by J. N. Chaney
“Is there a chance he’s seen these drones?” I asked.
“No,” assured Edwin. “They’re long-range drones that take vast sweeps of the surface. It’s imperfect tech, and I won’t lie—I got lucky with some of the footage we captured.”
“Show me,” I ordered.
Edwin tapped on the holo, and the image shifted again. This time, the moon was high in the sky. Darkness settled on the tranquil world as a familiar ship barreled toward a large cave in the rocky cliff face beneath the house.
Colt’s ship.
It slowed as it approached the cliff and slipped through the largest cave. Seconds later, it disappeared, and the world was quiet and peaceful once more.
“Does he have some kind of docking bay in the cliff?” I asked.
“It appears so,” said Edwin. “He never walks outside. The most I was able to capture was this image.”
Edwin tapped again on the device, and a still frame of one of the windows appeared. Colt looked out over the river below, a glass raised to his mouth as he surveyed the serene valley.
My jaw tensed as I looked at the man who was so intent on killing me.
“When was this taken?” I asked.
“Yesterday,” answered Edwin, his gaze shifting toward me.
Ruby and Hunter stood beside their brother, and all three Carson kids just watched me. Waiting. No doubt wondering what I would do next.
“If that was taken yesterday, then we have a temporary advantage,” I said. “We know where he is, and we need to use the element of surprise wisely. Once it's gone, we’ll never get it back.” I paused, sitting with the reality of what lay ahead of us. “There’s no room for mistakes. Whatever we do, we have to make it our last stand.”
“So, we attack him here,” said Hunter, pointing to the holo. “We just bring the fight to him, like you said.”
“Well, it's not going to be that simple,” I replied. “A man like Colt’s going to have defenses. If he works alone, he might not have armed security personnel, and that’s in our favor. At a minimum, though, a man with that much money will have some kind of automated artillery and maybe AI-manned ships ready to attack anyone who tries to bring a fight to his door. I’ve seen it with some of the other rich guys I’ve delivered things to in the past. We need to study his fortress to really understand what we’re up against before we attack..
“Most of what we could assemble on Scartros is short-range weaponry,” confessed Edwin. “A long-range attack would be better for us, especially if he has hidden defenses we can’t see or prepare for.”
“What do you have in mind?” I crossed my arms as Edwin turned off the portable holo and pocketed the device.
“More ammo,” said Edwin. “More advanced weapons. Maybe some grenades. Whatever we can use from a distance. The strongest firepower we can find.”
“I've got us covered,” said Hunter with a wide grin. “I have a contact on a nearby station, and I've been meaning to upgrade anyway.”
“You’re talking about Bravos Station?” asked Edwin.
Hunter nodded.
I knew about that place, and my whole body tensed at the idea that they wanted to drag me there.
“Bravos?” I snapped, interrupting their conversation. “Why the hell would you want to take us somewhere that has two surveillance cameras every six feet?”
“It’s not my ideal choice, either,” admitted Edwin with a shrug. “But that’s where our contacts are.”
I scoffed. “And you don’t think there’s a risk in walking straight through a surveillance hub with Colt on our tail? You don’t see how that might, I don’t know, get us killed?”
It seemed reckless. If he was going to propose something like that, he needed to have a damn good reason why.
“There’s risk,” admitted Edwin. “But I think the payoff will make it worth going.”
“You’re going to have to have one hell of a payoff to make this worthwhile,” I admitted. “Talk.”
“For starters, guns,” said Hunter as he gestured in the vague direction of the cargo bay. “It’s our only shot to get the sort of weaponry we need to make this work.”
I shook my head. “There are other arms dealers discreet enough to make it worth an extra day of travel. Arms dealers who don’t live on an active surveillance station, for starters.”
“Trust us,” said Edwin. He set out one hand to keep the peace between me and Hunter, but his full attention was on me. “Listen, I realize that Bravos Station isn’t the best place for us to go, but there’s more for us there than just ammo and shiny weapons. Seven of Father’s best contacts live on the station and never leave. We’ve been in and out of that place so many times that we have the station memorized.”
“Then what else is there to make it worth the risk?” I pressed. “Guns aren’t enough.”
“Guns are always reason enough,” muttered Hunter.
I ignored him.
My ship, my rules. Whatever happened, I was ultimately responsible for the safety of everyone on board—and if they didn’t make a convincing case, I wasn’t going to let them go to the station, no matter what promises they made.
“On Bravos Station, there’s a hacker circuit,” said Edwin. “These guys are the best of the best, Captain. They may even have some tech we can use to ensure Colt doesn't get away this time.”
I leveled a look at him that said I was done fucking around. “Explain.”
“It's a long shot,” admitted Edwin. “I can’t guarantee they’ll have what I need, but I think I can get us an interior feed of Colt’s fortress.”
I balked, almost unable to believe it was possible. “His security feed?”
“They’ve done similar things before,” confessed Edwin as he absently scratched his ear. “I’ve helped them on a few of those runs. They owe me.”
“They’re legit,” said Ruby, finally speaking up. She paused, glancing briefly at Edwin. “They owe us about four times over. They never would have finished some of their biggest projects without Edwin’s help.”
