“Stop where you are and identify yourself,” a short, burly guard with a long brown beard ordered her.
“Really?” Miranda stopped and stared at the guard. She had been coming to see Marston almost daily for the entire week she had been at Moore Colony. Her armor was a unique creation and her signature. The way she saw things, it alone should serve as identification for who she was.
Another guard came over to join the two of them. He was a tall, lanky fellow with shaggy blond hair. If she remembered right, his name was Zack.
“Let her through,” Zack told the other guard. “I’ll take her in.”
The burly guard glared at Zack but allowed her through the gates.
“Sorry about that,” Zack said. “Hank takes this gig pretty seriously. Can’t blame him. It’s a cushy job with only the occasional need to get rough with folks. None of us want to lose it.”
“I can understand that.” Miranda nodded.
“I imagine the boss man has to be working on something big for you.” Zack flashed her a smile that showed off his yellow-stained teeth. It was a tip off that Zack was an Augmen addict, but that wasn’t any of her concern or business. “You’ve been here, it seems, every day for a week now.”
“Do you always pry into the affairs of Mr. Marston’s clients?” Miranda asked.
“Only the really cute ones!” Zack laughed.
Zack had fallen for her when she’d first approached Mr. Marston about doing some work for her. Miranda found the head guard’s flirting annoying, and a touch on the creepy side, but if his infatuation got her in to see Mr. Marston more easily, it was something she was willing to endure.
“I see.” Miranda faked a smile. “And I’m one of those, huh?”
“The cutest one ever,” Zack told her.
He led her up to the door of Mr. Marston’s home and used his key code to unlock it.
“I hope he finds whatever you’re looking for, ma’am,” Zack said, gesturing for her to enter.
Miranda entered the house, leaving Zack outside. Mr. Marston must have seen her coming through one of the house’s seemingly countless security cameras as he was waiting for her in the small lobby area outside his downstairs work room. He didn’t appear happy to see her.
“Back again, huh?” Mr. Marston growled. “I told you I’d contact you the second I found anything.”
“You did,” Miranda agreed, “but for the amount of credits I’m paying you, I’d expected more by now. I came to check up on my investment.”
“Miranda,” he said, shaking his head, “I know hacking isn’t your thing, but you hired me to break into the highest levels of Earth Gov. Something like that takes time. And not just because of the levels of encryption I’m facing. One digital fingerprint, one small trace left behind, and Earth Gov will spare no expense in seeing me dead, young lady. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“You’re scared,” Miranda answered.
Anger flared in Mr. Marston’s eyes, but the master hacker kept it under control. “I’m not scared. I’m being cautious, because I’m rather attached to my internal organs and would rather not see them stripped out one by one in an Earth Gov interrogation facility.”
“You’re supposed to be the best there is, Mr. Marston.” Miranda played to his ego. “That’s why I came to you in the first place.”
“I am the best,” Mr. Marston assured her, “but being cautious when retrieving data along the lines of what you’ve asked me for is part of that. You don’t screw around with Earth Gov.”
“I’m well aware of that,” Miranda said, “but it’s been a week, and I want to see some results.”
Mr. Marston sighed. “Come on, then.”
She followed him into his work room. Its walls were lined with a sea of monitors, and his interface chair sat in the room’s center. Dozens of thick data cables ran into the bottom of the chair. Mr. Marston took a seat in it. He let out a slight gasp of pain and pleasure as a needle extended from the chair into the neural port on the back of his neck. His eyes flooded with blackness, becoming something no longer entirely human as he connected with his network. Mr. Marston’s voice was low and had a mechanical ring to it when he spoke again.
“Take a look at the large screen,” he told Miranda. “The one over there.”
Mr. Marston pointed at the largest screen in the room, which hung on the wall directly across from his interface chair. The screen was filled with a scrolling mass of numbers and symbols Miranda wasn’t going to pretend she understood.
“What am I looking at?” she asked.
