Hell Is Empty (The Frontier Book 3)

by Travis E. Hughes

  “Didn’t you say that it was you, or our agency that kicked Kidd off of Shiva?” Roslyn asked.

  “That’s right,” Talbert said, watching a couple of gamblers pass by outside. It was hard to tell from the window but it seemed that the fire brigade had managed to put the fire out.

  “Rex said the kid killed a Bird,” Roslyn said and this caused Talbert’s head to jerk toward her.

  “Killed a Bird?” Talbert asked, his eyes darting from side to side as if the motion would bring back forgotten details. He squinted.

  “Here’s what’s even worse, or whatever, but,” Roslyn had to pause and swallow. “Rex said he studied with the Birds, like Hattie had, and he influenced Kidd to kill the Bird. The Bird in question figured out Rex wasn’t learning magic or whatever you want to call it, for good but for evil and was going to kick him off world when he had Kidd Wylie, a homeless kid at the time, a punk, kill the Bird for him.”

  “That’s odd,” Talbert managed to say after a long time staring out the window.

  “What’s odd?” Roslyn pressed.

  “I remember the Birds wanting him to be sent off of Shiva,” Talbert said, scratching his chin. “But I thought it was because he’d killed a drunk human in a robbery gone wrong or something. I never heard about a dead Bird.”

  “Maybe the Birds didn’t want people to know that a person killed one of their own?” Roslyn said with a hand shrug.

  “Maybe,” Talbert said.

  “You really think it was a coincidence we walked into that club and found Rex Omnious and Kidd Wylie hanging out?” Roslyn asked, studying the veteran bounty hunter’s expression. He sighed and let that thought journey and bounce about.

  “And he wanted me to call your transponder, to send out a distress signal,” she continued when his face told her very little in way of an answer. “It was like he was setting a trap. But to do that, he’d have to…”

  She trailed off. Her mind could only extend so far before reason strained and then snapped. What did it all imply?

  She figured out from the consequent chatter among them and logical reason, that Grace had sent the distress signal to the others. She may have even waited until they were all within range to set the fire.

  “Here’s something worse,” Roslyn said, remembering another important piece of information. “Rex has the ability to completely shut Hattie down. Like he can break her if he wants.”

  “Break her?” Talbert asked again looking at her with eager eyes.

  “Let’s say he’s more versed in Bird magic than she is and she can mind screw an entire squad of Amazons,” Roslyn said.

  “Shit,” sighed Talbert. Roslyn wondered if the look on his face was fear. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen that on him before. She’d lay money down that the fear came more from the idea that Rex could break Hattie, than for the fact that Rex had his sights trained on him.

  Talbert’s face changed from whatever that had been, to determination. He moved past her and headed toward the cell to continue the trial. Hattie hadn’t moved. She was feeling the emotional range of Kidd and delving into his mind.

  “Did Lu Yanker hire you to kill Arjun Grover’s Dead Bunnies?” Talbert asked Kidd.

  “Do you remember me, sir?” Kidd asked with a side grin, ignoring the question.

  “I do,” Talbert said. “I kicked your ass off of Shiva once.”

  “You did indeed, sir,” Kidd said, slowly nodding his head. The feather bounced like an antenna above his hat. “When did you get so old?”

  “Next question,” Talbert continued. “Did you kill a Bird back then?”

  Kidd Wylie’s face suddenly dropped. He blinked and looked around at the floor of his cell, as if he’d lost something. Hattie sniffed in a sharp breath and straightened.

  “That feather come off the Bird you killed?” Talbert asked, pointing to the blue antenna. “Well?”

  “Honestly, sir, I sometimes wonder if it really happened or if it was just some horrible dream,” Kidd said, still scanning the floor. Hattie’s face strained.

  “Do you feel like you were influenced somehow by something beyond you, to kill that Bird?” asked Roslyn.

  “Did I really do that?” Kidd asked, and Roslyn was surprised to hear anguish in his voice. “I thought… Why would anyone want to kill those beautiful creatures?”

  “So you were influenced to do it.” Roslyn looked at Hattie and then to Talbert. It wasn’t a question. Hattie’s pain seemed to diminish and serenity returned.