I sat with that. I didn’t like the idea of heading out into the open, but in this case the payoff was tantalizing.
Coupled with the cloak, the interior security cams to Colt’s fortress would practically guarantee us a win—even against a man like him. It could well be the final piece in the puzzle that would change everything, but only if we could actually get it.
“What’ll it be, Captain?” asked Edwin.
I nodded reluctantly. “It sounds like we have a plan, kids. We try to get the feed, use it to study Colt’s movements, and then make our move. Worst case, we attack with what we’ve got. That means we cloak, get in close, and then run a surprise assault on him. We give that fortress a beating. We collapse the cave access to his docking bay to ensure he’s trapped. No one gets in, no one gets out, and we make sure he’s dead.”
“Easy,” said Hunter, scoffing. “What could go wrong?”
“That’s the spirit,” I said, finally turning to head to the cockpit. “Now, all we have to do is go kill one of the most famous Renegades of all time.”
“Before he kills us,” added Ruby.
I paused and looked over my shoulder as she stretched out over the sofa and returned to her data pad.
“Yeah,” I said, continuing to the hall. “Exactly.”
20
I stood in the lounge of the Star, my arms crossed as I listened to the comm in my ear. We were docked at the south end of Bravos Station. The place mostly set me on edge because it was orbiting a decently sized planet covered in skyscrapers and cameras that reminded me of the Union, despite being in the middle of the Deadlands. A man couldn't even sneeze on the station without being recorded by five separate cams. Everything about this planet was monitored and made us more exposed than was comfortable with me.
All I could say was this had better pan out. Everyone knew the risks, and these kids were a little too comfortable taking it.
Bravos Station had been built
here because of its planet’s strategic position, perfectly nestled between the Union and Sarkonian Empire. This was about as guaranteed safe from invasion as a Deadlands planet could be. It was far enough away from both empires to remain out of their reach, but the Bravos Station management had agendas of their own and connections with just about every bounty hunter and black market in the known universe.
No one on Bravos Station was safe from that.
“I don't like this,” I said into the comm. “Make these pickups of yours quick.”
“Relax,” answered Hunter through the earpiece. “We come here all the time. It's an ammunition smuggle point, and the government is bribed to look the other way. There's nothing to worry about. Father had these people in his pocket. Everyone here just wants to make money, and they don't care how it’s done.”
I wasn't convinced. “You have thirty minutes, or I’m leaving you here.”
“We'll get it done faster if you stop interrupting,” replied Hunter. “Besides, you could have come instead of Ruby to hurry this along.”
“Yeah, that’s smart,” I said sarcastically. “Let’s all four of us walk out into a heavily monitored area and let Colt know we’re working together. That won’t kill our element of surprise at all.”
“Maybe you’re just being a lazy asshole,” said Ruby.
“Maybe,” I said with a smirk. “Make sure you get me a coffee while you’re out.”
She scoffed, and I chuckled. Truth be told, I was starting to like them.
Only a little, but still.
Though they didn’t know it yet, I'd had Siggy override the comms so that they couldn't block my audio. I wanted to know what was being said at all times, especially because Edwin wouldn't tell me who he was going to meet to get his surveillance tech or where they were meeting.
If we could really gain access to interior cameras in Colt’s fortress, we’d be home free. It was a dream come true, one I didn't dare believe—not until we had it and were sure it was working.
I frowned as a surge of doubt shot through me, but I shoved it away. I couldn’t think like that. There wasn’t room for failure here—my only choice was to plant a bullet in Colt. I just had to figure out the how.
“I'm approaching my meeting point,” said Edwin through the comm. “I'm going in, and I'll be dark for a while.”
“Keep your comm in,” I ordered. “In case the two little ones need you.”
“Jackass,” muttered Hunter.
Edwin laughed. “You got it, Captain.”
The line beeped, but he probably thought he was muted. It was a bit naive to use someone else's tech and just trust it to work the way you expected. I might have to give Edwin a lecture on that when everything was over. Since he was now the new Carson crime lord, he couldn't trust others so easily.
Through the comm, I heard the hum of conversation as Ruby and Hunter spoke with someone. The click of a magazine into a gun came through the line, and it seemed like at least that was going smoothly.
“And you want how much?” asked Hunter, not bothering to mask the disgust in his tone. “That's robbery, asshole.”
“That's the price,” I heard someone say, his voice muted and distant.
“I think you can do better than that,” said Ruby, her tone low and dangerous. I could imagine the warning on her face, the threat of what awaited the man if he tried to hold them to some egregious cost.
I grinned. It had probably been a good idea to make them use their own money. They bought the guns, and I bought the ammo. That was the deal.
If they had to spend their own money, they’d haggle for better prices.
I tapped the side of my comm, using the manual override to mute it so they wouldn’t know what I was doing.
When I was muted, I stretched my fingers and cracked the tense joints in my shoulders as I focused my full attention on the two deals happening simultaneously. “Siggy, go ahead and reduce volume on Ruby and Hunter’s comms.”
“Volume reduced by 15%,” responded the AI.