“You’re looking at what I’m dealing with,” Mr. Marston explained. “That’s the best damn encryption I’ve ever seen. It’s constantly changing and shifting. Every time I think I’ve found a way to decipher it, it alters itself. Whoever designed this encryption was a genius.”
“But you’re a genius too,” Miranda reminded him.
“I am. There’s no doubt about that,” Mr. Marston’s tone was smug. “But this thing…this AI…it’s like it’s alive. I’ve never seen anything like it before in all my years of hacking. Whatever kind of work your father did for the elites of Earth Gov, all I can tell you is they’ve spared no expense in keeping it hush hush. From what I’ve been able to deduce from this crap so far, maybe five people in all of Earth Gov have access to his records.”
“Five?” Miranda was stunned by that. The Earth Gov administration consisted of hundreds of senators, all fighting for power and political gain. Beyond them, there was the head of Earth Gov, numerous planetary governors, and fleet commanders. How, out of all those people, could only five have access to her father’s records?
“I know what you’re thinking,” Mr. Marston said. “And yes, it’s very bizarre and far from the norm. The only one of the five who has access to the information you’re after I’ve been able to identify is the head of Earth Gov himself, President Wellington. His ID isn’t one that anyone can fake. Not even me.”
“So you’re telling me you’ve hit a dead end?” Miranda pressed the master hacker.
Mr. Marston sighed. “I suppose I am. I am, however, still working to uncover who the other four with access to your father’s records are. If I can discover the identity of even one of them, I might be able to gain access myself. I might not. Only time will tell, and that’s what I need if you want the data you hired me to retrieve for you. More time.”
“I can’t give you any more time, Mr. Marston.” Miranda frowned. “The work being done on my ship will be finishing up tomorrow. My crew and I have stayed too long here already.”
“The real reason you say that is because of your last contract.” Mr. Marston surprised her, though she really shouldn’t have been surprised he’d know all he did, given his line of work. “You took a contract from a high-ranking Earth Gov senator and called a touch too much attention to yourself and your crew. You’re worried that if she’s going to come after you, she’ll do it here, where things are easily covered up and swept under the rug.”
“Something like that,” Miranda admitted.
“I’m not refunding what you paid me, Miranda.” Mr. Marston turned his head where he sat in the interface chair to look up at her. “I’ve taken some fairly large risks just learning what I have, and I’ve confirmed your suspicions that your father’s rank as an operative went all the way to the very top of Earth Gov. That’s more than worth what you’ve paid.”
Miranda knew better than to argue with Mr. Marston. His guards she could handle. She didn’t see them as a threat. Marston himself, though, could make her life a living hell from his interface chair if she threatened him and left him alive. Murder wasn’t something she engaged in, and she wasn’t planning on starting today.
“Keep the credits,” Miranda told Mr. Marston, “but I expect you to keep working on this for me after we’re gone.”
“Of course,” Mr. Marston assured her, but Miranda figured the master hacker was lying. As soon as she walked out of his house, Mr. Marst
on would destroy every shred of evidence that could link him to an attempt to break into such highly classified Earth Gov documents.
Frustrated and hiding her anger, Miranda left Mr. Marston still plugged into his chair. Zack was waiting for her outside the house to escort her back through the gates.
“I take it that didn’t go well,” Zack said upon seeing her expression.
“It could have gone better.” Miranda snorted.
“You’ll be back then?” he asked with a look of hope on his boyish face.
“Eventually,” Miranda answered.
As they reached the gates, and Zack opened them for her, he said, “You be safe out there.”
“I am a monster hunter, Zack,” Miranda said as she walked away from him. “I’m not sure I know what safe is anymore.”
* * * * *
Chapter 18
“You can hold your drink, Boy, I’ll give you that,” Lee slurred, raising a mug to Flynn, who sat across the table from him in the rear, shadowed section of Wild Mack’s saloon. “Ain’t many in this universe that can keep up with me. I’ve got a lot of experience at this.”