  “I don’t know, ma’am,” Kidd said shaking his head. “I remember thinking the Bird was very bad and had turned to evil. And something, a voice in my head maybe, told me an evil Bird was a very dangerous thing. And it was my job to keep this evil from spreading to the rest of the universe, or whatever.”

  “I hate to admit it, but damn, that’s scary as shit,” Roslyn said walking away from the cell, pacing and biting the nail off of her big clumsy thumb.

  “What about that other part,” Talbert said. “The part about Lu Yanker?”

  “Oh, that was an after thought, sir,” Kidd said. Roslyn stopped pacing to hear the next part. “The Dead Bunnies were a grade-A piece of shit organization, sir. They did horrible things to whoever they could. I was settling a score with them.”

  “What kind of score?” Talbert asked.

  “Three of those shit heads raped my girl’s kid sister,” Kidd said, his nostrils flared.

  “What?” Roslyn asked, approaching the bars.

  “I figured I’d kill the ones responsible, but when none of them cowards would come clean on who did it, I killed them all,” Kidd said and spat.

  “Then…?” Talbert started but Kidd continued.

  “Then, after it was over, I realized I’d done that bastard Lu Yanker a solid and figured that fat SOB should pay me for the service,” Kidd said. “And he did, too.”

  “Does Arjun Grover know about the rape?” Roslyn asked.

  Kidd shrugged his answer, like it wasn’t his concern.

  “Maybe you ought to tell him when we hand you over,” Talbert said. “Might go easier on you if he knew he employed rapists and what they did and why you did what you did.”

  “If we hand you over,” Roslyn corrected. “This is still a trial.”

  But ironically the trial had naturally concluded. Hattie slowly came to and stood. She looked exhausted. They strolled into the office space of the jailhouse where the others waited for the results of the trial.

  “What was your take?” Roslyn asked Hattie.

  “He wasn’t lying about any of it,” Hattie said. “He couldn’t clearly remember killing the Avian back on Shiva. But he clearly remembers feeling he’d served justice in killing those rapists in Yanker.”

  “Maybe he had,” Talbert said. “I’d do the same.”

  “So he was telling the truth about not doing it for the money?” Roslyn asked Hattie. Hattie nodded.

  “Well,” Roslyn said in way of announcement. “Here’s what I think. We bring him back to Yanker.”

  This caused several mumbles among the gathered agents.

  “But we don’t hand him over to Grover,” Roslyn continued holding up her hand to silence the murmurs. “We let the kid explain why he killed those men. We are there to protect the kid. But we also insist on being paid for the warrant’s completion just the same. We explain that we conducted a trial and that we found him innocent.”

  “Innocent?” Talbert asked, looking at Hattie. She seemed to agree with the verdict.

  Tired from the evening’s excitements, most of the agents retired to their apartments for the night. Siringo and Hassan agreed to take the first shift at the jail guarding the prisoner.

  The sun had yet to rise when there was a buzz from the jailhouse door. Talbert had relieved Hassan in the dark hours of morning and Roslyn had relieved Siringo more recently. Roslyn had just poured a cup of coffee when the buzz startled her to spill a splash on her hand. It burned. “Shit!”

  Talbert
moved to the desk and looked at the monitor. The camera above the door showed three people with three small drones floating over the head of the pretty woman leading them.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Are they armed?” Roslyn asked, coming up to peer over Talbert’s shoulder.

  “Not openly,” Talbert said, glancing at her as she nearly put her chin on his shoulder. He then quickly looked back at the monitor.

  Talbert clicked a button to open the channel. “Yep? New Vegas jail, what can we do for you?”

  The woman straightened and fluffed her black hair. Suddenly three tiny red lights came on in the drones.

  “Yes, hello. My name is Adriana Johar,” said the woman loudly into the microphone on the wall. “We are from Channel One, New Vegas.”

  “Channel One?” Roslyn cocked her head at Talbert.

  “I’m sorry,” Talbert said into his microphone. “We’re not familiar.”

  “Of course not. We just arrived yesterday and have been setting up our studios down the way,” Adriana said, pointing up the street. “We’re from Earth. Long trip. No time to spare. Here to interview the local law enforcement organization and get a feel for the way things are going here in town. We figured the jailhouse would be the best place to start. We plan to talk to the citizens also, of course, but we wanted to start with you.”

