by J. N. Chaney
“Fine, what next?” asked Hunter.
“If you’re going to be on this ship, then you listen to orders,” I reminded them. “That means you need to stay focused. We will get Edwin back. I refuse to believe he’s dead.”
“But what if he is?” asked Ruby, her eyes shooting to me. “What if he’s gone?”
I almost ignored the question. They couldn’t think like that, and I didn’t want them to even entertain the thought. I sat with it, though, and figured I should tell her the truth.
“If someone kills him, we'll plant bullets in whoever did it,” I promised. “One way or another, I'm going to do what it takes to make this right.”
Hunter paused, arms crossed as he stared me down. “But what if—”
“Pardon my interruption,” said Sigmond over the speakers in the lounge. “Sir, we have a transmission from Mr. Trinidad.”
“Wait here,” I said, gesturing to the two of them as I headed toward the cockpit.
Hunter scoffed. “But—”
“This is urgent!” I called over my shoulder as I jogged up the steps into the bridge.
The door slid shut behind me as I sank into the pilot’s chair and prepared myself for the worst.
It had taken Ollie way too long to get back to me, and that was never a good sign.
“All right, Siggy, put him through,” I ordered.
The holo popped to life, and I Ollie's familiar face appeared before me. He sucked in a deep breath when he saw me, wincing as if he was about to do—or say—something painful.
“Just hit me, Ollie,” I said before he could get a word in. “Just get right to it.”
“I have a lot of bad news, Jace,” Ollie began. “In fact, there’s not even a good news-bad news sort of thing for me to do, here.”
I grimaced. “What have you got for me?”
“There are bounties on all of you,” said Ollie. “Confirmed and official, on both the Renegade and Freelancer networks.”
I groaned.
“The bounties originate from Colt Lockwood himself,” continued my agent.
I groaned harder.
“He's not even hiding that he wants you dead, Jace.” Ollie rubbed his head in disbelief. “No aliases. No secrets. He put the bounty job out in the open and signed it himself.”
“Fantastic,” I said, rubbing my eyes as the reality of what Ollie had said sank in.
When dealing with a man as famous as Colt Lockwood, there were plenty of people who wanted to kiss his ass and run his errands just to get on his good side. He knew that. Using his real name to put a hit out on me gave all of those bottom-feeders the incentive to track me down, even if the pay wasn't any good.
There were dozens—if not hundreds—of people who wanted to impress him, and he’d shown them exactly how they could do it.
“Do I even want to know how much he's offering to pay people for this job?” I asked.
“You really don't,” admitted Ollie.
I sighed. “What are the terms of the bounty?”
“Well, there might be a silver lining,” said Ollie. “According to the bounty, whoever captures you is supposed to bring you and the Carson kids in alive. So, I guess that's a positive.” My agent shrugged.
“Not really,” I pointed out. “We're still being hunted, and as we saw with the Decker case, live bounties don't always work out well for the target.”
“Fair point,” conceded Ollie.
“Did you get the recordings?” I asked. “I need to find Edwin before he’s taken off the station.”
“I did, but it’s too late,” said Ollie with a reluctant sigh.
“Too late?” I tensed, inching forward in my seat as I braced myself. “What do you mean?”
“I got word that he’s off-station already,” said the RBO agent. “They bailed the second they captured him.”
“Godsdammit,” I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose.
This just got better and better.
“He’s alive, though?” I pressed. “You can confirm that?”
Ollie shrugged. “It’s hard to tell. I couldn’t get footage of the ship they used to leave the station, mostly because my contact told me I could only get one recording. More than one, and I risked his boss figuring out what we were doing—and that meant a higher chance Colt finds out you’re there. I didn’t want to risk it, Jace.”
“It’s alright,” I said, disappointed. “Good call.”
“My contact did say they left in a stolen ship, one that slipped past local scanners and tracking. They carried a man with a bag on his head into their cargo bay, but he didn’t move. He was either unconscious or dead.”
I chose to believe he was just unconscious. Why else bother with a covering on his head and not in a body bag?
“The incident itself is not pretty,” continued Ollie. “I'll send the recording over in just a few.” He paused, rubbing the back of his head as he looked briefly off-camera. “Jace, this is bad, even by my standards.”
“Yeah, it is,” I agreed. “But I've been in bad situations before and come out on top.”
“That's true,” said my agent. “I'll be waiting to hear the good news, then.”
I resisted an impulse to warn him against holding his breath. The more I thought about it, the more I had to acknowledge that facing impossible odds seemed to be my specialty. No matter what lay ahead, I trusted myself to figure a way out of it.
It was the only way of life I’d ever known.
“Do you know where the bounty hunters went after they took Edwin?” I asked.
“All I know is they’re off-station, Jace. I couldn't get any additional information from that. I'm sorry.”
“Don't be,” I said. “You've helped plenty. Anything else I should know?”
“I don't have anything else concrete to share with you,” said Ollie. “But I did hear a rumor, one I think may be legit. Colt is hurt, but it's not life or death. He’ll recover, and when he does, you can bet he’s coming back with a vengeance.”