Flynn laughed, clanging his mug against the old man’s.
The saloon was crowded, but the shadowed section at the rear only contained two other tables. At one of those tables sat a group of the galaxy’s scum, engrossed in a high-stakes card game. The other was filled by Bear Wiggins and his crew of monster hunters. Wiggins was a giant of a man, so large as to have made even Claus Wulf look small standing next to him. He wore a suit of brown armor with spikes on its shoulders. The suit was much heavier and thicker than what Miranda wore. Upon its back were sheathed a matching set of extendable spears that, if Lee remembered correctly, could also sprout the blades of axes, doubling as those as well.
Bear Wiggins was a boisterous man, with a booming voice and the temperament of the animal he was named for. A long black beard covered the lower half of his face, and the hair atop his head was thick and equally dark. His eyes were an inhuman shade of yellow. Lee had heard that Bear Wiggins had undergone gene therapy to enhance his already incredible strength. The man was an arrogant bastard anyway you looked at it. His rep as a monster hunter was a mixed bag of botched gigs and stunning successes.
Lee hated to think of Bear Wiggins as being the kind of A-list hunter Miranda was, but hunters were a dying breed, and there weren’t that many of them remaining. Earth Gov and the continued expansion of its policies and garrisons were forcing most out of work. Why hire a monster hunter when help from Earth Gov was free? That was the thinking among many colonial owners and leaders these days. The fools didn’t even seem to realize that, once Earth Gov showed up in force to deal with the beasts that were killing your people, they wouldn’t be leaving. They just didn’t understand that inviting Earth Gov in was a death sentence to any freedom they had enjoyed previously.
Wiggins’ crew was an equally rough lot. Their mortality rate was so high that Lee only recognized one of them from the last time he had run into Bear. That man was Davis Bloodstone. He was old to still be in the monster hunting trade, and with good reason. Bloodstone was the best swordsman Lee had ever met. It pained him to admit it, but Bloodstone was as talented with his blades as Lee had once been with his sniper rifle, before his sight had started to go on him. Lee refused to use cybernetics or gene therapy to restore his vision. Truth be told, he’d had enough years in the field on the front lines and was quite content to be Miranda’s adviser and partner, calling the shots from the safety of Strider. Lee saw that Bloodstone recognized him, too. The beady-eyed, rail-thin swordsman gave him a nod of acknowledgment from across the room.
“Who are those guys?” Flynn asked, noticing Bloodstone’s nod in their direction.
“Trouble, if we’re not careful,” Lee answered. “That big guy is Bear Wiggins.”
Flynn blinked. “You’re messing with me.”
“I ain’t.” Lee’s expression was deadly serious. “That’s him.”
“I thought Earth Gov brought him up on charges for screwing up that gig on Yeetz,” Flynn said. “Heard he and his crew opened fire on the people who hired them.”
“Don’t know nothing about that,” Lee grumbled. “Don’t matter none anyway. If they did, you can bet your life Bear cut some kind of deal with them. The man’s a survivor first and foremost, above all else.”
“What are those armbands he and his crew are wearing?” Flynn asked and downed what was left his mug, slamming it onto the table top.
“What ya talking about?” Lee asked, squinting at Bear and his crew. The low light was playing havoc with what was left of his once keen eyesight.
Bloodstone must have heard Flynn’s question because the thin, pale man rose and walked over to their table.
“He’s talking about these.” Bloodstone pointed at the red and green band he wore on his arm. The band bore the insignia of Earth Gov, and the rank marking of a low level operative. “We’re all official and licensed now.”
“That so?” Lee huffed. “Looks to me more like you and the boys over there sold your souls to the devil.”
Bloodstone glared down at Lee, towering over him. Lee rocked back in his seat, meeting Bloodstone’s eyes with a feigned expression of boredom on his face.
“That kind of talk can get you killed these days,” Bloodstone snarled. “Earth Gov doesn’t take too kindly to troublemakers.”