  Talbert turned to Roslyn. She sipped her coffee and gave a shrug. Then she realized she needed a mirror and rushed to the bathroom. Quickly she made up her face and brushed her teeth.

  The crew and Adriana stood in the receiving area of the jailhouse with Talbert when she exited. He looked extremely uncomfortable.

  “I don’t want my name on the news,” Talbert said. “Best not to show my face, actually.”

  “Oh, how mysterious,” Adriana said, glancing at the large man to her right. He wore smart goggles and using his hands seemed to guide the camera drones around the room.

  “Hello,” Roslyn said, extending her hand to shake Adriana’s. “Roslyn Fink.”

  “Nice to meet you, Miss Fink,” Adriana said. “I’m Adriana Johar. This is my sound man, Raul Silva.” She pointed to the shorter of the two men. He wore headphones.

  “And this is my camera operator,” she motioned toward the tall man wearing smart goggles. “Reyansh Lahm. Everyone calls him Rey.”

  They all shook hands. And exchanged nice to meet yous.

  Frank entered whistling a tune, but stopped dead when he noticed the crew. Instinctively he put his hand on his gun.

  “They’re a news organization from Earth,” Roslyn said with an exaggerated smile.

  “Word has bounced around and down the gravity well, through social media, about the Interstellar Peace Keeping Agency,” Adriana said, turning to Roslyn. “Care to tell us a little more about that?”

  “Well, we’re basically bounty hunters. As everyone knows, there is no Earth law out here. It’s frontier justice. But sometimes that leads to varying opinions on what that means. The Holy Avians,” Roslyn made the sign of the Birds. “They speak for pure justice. So for a time we used Shiva as our headquarters and the Avians served as our judicial system.”

  “And why are you no longer headquartered there?” Adriana asked. Talbert shifted his weight ever so slightly.

  “We felt we could be more effective here, on Danaus,” Roslyn said, glancing at Talbert. He winked his approval. This caused her lips to curl slightly into a grin.

  “Ah, I see,” Adriana nodded.

  “Shiva has the Avians, they don’t need us. Plus, we now have an ordained judge who studied with the Avians,” Roslyn continued. “She performed a trial last night for us.”

  “And when can we meet this judge?” Adriana asked, looking around as if Hattie was about to spring from the darkness.

  “She’ll be along soon,” Roslyn assured her. “Trials have a way of taking all of her energy. She’s sleeping now.”

  “I see you have a few prisoners locked up back there,” Adriana said with wide eyes. “How does that work? There’s no law to detain them.”

  “Well while there has yet to be elections, which is coming, so I’m told, however, the town does have a sheriff’s department. The local businesses help pay for it, along with a large donation from the former kingpin of New Vegas.” Roslyn tried not to smile.

  “Who you guys took down, correct?” Adriana said. “A woman named Star Belly?”

  “That is correct,” Roslyn said, trying to hide her pride. “You’ve done your homework.”

  “Well, trust me, we had a long time getting through the Oort Cloud to study up on what’s been going on out here,” Adriana said.

  “Oh, yeah,” Roslyn said. “Hattie Su and myself made that trip. We both have masters degrees in criminal justice from Earth.”

  “Your father started the agency back in sixty-seven?” Adriana said, reading notes from her transponder.

  “Right after the war,” Roslyn nodded and gave a sad smile.

  “And you joined your father’s agency in…” Adriana asked with raised, perfectly trimmed eyebrows.

  “Seventy-nine,” Roslyn answered. “Couple years back.”

  “So is it fair to say you’ve taken your father’s agency and grown it to what it is now?” Adriana asked.

  “We were lucky to come across a large diamond find,” Roslyn said. “It helped us modernize the organization and hire more staff. So I won’t take the credit for it, but we have become a true force for justice out here now.”

  Talbert grunted. Roslyn suddenly felt the mole attack her brain stem. Was she being too phony? Talking to this reporter felt awkward as shit. He sure as hells wasn’t volunteering any information, leaving her under the bus.