Sure enough, the volume on Hunter and Ruby's voices dropped just as the loud creak of a door opening filtered through the line from Edwin's comm. I continued to pace the lounge, listening intently, trying to imagine what was happening as I zeroed in on the conversation I wasn't supposed to hear.
A door shut, and boots thumped along the floor. The low murmur of conversation filtered through the line, so he must have been in a public space. A bar, maybe, or a restaurant, judging from the soft music weaving through the hum of people talking.
More footsteps thudded over the ground. A man cleared his throat, and then a door shut. The conversation faded immediately.
“How you been, Maury?” asked Edwin.
“Fine,” answered Maury, his voice quivering slightly as he cleared his throat again.
The second he spoke, something about Maury set me on edge. I’d been in plenty of situations with back-room deals like this, so the meeting itself had been fairly normal thus far. I had no idea who this Maury guy was, but there was a nervous shake in his voice that I didn't like.
For starters, it didn't make sense for anyone to be nervous around Edwin, at least not from what I'd seen. Wary, sure. Cautious, definitely. But not flat-out jittery. The man sounded scared, like he was barely containing a nervous breakdown.
I paused mid-stride, craning my ear, wishing I could get a visual on what was happening. A man’s body language could tell you so much more than just his words, but I would have to make do with what I had.
I had a bad feeling about this guy.
Edwin didn't seem to notice. “Have you had any luck finding what I asked for?”
“Of course, I did,” answered Maury, his voice distant and almost hard to hear. “You’ve seen what I can do, kid.”
A drawer opened, and something heavy thudded onto a surface—probably a desk. They must’ve been sitting on opposite sides of a table of some sort.
For a moment, there was only silence with the occasional click of metal. I figured Edwin had lifted the object and was messing with it, inspecting it.
“Are you joking?” asked Edwin.
“What do you mean?” countered Maury, stuttering briefly in surprise.
“Do you think I'm an idiot?” asked Edwin. “Why would you even show me this?”
“Edwin, I don't know—”
“This is a tweaked holo, Maury,” said Edwin, and something smacked loudly against the surface of the table as he probably tossed it aside. “There's nothing useful in this, and you know it. After everything I’ve done to help you out of those binds, you’d try to scam me? After all the favors you owe me and my family? After all the tech I altered and adjusted for you, did you really think I wouldn't notice?”
I frowned, rubbing my jaw, more convinced than ever that I should have gone with Edwin. Maybe I should’ve tailed him, just to be backup in case things went south. I’d stayed behind to keep our alliance secret, but letting Edwin go alone had been a mistake.
I glanced at the stairs to the cargo bay, wondering how fast I could get to him.
“Siggy, get me coordinates on Edwin’s location,” I ordered, my mic still muted. “Track his comm.”
“Right away, sir,” answered the AI.
Edwin’s voice dropped to a dangerous octave, one I’d never heard him use before. “Are you screwing with me?”
“No!” promised Maury through the comm. “This is only part of the final tech that you need. This is what will transmit and display the video feeds. Did you really think I'd give you everything before you paid me? Your father was smarter than that. I just figured you would be, too.”
This Maury guy had gone on the defensive, and what's more, he’d pulled out the dead parent card to try to get under Edwin’s skin. This hacker was also a decent salesman, I’d give him that.
Edwin didn't answer, and I could just imagine the cold and calculating expression on his face.
“So, where are Ruby and Hunter?” asked Maury, chan
ging the subject.
Everything this Maury character said only set me more on edge. He didn’t need to know where the other two were, and he was trying to distract Edwin from the possible scam in front of him.
“Don't worry about where they are,” answered Edwin. “You focus on getting me what I asked for. You have two minutes to give me something useful, or I walk.”
“Don’t you threaten me in my own shop,” the techie warned.
At this point, I was sure this wouldn’t end well. The man was stalling, and there was only one reason to stall in a deal like this. There was a real chance that Edwin had gone from buyer to prey. With Colt after him, anything was possible.
“I’ve pinpointed the location where Mr. Carson currently is,” interjected Sigmond. “The Aimless Angels Bar on this end of the station. Estimated arrival is fifteen minutes by foot.”
“Good job,” I said.
I tried to piece together a plan as quickly as possible. “How far is he from Hunter and Ruby?”
Maury had asked about them, and I didn’t like the idea of leading them into a trap. If they were closer than me, though, they might be Edwin’s best option for backup.
“Forty minutes by foot,” said Sigmond. “If they can find transportation through the tram line, they could reduce that to twenty five minutes of travel time.”
“No, it puts them too much at risk,” I said, dismissing the idea. “Besides, hopping on a tram would only reduce their retreat options if someone tried to take them. Are they almost done?”
“Yes, Captain,” said the AI. “From the sound of their conversations, it appears they’ve paid the dealer and are loading everything into a hover dolly for transport.”
“Good. They need to get back here quickly. Tell them to hurry.”
“Right away, sir.”
I jogged down the stairs and crossed the cargo bay, headed for the lockers to get myself a bigger gun than the two at my waist. “If I run, maybe I can get to Edwin in ten minutes instead of fifteen. We still need to find the room he’s in, and—”