“I ain’t making no trouble, son.” Lee smiled. “I’m just calling things as I see them.”
“Well, if it ain’t the old man himself!” Bear Wiggins roared, coming over to join Bloodstone next to their table. “I can’t believe you ain’t dead yet.”
“Nope. I’m still kicking, as you can plainly see, Bear.” Lee snorted. “The Reaper hasn’t gotten her cold hands on me so far, and I plan on keeping it that way.”
“I see Bloodstone has told you about our new alliance with Earth Gov,” Bear thundered, proudly patting his armband. “Never thought I’d live to see the day, but we got ourselves steady work now, and those Earth Gov fraggers are even footing our expenses.”
Lee wanted to ask just what it was that Bear Wiggins and his crew were doing for Earth Gov, but one look at the giant hunter assured him that his gut was right. Bear and his boys didn’t just hunt monsters anymore. They were Earth Gov muscle that could be thrown at any of the smaller colonies on the fringes that needed a non-military smack down.
Flynn started to say something, but Lee kicked him in the shin beneath the table. As Flynn grunted in pain, and his eyes shot over to Lee, the old man said, “Good for you Bear. You deserve it. Glad to see things are working out for you.”
“You still following that little girl around?” Bear asked.
“Her name is Miranda,” Lee answered. “And yeah, I’m her partner.”
“In more ways than one, I bet!” Bloodstone smirked.
The old man had been willing to let whatever crap Bear and Bloodstone dished out slide until that moment. He leaped from his seat, throwing a punch at the swordsman towering over him. In his younger days, he might even have pulled it off. Maybe. Bloodstone was impossibly fast even back then. Catching Lee’s fist as it came toward him, Bloodstone twisted Lee’s arm almost to, but not quite, the point of breaking. The pain brought Lee to his knees in front of the swordsman, his arm still tight in Bloodstone’s grip. Flynn jumped up to help him, but Bear Wiggins wasn’t having it. The giant hunter slammed a fist into Flynn’s chest that sent him crashing backward onto the floor of the saloon with the breath knocked out of him. Lying there, gasping, Flynn stared up at Bear Wiggins.
“You’ll stay down if you know what’s good for you, son,” the giant hunter warned him.
Bear had pulled his punch or he’d be dead, and Flynn knew it. He jerked up his hands in a gesture of surrender as Bear Wiggins burst into laughter.
“Release the old man, Bloodstone,” Bear ordered. “He and his crew always were a cowardly lot, as you can see from this fine example right there o
n the floor.”
Bloodstone didn’t want to let Lee go.
“Now!” Bear snapped.
Releasing his hold on Lee, Bloodstone backed away from the old man carefully. “Coward or not, this one is dangerous, Boss.”
“Damn right,” Lee shouted, heaving himself to his feet and rubbing at his aching arm. “You better hope we don’t run into each other out there in the Black, Bloodstone.”
“I’ve seen your ship, old man,” Bloodstone chuckled. “Don’t reckon I got much to be worried about in that regard.”
Bear Wiggins moved to kick Flynn as the younger hunter rose to his feet. “Go on! Get out of here before I change my mind and let Bloodstone really have a go at the two of you.”
Pride wounded much more than their bodies, Lee and Flynn left the saloon without looking back.
“We gonna let that stand?” Flynn raged once they were outside on the street.
“Their time will come kid,” the old man promised him, “but it’s not today.”
“But…” Flynn started.
“I said not today, didn’t I?” Lee snapped.
“Hold up a minute!” a woman shouted, chasing after them along the street.
Lee and Flynn turned around as she reached them. She wore the clothes of a farmer, and her skin had a baked look to it, likely from long hours toiling in the sun. Her hair was a stark white, though she couldn’t have been more than thirty standard years old based on the rest of her. Two twisting tendrils of black ran through the white, and Lee wondered if that was the real color of her hair. She offered Lee her hand.
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