by C. G. Hatton
He pushed her away. “What about LC? Does anyone know what happened to him?”
She traced a finger along the bruises on his cheek. “There’s no sign of him. He’s vanished, no tags or entry docs anywhere with any of his codes. They’ve been checking airfields and orbitals all the way to Earth. People are saying that you left together on the same tab. Do you remember that?”
“No,” he said, honestly. If he’d hooked up with LC on the same tab, it must have been one helluva job. They’d always joked they’d be invincible if they worked together. He had a pang of regret that he didn’t remember it if that was what had happened. It would have been awesome.
“Something could have happened to him, have they thought about that?” he said. “Why is he being tagged as the bad guy here? This is LC we’re talking about.”
Fliss shrugged. “He’s dropped off the radar – that’s never going to look good whichever way you look at it. I’m really sorry, Hil.”
And she did look it. The cold spot deep inside flared up again.
Fliss hugged him tight. “I know, it’s a mess,” she said. “I’ve heard that there’s a price out on him.”
She paused and his heart sank further. If bounty hunters were after him, LC wouldn’t have a chance.
“And it gets worse,” she said, hesitating.
He wanted to throttle her. Worse? How could it get any worse?
“We’ve been assigned a new handler,” she said. “It’s Quinn.”
Quinn? That wasn’t going to happen in a million years. No way would he work with Quinn. Why hadn’t the Chief mentioned that? He began to shake his head but Fliss shushed him.
“Fight me,” she whispered. “We have to move around or they’ll start to wonder what we’re doing in here.” And she spun backwards using his body for leverage and aimed a vicious high kick at his shoulder.
She kicked his ass and didn’t hide the fact she was enjoying it so much. Kick a man when he’s down, why don’t you. Hand to hand in zero-g was one of the hardest things they trained for. She’d never beaten him before and she’d never do it again once he got back up to speed. He limped the rest of the way out along the easiest route and picked up his two security guys who were waiting patiently. They didn’t object when they made their way to the barracks and he didn’t resist when Fliss kissed him before leaving him at the door to his quarters.
“Get some rest,” she said. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”
It couldn’t have been much rest because he was still aching from the work out when he was woken up by Skye.
“Hil, honey, NG wants to see you in his office.”
He crawled out of his bunk and fell asleep in the shower.
“NG wants to see you now, Hil,” she sent, more forcefully that time as he was enjoying the heat of the water and the oblivion of the moment.
“Skye, have you found out what happened to Mendhel yet?” he asked, drying off and searching around for clean clothes.
“I’m not getting through to anyone on that, hon, sorry but it looks like the ranks have been closed on us.”
“I need to talk to Martha then.” It was awkward but she’d be the only one who could help. She’d found him and he needed to know where the hell he’d been.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Hil honey.”
“Skye, it’s old history. She’ll talk to me. Where is she?”
“Hil, get your head straight. NG wants to see you in his office, now. Maybe he knows something.”
She sounded stressed again.
Hil pulled on a jacket and headed out. The two guards fell in on either side. He took a look at each of them in turn as he walked through the still eerily quiet corridors of Acquisitions. They may or may not have been the same two guys as before but they were both wearing red flashes. The elite of the elite. The Man’s own personal guard. Whether they were there to protect him from harm or guard him from escaping still wasn’t clear. And it was unlikely they’d speak to him however much he goaded them.
“So does this new status I have come with a pay rise?” he said. They ignored him so he picked up his pace and raced them to the lift. They didn’t rise to it and let him get ahead, but watching their reflections in the polished door of the elevator, he could see them both put a hand on their side arms. He punched the call button, tempted to make a run for it, just for the hell of it to see what they’d do. He’d had run-ins before with the Watch, most of them had, tempers and emotions ran hot in Acquisitions, but he’d never been this close to the Man’s own guards before. That they were here meant the Man was on board and that he’d assigned two of his guards to babysit Hil for some reason meant that Hil was attracting attention that was unwanted and unlikely to be in his best interest.
The lift doors opened and Hil slipped inside, hitting the button to go down. The two guys were still walking, still some distance away and as the doors closed, Hil couldn’t help the cocky smile. It faded as the doors jammed half open and half closed. There were rumours that the Man’s guards had complete control over every system on board the Alsatia. They hadn’t even twitched.
Hil frowned and stepped aside as they entered the lift, one of them pushing him against the wall and saying, “Don’t try that again,” the voice deep and throaty through the armour, as the other one hit the over-ride.
