by Jake Bible
“I was set!” Boss Teegg snarled as he closed the short distance and picked Roak up by his tunic so they were eye to eye. The tunic began to rip, but Boss Teegg showed no signs of noticing. “I was going to retire in less than a decade! You know how rare that is in my business?”
“About as rare as in mine,” Roak said. He tried to headbutt Boss Teegg, but he missed spectacularly. Once more he was flying across the apartment.
“Yeah, it’s rare,” Boss Teegg said. “So rare that I was overly cautious. That’s why I hired you. I couldn’t afford loose ends like Bicun Maz.”
“You should have paid me,” Roak groaned as he rolled over and tried to get up onto his hands and knees.
A swift kick from Boss Teegg sent him tumbling across the floor. He hit hard against the wall and cried out as his left arm snapped.
“I don’t know why you have the reputation you do,” Boss Teegg said as he picked Roak up once again. “This is the second time I’ve kicked your ass.”
“That so?” Roak asked, spitting bloody mucous into Boss Teegg’s left eye. “Because the first time you had your goons do it. And that was only after I killed most of them. Remember that?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Boss Teegg said as he threw Roak back onto the bed. “You’re dead now.”
“Don’t think so,” Roak said and drew a small blade from his boot. He threw it with only the slightest flick of his wrist and the blade embedded itself into the side Boss Teegg’s neck. “Don’t touch it. You wiggle that blade and you’ll bleed out in two seconds. It has a suction surface and that’s all that’s keeping you alive right now.”
Boss Teegg froze where he was, his hand raised to pull out the knife.
“You don’t believe me,” Roak said. “I can see it in your terpig eyes. Go ahead and take it out. Try it. I’d rather you didn’t, since you owe me a lot of chits. But maybe having you dead will be for the best. I can tear this place apart and look for your chit stash easier that way.”
Roak shifted and groaned.
“You can’t tear apart shit,” Boss Teegg said, hand still in the air. “I broke you.”
“That you did,” Roak said. “But I’ve been broken worse and I always come back from it. The proof of that is that I’m here right now instead of in an incinerator cube that’s been launched out into deep space.”
“That woman,” Boss Teegg snarled. “That stupid woman. Is she dead? She better be dead. I ordered her dead.”
“She’s dead,” Roak replied. “And we’ll address that later. Right now, how about you take a seat while I figure out what to do next?”
Boss Teegg looked around, but the room’s only chair was shattered on the floor right next to Vampa. The woman’s eyes were massive and she sat there frozen, her arms wrapped around her knees, rocking back and forth, looking at neither of the men.
“Sit on the floor,” Roak said.
Boss Teegg remained standing.
“I don’t need to do a damn thing you tell me to–”
Boss Teegg’s words were interrupted by a blood-curdling shriek.
Both Roak and Boss Teegg jumped in surprise as suddenly Vampa was up on her feet, blaster clutched in both hands, and running towards the bed. Roak rolled to the side as the first laser bolt obliterated the spot where he’d just been.
“No!” Boss Teegg roared and tried to reach out and grab the woman.
But he missed and she kept running and firing until her shins smacked right into the end of the bed and she tumbled over on the mattress.
Roak grabbed the blaster from her hands, turned it around, and fired point blank into the top of her skull. The result was that her head and spine were vaporized in a rolling wave of smoking energy. Her body split down the middle, half-falling from one side of the bed, half falling from the other side, leaving only a charred line on the rumpled sheets.
“You asshole!” Boss Teegg shouted as he went to lunge at Roak. He stopped as he saw the glowing end of the blaster pointed at him. He seethed with anger then slowly deflated. “You asshole.”
“I’d really like to point out that none of this would have happened if you’d just paid me,” Roak said. “You’d still be back on Ligston in your comfy compound with your Nemorian whores. You’d still have a small army of thugs working for you. You wouldn’t be running from me, and your lady friend there would still be alive. All of this is because you didn’t pay me the chits you owed me.”
“This happened because you are insane,” Boss Teegg said. “You came to me with a container of sludge, not the person I hired you to hunt.”
