by Jake Bible
“The bounty was for six hundred thousand,” Roak said. “I completed the bounty so I get paid six hundred thousand. Pay me the six hundred thousand and say it is for the bounty owed and I’ll walk. Try to pay me more and say it’s some reward and there’s no deal.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!” Mr. Wrenn roared. “No sense at all! What is wrong with you?”
“I live by certain rules,” Roak said. “One of those rules is never get greedy over a job. Six hundred thousand is my price. Take it or leave it.”
“Fine!” Mr. Wrenn shouted. “Six hundred thousand, it is.”
“And you say it’s for payment on the Bicun Maz bounty,” Roak said. “I need to hear those words.”
“It’s for the Bicun Maz bounty,” Mr. Wren said. “Happy now, Roak?”
“I am,” Roak said. “Where should I take this piece of shit to meet your teams?”
“I’ll have them comm you when they get there,” Mr. Wrenn said.
“Nice doing business with you,” Roak said, but Mr. Wrenn had already disconnected.
“He’s going to kill you,” Boss Teegg said.
“Yeah, I know,” Roak replied.
“He’s going to double cross you and kill you,” Boss Teegg said. “Probably record it all and use it as motivation for the next guy that thinks of double crossing him.”
“I didn’t double-cross him,” Roak said. “You double-crossed me and now he has to pay for it.”
“That’s not how Mr. Wrenn sees it, trust me,” Boss Teegg said. “He considers any action against his interests as a double cross.”
“That’s his problem, not mine,” Roak said. “I really don’t see why it’s so hard for you people to get what I’m saying. Just pay me and I go away. No grudges, no hard feelings, no revenge plans. No problems at all. I only cause problems when I don’t get paid what I’m owed.”
“Yes, I’m learning that,” Boss Teegg said. “So, now what?”
“Now I wait for his teams to call,” Roak said.
“I? You mean we,” Boss Teegg said.
“No, I mean I,” Roak said. “Did you hear me say I’d hand you over alive? My body’s too messed up and you’re too big to handle.”
Roak yanked the knife free and a geyser of blood shot across the apartment, spraying the wall a deep, deep black. Boss Teegg tried to speak, but he didn’t have time. Roak hadn’t been lying. The big man bled out in less than two seconds.
Roak sat on the end of the bed and took a couple of deep breaths. His arm was certainly broken, as were a couple of ribs. He felt like curling up and sleeping for a few hours, but he didn’t have that luxury. He had to figure out how he was going to get the chits and get off the station without Mr. Wrenn’s team killing him.
There was a chime at the door.
Roak looked up, puzzled. The chime rang again.
He slowly got up and crossed to the door, pressing the exterior comm button when he reached it.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Hello again, Roak,” a familiar voice said. “Could you open the door? We are on a time schedule here, sir.”
Roak was just too curious not to open the door. He held the blaster against his hip, ready to fire if needed.
The door slid open and the evolved AI was standing there before him, a huge grin on his face. The man tapped his temple.
“An AI friend of yours gave me a call before station-wide communications were severed,” the man said. “She believed you would be in trouble and asked if I would come fetch you.”
“Huh?” was all Roak could say.
The man looked around Roak at the state of the apartment.
“Oh, dear, I would have to say she was right,” he said. “You certainly are in trouble.”
29.
“Marley,” the evolved AI said as he stepped into the apartment. “You can call me Marley.”
“Who called you?” Roak asked.
“Your ship’s AI,” Marley replied. “She is quite an exceptional piece of programming.” He chuckled then waved a hand at Roak. “I don’t mean in a sexual way. That would be impossible since she does not possess a humanoid body like I do.”
“Why are you here?” Roak asked.
“To help you,” Marley said and narrowed his eyes. “I can see by the way you are holding yourself that you have three broken ribs and a broken arm. But perhaps you have a head injury as well? That might explain your confusion.”
“My confusion is that you’re even here,” Roak said.
