space to myself to piece it all together. The kids. Decker. The mysterious inquiries in the Renegade network.
They were all pieces to a puzzle I couldn’t see yet, and it annoyed the living hell out of me. Something about all of this wasn't right. Try as I might to bury it, the job wasn’t finished. I’d been paid and the corpse had probably been tossed in a pit by now, and yet I replayed that moment in my head again and again.
The red dot on Decker’s forehead and the gunshot that followed.
The Star was my home, but it was also my office. Here, even when I was drunk off my ass, I was still on the clock. It would be difficult to relax and unwind so long as I felt like the work wasn’t over, but it made more sense to be on my ship than one of the lower decks on the station. If someone came for me, at least I could more easily make a break for it.