“We both know that’s not true,” Roak said. “I delivered exactly who I was hired to deliver. You just didn’t want to honor our agreement.”
“You know what I mean.” Boss Teegg said.
“And you know what I mean,” Roak replied.
Boss Teegg glared at Roak then shook his head.
“I’d be careful moving like that,” Roak said.
“Shut up,” Boss Teegg snapped. “So, Roak, what’s next? What happens now? You have a blaster on me, but so what? You’re in no shape to get me from here to your ship. Even if you were, I have plenty of people paid off across this station. They see me in your custody and they’ll do exactly what I paid them to do. Kill you.”
“I don’t need to take you anywhere,” Roak said. “I just need to take my chits.”
“You need to take your what?” Boss Teegg asked. “Your chits? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Chits,” Roak said. “The ones you have hidden in this apartment somewhere.”
“Chits hidden in this apartment?” Boss Teegg laughed. Then he winced and went to touch the knife in his neck, but stopped himself. “Roak, how do you think I paid off the people that are on this station to protect me? I spent every last chit I have. If I had even a few left, I’d have been long gone days ago. You think I want to be in this shithole?”
He looked around and wrinkled his nose.
“I have a place on the Cverx Colony that is so much nicer than here,” Boss Teegg said.
“I was going to check there next,” Roak replied. “So being somewhere else really wouldn’t have helped much.”
“You know about Cverx?” Boss Teegg asked. He nodded and the look in his eye was slightly less hateful. “Maybe you are as good at your job as they say.”
“Maybe I am,” Roak said. “So bring me my chits.”
“I don’t have any chits!” Boss Teegg shouted. “Aren’t you listening?”
“I’m listening, I just don’t believe you,” Roak said. “You have some. I know it. Chits. Now.”
“Sweet bloody hell,” Boss Teegg said. “You don’t quit, do you?”
“It’s an occupational hazard,” Roak said. “It’ll get me killed some day. Just not today.”
“In the headboard,” Boss Teegg said. “Right behind you.”
Roak studied the man for a long while, looking for signs that the confession was a trap. He saw no signs, but that didn’t really mean much.
“Is it rigged to blow?” Roak asked.
“No boobytraps,” Boss Teegg said. “There’s a button on the right-hand side. Press it and a panel will open. You can have all of the chits that are in there.”
“No boobytraps?” Roak asked. He nodded at the singed line on the bed. “You hid chits in a stim junkie’s apartment without any boobytraps?”
“Vampa was a great lay, but she was dumb as space dust,” Boss Teegg said. “You could hold a few thousand chits out in your hand, and if you didn’t explicitly tell her what they were, she’d just blink and stare like you were holding a pile of turds.”
“Yeah, I still don’t believe you,” Roak said. “You’re going to move slowly over here and show me. One wrong move and you die. No warning.”
“Okay,” Boss Teegg said. “But can I move around with this knife in me?”
“That’s why I said to do it slowly,” Roak replied.
“Fine,” Boss Teegg said and complied
with Roak’s orders.
He moved slowly to the side of the bed, careful to avoid stepping on the half-corpse at his feet, then pressed the button on the headboard. A panel slid open and Roak glanced at it.
“Where’s the rest?” Roak asked.
“There is no rest,” Boss Teegg said. “That’s it.”
“Where are your other stash locations?” Roak asked. “Across the galaxy? Where?”
“I drained those trying to cover my tracks getting here,” Boss Teegg answered. “I would have saved them if I actually thought you were good enough to find me. You have to admit, I saw your little technicality with Bicun Maz as a sign of incompetence. I sincerely did not believe you to be skilled enough to track me to this station.”
“That’s your mistake, not mine,” Roak said. “So you don’t have any more chits?”
“No,” Boss Teegg said.
“Then what good are you?” Roak asked.
“Excuse me?” Boss Teegg replied, his eyes suddenly filled with fear.
“What good are you?” Roak repeated. “Why should I even keep you alive?”