“Listen, Roak, I owe you,” Marley said. “I know you to be a man that pays his debts or seeks out debts owed. I am a debt owed. I would like to help you with whatever you need so you may survive a little while longer in this galaxy.”
Roak started to argue again, but closed his mouth. He needed help. There was no denying that.
“Can you lift him up?” Roak asked.
“That huge man?” Marley replied, shaking his head. “I am not an android, Roak. This body is human and frail.”
“Then I’m not sure how much you can help,” Roak said.
“I could go fetch a grav sled,” Marley said. “They have them at the end of every corridor. Well, most corridors. If there isn’t one in the supply closet on this level then I can get one from the level below. We load this corpse onto the sled and take it wherever you want to go.”
“That might attract attention,” Roak said.
“It most certainly will,” Marley replied. “So bundle the corpse up in that soiled bedding, top it off with all the clothes you can find, and we’ll look like we’re doing our weekly laundry.” Marley studied Boss Teegg’s corpse for a second. “Monthly laundry. It’ll be a large pile.”
Roak had no argument against that. It was as sound a plan as could be made out of the mess.
Marley disappeared out the apartment door while Roak painfully gathered all the clothes he could and piled them up against Boss Teegg’s body. Then he sat down and tried to breathe through the pain. But with his broken ribs, breathing wasn’t exactly soothing.
He’d only managed a lungful of air by the time Marley returned.
The grav sled was too big to fit through the apartment’s door, but Marley was able to drag Boss Teegg over and heft him up onto the sled with only a few grunts and curses. Once on the sled, he piled the clothes all around the corpse then stood back and looked at his handy work.
“It’ll pass casual inspection,” Marley said. “But if we run into security, then we might have a problem.” He nodded at the mound on the sled. “That is conspicuously body shaped.”
“Here,” Roak said and handed Marley the pillows from the bed. “See if that helps.”
It didn’t.
“Nothing we can do about it,” Marley said.
There was a chime in the apartment. Roak and Marley turned from the sled to see a holo appear from the projector set into the ceiling.
“You Roak?” a scarred man asked. Most of his face was a mangled mess of warped tissue.
“Yeah,” Roak said. “Who are you?”
“I’m here to represent Mr. Wrenn’s interests,” the scarred man said. “You bring Boss Teegg to me in Docking Bay Nine. I have your chits.”
“Six hundred thousand?” Roak asked.
The man nodded. “If that’s what you’re owed. I didn’t count it. I was only told to give you the case once I have Boss Teegg in hand.”
“Docking Bay Nine?” Roak asked.
“That’s what I said,” the scarred man replied. “Be here in thirty minutes or the deal’s off. I have a schedule to keep.”
“See you in thirty,” Roak replied.
The holo blinked out.
“Wrenn said he had two teams en route,” Roak said to Marley. “That was the lead of one of them. The second one will be either planted somewhere within the docking bay or will be waiting for us along the way.”
“Mr. Wrenn is a formidable opponent,” Marley said. “You have chosen a dangerous man to go up against.”
“I didn’t choose him,” Roak said. “He chose me.”
Roak set his blaster on top of the pile then covered it over with a dirty shirt. It was easily within grabbing distance if they came across Mr. Wrenn’s second team, but it was hidden enough that it wouldn’t attract attention.
“Thirty minutes,” Roak said. “We better get moving.”
“Docking Bay Nine is on this side of the station,” Marley said. “We can easily make it there within fifteen minutes.”
“Good,” Roak said. “I’d rather be early and catch them off guard.”
“I doubt that will happen,” Marley said. “They sound like professionals. I am sure they are waiting.”
“True,” Roak said. “But we could get lucky.”
He reached out with his good hand and patted Marley on the shoulder.
“This is going to be dangerous,” Roak said. “You helped me get Boss Teegg loaded up. There’s no need for you to stick with me. Take off. Enjoy your last few days.”
“You are injured and look it,” Marley said. “Someone will probably try to assist you along the way, putting unwanted attention on the sled. With me pushing the sled, we can deflect that attention until we reach the docking bay.”