That was a dire warning indeed, and probably not far from the truth.
“Thanks, Ollie,” I said, nodding to him in gratitude. “I'll check in with you when I'm back at Taurus Station.”
“See you then,” said Ollie. “Good luck, Jace.”
The transmission cut out, and for a moment, I stared at the empty holo, just wondering what to do next. The situation seemed worse than before and I wondered how much of the element of surprise we still had left. At this point, there was a chance Colt knew I was working with the Carson kids. There was a risk someone had seen them leave the Renegade Star, and there was an additional possibility that someone might have seen me in the docking bay.
“Sir,” interjected Sigmond. “Would you like me to play the recording Mr. Trinidad sent over?”
“Yeah, Siggy,” I said, gesturing toward the holo. “Play them.”
The recording popped to life instantly, and I watched as Edwin walked into a bar. The soft hum of the conversations in the tavern played through the cockpit speakers as Edwin paused briefly beside one man near the door. They exchanged glances without a word spoken between them, and the man nodded toward a hallway in the back of the building. Edwin walked through the crowded bar and disappeared into the corridor.
The man by the door waited until he was gone before slipping out of the bar.
A snitch. Had to be.
“Fast forward,” I ordered.
The movements in the bar sped up as people laughed and drank their beers at twice the normal speed. After a few minutes of time lapse, the footage returned to real time as four men entered the bar.
Several people looked up warily as the group walked straight into the hallway like they owned the place. Quite a few patrons darted out the front door, leaving their half-finished drinks on the tables. From the looks of recognition on several patrons’ faces, it seemed like this group were regulars with a penchant for trouble.
Seconds later, gunshots rang through the air.
People screamed, and a small stampede headed for the door as the bartender dropped below the bar for cover. In almost no time at all, the bar emptied, and the bartender peered over the counter before he ran out the front door with everyone else.
Within a matter of minutes, Edwin appeared in the hallway, limping as he held a bloody hand to his side. One of the newcomers shoved him and he stumbled between the toppled chairs in the empty pub. He caught himself against a nearby table with his free hand as blood dripped down his temple.
With disheveled hair and a sweat-soaked brow, he looked over his shoulder as the four men walked calmly out of the hallway. Three had their pistols trained on him, and though he glanced at the door, he wisely stayed put.
The man who had pushed him into the room walked closer, speaking in a hushed tone the camera didn’t pick up. Edwin stayed calm and collected, his back to the camera as he focused on the criminal before him.
As the guy neared, the man threw a lightning-fast jab at Edwin’s jaw. Edwin tried to duck, but an ear-splitting crack cut through the air, and Edwin fell hard to the ground.
With Edwin out cold, the rest of the men holstered their weapons. One of them pulled a bag out of his pocket and slid it over Edwin’s head before they lifted him and carried him out the front door.
Hardly subtle, but like Hunter had said, the people on this planet just wanted to make money. Nobody much cared how they did it, and plenty of the folks in positions of power were more than willing to look the other way if they got a cut.
I rubbed my jaw as I replayed the recording, this time looking for anything I might have missed the first time through.
As I reached the part where the four men entered the bar, I couldn't help but sit with the fact that Colt had asked for help.
He’d broken his own rule. Colt Lockwood was no longer working solo.
Right this minute, I had a bounty on my life. It was surreal to sit with that cold, hard truth. Colt had leverage, and he would stop at absolutely nothing to get what he wanted.
They could have killed Edwin right there. Colt could have demanded all of us be shot and our bodies brought before him as proof we were dead, but it seemed like he probably wanted the pleasure of killing us himself.
There was a good chance he would use Edwin as bait, since he’d only gotten one of his four targets delivered to him. Whoever these nameless bounty hunters were, whatever ship they had stolen—they didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
This was between me and Colt Lockwood.
With a heavy sigh, I switched off the holo and walked back out to the lounge. The cockpit door opened automatically as I neared, and I stepped out of the bridge to find that Ruby and Hunter had finally calmed down.
Ruby still sat on the table, while Hunter leaned against the nearby wall with his thumbs in his pockets, contemplating.
I wasn't going to lie to them. “I have bad news,” I admitted.
Hunter kicked off the wall, the muscles straining in his neck as he waited. Ruby didn't move except to lean slightly toward me, clearly listening even if she wouldn’t look my way.
“We all have bounties on us,” I told them. “Colt put them there himself, no alias. Edwin was alive at the time of the last known footage of him, but he’s not on the station anymore.”
“For how long?” asked Hunter, an edge to his voice.
I shot him a look, and he wisely shut the hell up.
Good. At least he was learning.
“We’ll get Edwin back,” I promised. “I figure Colt wants to use him as bait to lure you two out in the open. If he kills Edwin, he loses that leverage. It’s in his best interest to keep your brother alive for now.”
“For now,” echoed Ruby quietly. “But that’s still better news than I expected.”
Both of the kids looked at me with a glimmer of hope, like they couldn't quite let themselves believe me, but wanted to, nonetheless.