  “About those prisoners locked up back there,” Adriana said, lifting to her tip-toes to see back into the cells. “Can we interview them?”

  “I don’t know about that,” Talbert said, tugging at his ear and making a clicking noise through his teeth.

  “Don’t you think they deserve to have their voices heard?” Adriana asked.

  “You might be right,” Roslyn said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

  “Are they all your bounties?” Adriana asked.

  “No. Only one of them is ours,” Roslyn said, motioning toward the cell that held Kidd Wylie.

  “What are the others here for?” asked Adriana.

  “Well, that one, Slippery Pete, the one there sleeping off a nasty drunk in cell one,” Roslyn said, pointing to Slippery Pete’s cell. “He likes to get drunk and takes swings at people. He might have been killed last night if Sheriff Wyatt hadn’t intervened. He punched somebody’s girlfriend at a bar and luckily the sheriff was close enough by that he only sustained a broken nose and some bruised ribs.”

  “What’s the story on your bounty?” Adriana asked.

  “That’s Kidd Wylie,” Roslyn said. Talbert gave a subtle grimace, which poked the mole but she tried her best to ignore it.

  “Kidd Wylie? What a colorful name,” Adriana said, perking up and taking a closer look into the cell. “What’s he wanted for?”

  “He killed at least eleven people that we know about,” Roslyn said.

  “Is that true? How do you know if he’s just being accused of something by a business rival or some sort of enemy?” Adriana asked.

  “Well, in fact, we conducted an investigation into that,” Frank said. “We were concerned that might have been the case. But it turns out he did kill those people.”

  “He confessed to it,” Roslyn said. This caused Frank to give a short chuckle.

  “Why did he kill all those people?” Adriana asked. “Did he say?”

  “It started as revenge for the rape of his girlfriend’s kid sister,” Roslyn said. “It elevated from there.”

  “So how is it that justice wasn’t then served?” Adriana asked. “Who put the bounty out of him, if not the friends of the rapists?”

  “Well, you’ll be happy to know, that we did in fact conduct a trial last night,” Rosly
n said, dripping with self-righteous pride. It felt like college, when she’d studied thoroughly for a test and was in the middle of acing it. “We found the defendant not guilty.”

  “But you won’t be paid if you don’t deliver him to Yanker?” Adriana asked.

  “Oh, we’re going to get paid,” Roslyn assured her. “We’re going to take him to Yanker and have him explain to the author of the warrant why he killed his men. We won’t be releasing Kidd Wylie to the man, but we will insist we did the work and we expect to be paid for it.”

  “With force?” asked Adriana, the twinkle in her eye matched the smirk on her lipstick.

  “With gentle persuasion,” Talbert said with a false grin.

  “We are very careful not to play mercenaries and arrest good people on bad warrants,” Roslyn explained.

  “What do you say to people who do not worship or follow the Avians and refuse to accept your rulings as binding?” Adriana asked.

  “The Avians are the most advanced spiritual beings that we have yet to encounter,” Roslyn said, this time looking into the closest camera drone. “We know what we do is in their name and therefore it is justified. If you don’t like it, we don’t care. Justice will be served.”

  “Thank you for that,” Adriana said, motioning to her crew that she felt they had enough to start. Roslyn shook her hand again and everyone exchanged pleasantries.

  “You have a larger story to tell, don’t you, sir?” Adriana asked Talbert upon shaking his hand.

  “I do a lot of undercover work,” Talbert said. “I prefer to keep my face and name out of the news. That’s all.”

  Adriana nodded that was fair enough. “Now, can I get Kidd Wylie’s story from him?”

  Talbert glanced at Roslyn. Roslyn squinted back and then nodded.

  “Sure,” Roslyn said finally. “He’s telling the truth. Why not?”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Talbert sped through the streets on his hover bike, swerving to avoid pedestrians and other automobiles of various makes and models. His keen blue eyes scanned the parking lots around every hotel he could find. He was looking for a hover hearse turned buggy. The bastard was in town and he wasn’t going to leave before Talbert could wring him dry of answers. He’d kill those Amazon guards if he had to. That would be his opening statement. Two blasts to the forehead of each and then he’d have the rich little prick’s attention.