Roak knew the evolved AI was right. All it would take was some helpful busybody to discover the corpse under the clothes and then Roak would have the station’s security down on him as well as Mr. Wrenn’s teams.
“Okay, thank you,” Roak said. “I’ll owe you–”
“You will not,” Marley snapped. He smiled and tried to look calm. “You will not owe me. You will not.”
“Okay, okay,” Roak said and held up his good hand. “We’ll be even.”
“Yes, we will,” Marley responded as he put the grav sled into motion and aimed it for the lift at the end of the corridor.
They walked in silence to the lift. They remained in silence once on the lift and descending to the docking bay levels on that side of the station. It was a long trip since the bays were all the way below the habitation levels. More than a couple of times, the lift doors opened and frustrated station dwellers looked in at the sled that took up almost the entire space.
“Catch the next one,” Roak said as the doors slid closed.
They finally reached the docking bay levels, and Marley guided the sled off the lift and into a wide passageway where pilots and their crew stood around chatting about local gossip and needed repairs. No one gave Roak and Marley a second look as they walked past with their cargo. It was the docking bays; grav sleds with piles of whatever were expected.
“Nine is this way,” Marley said as he pushed the sled to another set of lift doors at the end of the passageway. “Can’t get to it from the habitation lift.”
“Right. For security,” Roak said.
Marley thumbed the lift controls and waited for the doors to open.
When they did, Roak and Marley were faced with the intense stares from what had to be Mr. Wrenn’s second team. Either that or there had been a sale on plasma carbines and bolt rifles, because the men and women of varying races that stood gaping at Roak and Marley were armed to the teeth.
“In,” Roak snarled and pushed Marley.
The evolved AI barely had time to squeak before he and the sled were shoved forward into the lift, forcing Mr. Wrenn’s team up against the lift’s far wall. Before anyone could react, Roak had hit the door close button and the lift was descending.
“Docking Bay Nine, right?” Roak said, slipping the blaster out from under the dirty shirt. “I can’t take you all, but I can take most of you. Or we take this short ride together, keep our cool, and everything works out the best for all of us.”
A Cervile with a shaved head laughed a feline hiss of a laugh. “Mr. Wrenn said you had balls. Big ones. There’s six of us and two of you. Or one and a half since it looks like that arm of yours ain’t gonna do shit until you get into a med pod and fix it. You really think you can take us?”
“I really think I can take you,” Roak said. “Put a couple of laser bolts in your belly then turn and do the same to most of your team before I get cut down. However it all turns out in the end, you’ll be dead. That’s what matters.”
The Cervile glared then looked past Roak to the lift doors.
“You’re just putting off the inevitable,” he said.
“What? Are you saying Mr. Wrenn doesn’t plan on paying me the six hundred thousand chits I’m owed?” Roak said. “That’s too bad, because I really, really don’t want to have to go all the way back to the Void House to collect.”
“I don’t know nothing about six hundred thousand chits,” the Cervile said. “I just know we’ve been sent here to neutralize a threat by the name of Roak.”
“Do I really look like much of a threat?” Roak asked. “Blaster aside.”
“To me? No,” the Cervile responded. “But my opinion doesn’t matter much. Mr. Wrenn thinks you are a threat. That’s what matters.”
“Then there isn’t much point in me getting off this lift, is there?” Roak said.
The Cervile was about to respond, but Roak flicked a switch on the blaster and pulled the trigger. The six members of Mr. Wrenn’s second team dropped, each with significant holes burned through their bodies. Marley gave a small shout and dropped to the floor, his arms covering his head.
“You can get up,” Roak said as he leaned against the sled. He looked down and saw a scorch mark just above his belt. “Dammit.”
“Are you injured?” Marley asked as he stood up slowly, his eyes on the fallen team.
“Caught a partial bolt in the side,” Roak said. “Doesn’t feel like it hit anything important. It’ll just add some time to my stay in the med pod when I get back on my ship.”