Roak scooted to the far side of the bed and stood up on shaky legs. His left arm was killing him, so he held the blaster in his right, but the weapon was heavy as hell after what he’d been through and he wasn’t sure how long he could hang on. He needed to make a move.
“You’re now a liability,” Roak said. “I leave you alive and you alert the thugs you’ve paid off on this station. You already said I wouldn’t get back to my ship with you in tow. I highly doubt I’ll get to my ship if I leave you breathing.”
“Tie me up,” Boss Teegg said. “Knock me out.”
“You could get loose,” Roak said. “You could wake up.”
“Then do a damn good job of it!” Boss Teegg snapped. “You don’t have to kill me!”
“I kind of do,” Roak said.
“WAIT!” Boss Teegg shouted. “Just wait! I’m worth something! I have value!”
“How?” Roak asked. “I’m looking at every angle and all I see is danger.”
“No! No,” Boss Teegg pleaded. “Mr. Wrenn. You can talk to Mr. Wrenn.”
“Mr. Wrenn?” Roak laughed. “I’ve already talked to Mr. Wrenn.”
Boss Teegg’s eyes widened. “You have? When?”
“What does it matter when?” Roak replied. “I talked to him and he’s not a fan of you right now. Something about you stealing the chits you were supposed to pay me with. He wanted me to track you down and bring you to him. Except he wasn’t going to pay me anything, so I declined.”
“You declined Mr. Wrenn and lived?” Boss Teegg asked, astounded.
“Obviously,” Roak said. “So that avenue is closed to you.”
“No, it’s not,” Boss Teegg said. “I know Mr. Wrenn. I know how he thinks. You get him on the comm and show me to him and he’ll change his mind.”
“Why?” Roak asked.
“Why what?” Boss Teegg responded.
Roak sighed. “Why will he change his mind if he sees you?”
“Because he’ll see that I’m within reach,” Boss Teegg said. “He’s the type of guy that can’t pass up an opportunity to teach someone a lesson.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Roak said.
“But it’s true!” Boss Teegg exclaimed.
“I’m not arguing that,” Roak said. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. So I call him and show I caught you. How does that help you? Why even propose this if all I’m going to do is hand you over so he can kill you?”
“Because you won’t hand me over,” Boss Teegg said. “You’ll make him come here with the chits.”
“Mr. Wrenn is not going to leave the safety of the Void House to come here and hand me chits he already said he won’t pay me?” Roak said. “Nice try.”
“He will! He will!” Boss Teegg said. “And I’ll tell you why.”
Roak waited. And waited.
“This is stupid,” Roak said and took aim.
“I know where the bodies are!” Boss Teegg said.
“I doubt you’re the only one,” Roak said.
“No, these are special bodies, high-ranking bodies,” Boss Teegg said. “Bodies he will not want to be found. I’ll tell him to pay you or I give you the locations of the bodies. We’re talking GF brass bodies. That’s heat he doesn’t want coming down on him right now.”
Roak thought about it. It was thin, but still… Bodies could be a problem for even a man as powerful as Mr. Wrenn.
“Fine,” Roak said. “We’ll give it a try.”
“We will?” Boss Teegg asked, right on the verge of relief.
“Yeah, we’ll try it,” Roak said. “But if I think you’re even thinking of screwing me over, then that knife comes popping out. You got restraints?”
“It’s a prostitute’s apartment,” Boss Teegg said. He opened a drawer next to the bed and pulled out six different kinds of restraints. “Take your pick.”
28.
The look on Mr. Wrenn’s face when he answered the vid comm was priceless. Roak had to laugh.
“I found him,” Roak said, tapping a seated, restrained Boss Teegg on the scalp. “He doesn’t have your chits.”
“Is that so?” Mr. Wrenn asked, looking away from Roak to Boss Teegg. “Teegg? Where are my chits?”
“Spent,” Boss Teegg said. “Trying to get away from this asshole.”
“Looks like that was a bad investment,” Mr. Wrenn said. “They would have been better spent trying to get away from me.”
“What does that mean?” Roak asked.