“This can still work in our favor,” I pointed out. “The bounties indicate that we have to be brought in alive, and while that doesn't mean much, it does mean that we have a slight advantage against any Renegades or bounty hunters who might come after us. We can kill them, but not the other way around.” I shrugged. “All we have to do is make this more trouble than it's worth, and they'll leave us alone while we figure out how to rescue your brother.”
“But we still don't have proof Edwin's alive,” Hunter pointed out. “What if he was dragged to Colt’s place and shot instantly? We just don’t know.”
“I won't lie to you,” I said. “It's possible that he’s dead. I'm not going to sugarcoat this. Everything I’ve said so far is just my best guess, but we do have one thing in our favor. Colt is cocky. There's a good chance he'll wait to kill all of us at once. He’ll want us to suffer.”
“How comforting,” said Ruby.
I crossed my arms and paced the length of the lounge, taking a moment to think.
We needed information. We needed to know where these bounty hunters had gone, what Colt really wanted with Edwin, and what Colt’s next move would be. It was probably safe to assume they were headed for the hidden base we had discovered, but I didn't want to bank on it. For all we knew, the fortress could’ve been set up as a trap, and I needed more information to confirm it.
“Do you guys have networks?” I asked. “Connections, like Edwin has? Or better yet, do you have access to his people?”
“We don’t have his contacts, no,” said Ruby. “But we have our own people.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “We'll figure this out. The plan from here is simple. Reach out and see if you can figure out where these bounty hunters took Edwin. I think it's probably to the fortress, but we need to be sure before we make any moves or waste any ammo.”
“And when we find out?” asked Ruby. “What do we do then?”
“We save him.” I said simply. “When we go in to rescue Edwin, it’ll be our one shot to do this right. No distractions. No emotion. I need you both to focus, follow orders, and move as a single unit.”
I waited for them to agree, and after a moment, they both nodded curtly.
“Listen closely,” I warned. “The next time we see Colt, we have to end this once and for all. There's no margin for error anymore. We can't let this get any worse than it already is.”
“How could this possibly get worse?” asked Hunter, his tone sarcastic.
“Kid,” I said, raising one hand to keep him from going any further down that train of thought. “You do not want to know.”
“No time like the present.” Ruby pulled a data pad out of her pocket and hopped off the table. “I'll see what I can find.”
“Same,” said Hunter as he walked off toward the guest rooms on the other side of the ship.
In moments, the lounge was empty, and I was left alone with my thoughts.
I walked over to the sofa and collapsed into the cushions, setting my elbows on my knees as I sifted yet again through what lay ahead.
I couldn't shake Ollie’s warning that Colt was planning one last assault. Whatever he had in store for us, it was going to be big, and it was probably going to be painful. I had to get to him before he had a chance to come after me.
There wouldn’t be any more waiting. I had to bring the fight to his door, and I didn’t have long to do it.
He wasn't going to underestimate me again.
With Edwin captured, everything had changed. Now I had to kill one of the greatest Renegades alive while rescuing the only person that could keep the two remaining Carson kids from unraveling completely.
It was time to face the impossible and win.
All in a day’s work for a Renegade.
23
With an exhausted sigh, I leaned back in the pilot’s chair and rubbed my jaw. On the holo, the dark nothingness of space stretched around us in every direction. I’d taken us into the stars for safety once we’d heard Edwin wasn’t on Bravos Station anymore.
It wouldn’t do us any good to wait around
for the bounty hunters to find us, too.
Since cloaking the Renegade Star in an empty stretch far from the nearest slip tunnel, I’d been contacting people in my own little network. Hunting. Looking for leads. Trying to find something we could use.
Aside from the intel Ollie had given me, I had so far come up with nothing.
It was a tough ask—getting information on Colt without making it obvious that he was doing it for me, all while keeping the Carson kids a secret. A few of the sleazier Renegades I knew had offered me sanctuary, but it was a cheap trick to get me locked in a bunker so they could collect the bounty on my head.
I couldn’t trust anyone, and I was getting nowhere fast. I needed to know what we were going to face when we got to Colt’s fortress, and it didn’t seem like anyone had that data.
Colt was too good, and he had too many people in his pocket.
“Sir,” interjected Sigmond. “Miss Carson is in the lounge and seems most excited. I believe you would benefit from the discussions she and her brother are having.”
I paused, admittedly confused at what he’d just told me. I wasn’t sure excitement was even an emotion she could feel. I’d always figured her two modes were pissed off and stony silence.
“Alright,” I muttered, standing. “Color me curious, Siggy.”
The bridge door slid open as I walked out into the hall. In the lounge straight ahead of me, she and Hunter huddled over a data pad at one of the tables—sitting, to my surprise, on the chairs like normal humans.
“You kids having fun?” I asked, leaning against the wall as I waited to hear the news.
“One of my contacts has intel,” said Ruby, her eyes darting toward me as she gestured toward the data pad. “A member of another crime family said that Colt is building a team to take us down once and for all. He’s been helping them secure weapons and bodies, but when he heard who Colt was after, he reached out to me. We have a man on the inside.”
I frowned, not quite willing to believe it. “I had a few ‘helpful’ friends reach out to me, too, Ruby. How do you know he doesn’t want to turn you over?”