“You killed them all,” Marley said. “How? I only saw you pull the trigger once.”
“That’s the advantage of one of these,” Roak said as he waved the blaster in the air. “Flott five-six concussion blaster with laser cluster spread. Emphasis on the cluster spread part. The whole time I was talking to the leader there, the blaster was assessing the possible targets. It isn’t nearly as effective in wide-open spaces, but closed in on a lift? I couldn’t have asked for a better setup.”
The lift doors slid open behind them and Roak turned, his blaster covering the passageway beyond. No one waited for them.
“Speaking of setups,” Roak said. “We might as well see this through.”
“They will not have your chits,” Marley said.
“No, they won’t,” Roak replied. “But they could have intel which will help when this is over.”
“Do I want to know?” Marley asked.
“No, probably not,” Roak said. “Come on. Clock is ticking.”
“Give me a moment,” Marley said.
“Did you miss the clock is ticking comment?” Roak asked.
“This will be worth the wait,” Marley said. “I need to center myself.”
“Center yourself?” Roak asked. “What does that mean?”
30.
Roak quickly found out what a centered Marley meant. The evolved AI’s body may have been dying, but it was far from decrepit. The second the docking bay doors slid open, Marley was a blur of motion. Roak tried to keep track of the man’s spinning, whirling, tumbling body, but he couldn’t do that and focus on Mr. Wrenn’s first team that stood on the dock, waiting with carbines up and glowing hot.
The blaster in Roak’s hand was not up to full charge, so trying to pull another cluster spread move was not in the cards. That didn’t mean Roak couldn’t lay down some targeted bolts at the team while they were distracted by Marley’s antics.
Which turned out not so much to be antics as an elaborate offensive routine without any seeming defense.
Half of Mr. Wrenn’s first team were taken out, their bodies torn apart, before the other half even knew they were under attack. Roak put a couple bolts in that half of the team, leaving only one man standing. The scarred man.
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“You got me,” the scarred man said as he dropped his carbine and held up his hands. “I didn’t think this was how it would go, believe me, but I know when I’m beat.”
“You have my chits?” Roak barked, his blaster leveled with the scarred man’s chest. “I hope you do.”
“What do you think, Roak?” the scarred man replied. “Do you think Mr. Wrenn is the type of man that pays off scum like you?”
“Scum?” Roak asked. “I have been nothing but professional through all of this. I’m the man hired for a job then not paid for that job when it was completed. Really, this is no way to do business.”
“I’m not a businessman,” the scarred man said. “I’m a soldier. All I know is Mr. Wrenn gave me you as a target and my job was to take you out and end the annoyance you have become.”
“Maybe you should look at going into business,” Roak said. “Because the soldiering isn’t working out for you.”
“I am realizing that,” the scarred man replied. “So, what happens next?”
“Next is you accompany me back to the Void House,” Roak said. “Or, to be exact, you accompany Marley here back to the Void House in your ship. You’ll be secured against attempting any harm on Marley’s person, but you will be with him when he flies your ship to the Void House so I can have a nice chat with Mr. Wrenn.”
“Yeah, Mr. Wrenn said you were crazy,” the scarred man said.
“Did he talk about my big balls?” Roak asked. “He seems to like to talk about my big balls.”
“Big balls were mentioned,” the scarred man said. “But mostly he said you were crazy as shit.” The scarred man nodded at where Marley leaned against the sled opposite Roak. “He didn’t say a word about there being a whirling dervish. What the hell are you?”
“That is a long story,” Marley began, breathing heavy.
“Which we don’t have time for,” Roak interrupted. “Which ship is yours?”
“Don’t you want to know my name?” the scarred man asked.
“Nope,” Roak said. “I don’t. Sometimes it’s easier when I know names, makes those I’m addressing feel more at ease, but the only reason you want me to know yours is to instill familiarity so maybe I hesitate when it comes time to kill you.”