“It means that it appears we have similar sources, Roak,” Mr. Wrenn said. “I have two teams on their way to your location right now to fetch Boss Teegg. I didn’t expect you to be there, so I hope you don’t try to intervene in their extraction of my employee. Excuse me. Former employee.”
“I’ll gladly step out of the way if you pay me the chits I’m owed,” Roak said.
“I’m so sorry, Roak, but I could have sworn you just asked me to pay you chits,” Mr. Wrenn said. “Did I hear that correctly? Did you ask for me to pay you chits?”
“Yes,” Roak said. “The chits that Boss Teegg owes me for the bounty on Bicun Maz. He can’t pay because he spent all his chits. You’re the next person up on the ladder, so his debt is now your debt.”
“You have got balls the size of the BBB Nebula,” Mr. Wrenn said. It was a joke, but he did not laugh. Not one single millimeter of his face showed any mirth whatsoever. “I’m going to have those balls cut off, shown to you, then stuffed down your throat so you choke to death on them.”
“He says he knows where the bodies are hidden,” Roak said, playing the only cards he had to play. “He hasn’t told me what that means, but he will if you don’t pay.”
After a pause, Mr. Wrenn said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do,” Roak said. “Try not to hesitate next time you bluff. You only end up embarrassing yourself.”
“Roak, you have an opportunity to walk away from all of this alive,” Mr. Wrenn said. “I should kill you, considering everything you have put me through already, but for some reason, I like you. You refuse to quit.”
“So everyone says,” Roak said. “But I’m not looking for your admiration; I’m looking to get paid. You pay me the chits I’m owed, or Boss Teegg tells me a story about bodies and where they are hidden. Then I tell whoever I think will listen and kick back and watch the show.”
“Roak, you are not listening to me,” Mr. Wrenn said. “I have two teams en route already. You have no leverage. Boss Teegg can tell you all he wants, but you are both going to end up dead in the end.”
“Or, I can broadcast the information to the entire galaxy from this station,” Roak said. “Can your teams reach me before I do that?”
“Probably not,” Mr. Wrenn said. He looked to his right and nodded. “Let me call you right back.”
“What?” Roak asked.
The co
mm went dead and Mr. Wrenn’s face was replaced by the generic symbol of the Galactic Fleet.
“He’ll pay,” Boss Teegg said. “He will.”
“He just hung up on me,” Roak said.
“No, he didn’t,” Boss Teegg said. “He’s covering his bases. He hates it when anyone has the upper hand. He’ll call back and show you that we’re all on even footing here.”
“I don’t think you’re on any footing,” Roak said.
The screen chimed and Mr. Wrenn reappeared.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “I needed to make sure you didn’t do anything stupid.”
“I try not to,” Roak said. “Now, where were we?”
“You were threatening to make a galaxy-wide broadcast,” Mr. Wrenn said. “I took care of that. This communication is being received and transmitted on a secure array that only I control now. The rest of the station just went dark. No calls in, no calls out. You were saying something about telling the galaxy about some bodies that you currently know nothing about?”
Roak glared at the screen.
“I can see I’ve hit a nerve,” Mr. Wrenn said. “So I am going to be gracious. Despite your intentions, you did find Boss Teegg and you currently have him in your possession. That is good for me. I want to reward you for this.”
“Reward me?” Roak asked. “What does that even mean?”
“How much did Boss Teegg owe you again?” Mr. Wrenn asked.
“Six hundred thousand chits,” Roak said.
Mr. Wrenn whistled. “That’s a hefty price for a bounty. But I suppose it’s fair, considering it wasn’t a bounty that could be posted on news boards. Here’s my offer, I’ll pay you double that just because I think the galaxy is a better place with you in it. I know I tried to have you killed, but I prefer to let bygones be bygones. One million two. All for you.”
“The bounty was for six hundred thousand,” Roak said. “So I’ll take six hundred thousand. As the chits I’m owed, not as some bribe.”
“Six hundred thousand? I’m offering you a million two,” Mr. Wrenn snapped. “Who turns that down? Are you crazy?”