“Neat trick,” Hil muttered. He needed Skye and all her resources hacked into a system before they could do anything like that. He’d never thought of the cruiser in terms of somewhere he could break into, but now the idea was there, he started running scenarios through his head. And each time he came up against a brick wall. He looked at the two guards as the lift rose up through the ship.
There’d be a way.
NG’s domain on twelve wasn’t a usual haunt of the field-ops. But it had a welcoming feel that made him relax. It had soft carpet on the floor, not hard metal deck, and pictures on the walls, huge images of places he didn’t recognise. It was warm and quiet and the two guards manoeuvred him to a row of chairs. He didn’t need the hand on his shoulder to encourage him to sit, his head was still pounding and there was a weakness in his knees that was sapping his energy.
One of NG’s staff brought him a cup of something hot and sweet. She winked at him as she handed it over and he smiled as he watched her walk back to her desk, short skirt swinging. The two guards watched as well, he noticed, so they were human after all.
When he turned back, NG was at the door, beckoning him to go inside. NG’s office was cool and dimly lit, spotlights shining on key features around the room. Hil had been in there before and knew there were banks of data walls and planning tables off to one side, a massive desk in the centre and a round wooden conference table to the other side. Bookshelves stacked with artefacts from across the galaxy lined each wall. It was an eclectic mix of textures and technology that reflected every section and aspect of the guild’s operations.
NG directed him towards the conference table where a soft light was casting shadows over a pile of books and data boards. The woman sitting there stood up as they approached. She was wearing travelling gear, had a gun in a holster strapped to her thigh, and as she reached out her hand to greet him he almost recoiled when he saw the flash of the embossed silver badge attached to her belt that identified her as a bounty hunter. She held his grip more firmly than she needed to and smiled at him. She might as well have pulled out the gun and held it to his head.
“Hil,” NG said, “this is Sean O’Brien. She’s going to bring in LC and I want you to help her find him.”
Chapter 6
The Man laughed, a deep throaty chuckle. “Sean O’Brien,” he said. “You have style, NG.”
He’d never heard the Man laugh like that before. “Desperate times,” he said, placing his goblet on the desk. “She’s done good work for us before. I thought she might bring Hilyer to his senses.”
The Man nodded slowly and threaded his fingers together. He looked up, solemn again. “Your report
suggests that he was held captive after his crash. Why could we not identify his captors? The extraction team found him easily enough.”
“They found him in a facility not far from the location where Skye set off her emergency beacon. The place was an anonymous holding facility. There was nothing to identify its owners or most recent occupants. Our priority at the time was to get him back. The teams that went back in afterwards found it deserted, sterilised. I should have questioned Wibowski and Hetherington. That was an oversight that cost us badly.”
“You’re too hard on yourself at times, NG.” The Man leaned forward and topped up both goblets, a splash of wine bouncing onto the surface of the desk with a hiss. He wiped it away. “Bringing in the bounty hunter was a good move.”
“We needed outside input. I had everyone on this and it wasn’t enough,” NG said, reaching for his wine. “And our resources are still stretched. This has been hard on all of us.”
•
She was armed, in NG’s office. That was unheard of. Not that he’d ever heard of NG entertaining bounty hunters before. And when Fliss had said there was a price on LC’s head, he hadn’t realised it was the guild that could have put it there.
“We leave right away,” she said.
“We?” Hil said. He’d been planning to get back out there but for god’s sake, not with a freaking bounty hunter.
“The trail’s cold already. You’re going to give me a head start, the insight into where he’ll have gone.” She had an air of confidence that rankled in a way that was too familiar. She even stood in the same confrontational way that Martha had a tendency to adopt around him.
Hil looked at NG, reluctant to cause a scene in front of an outsider. But there was no way he was going with this woman. No way that he was going to rat out LC to a bounty hunter. He had no memory of what they’d done or where they’d been but whatever had happened, this should be dealt with by the guild, not some mercenary outsider.
She smiled at him again. “You want him back, work with me. It’ll be far better for him that I find him before,” she paused for effect, “certain other practitioners of my profession.”
She reached towards NG and shook his hand. “You’ll hear from me as soon as I have something.” She looked back at Hil. “I’m docked in bay twenty four. Be there in half an hour.”
NG saw her to the door, leaving Hil to stand stranded by the table, looking surreptitiously over the documents there trying to figure out what they’d been talking about. He scowled and threw the board he was holding onto the table as NG came back.
“Full cooperation, Hil,” NG said. “You want us to treat you like one of the best operatives we have, start acting like it.”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me to work with a bounty hunter.”
“We often work with outside agencies. Put aside your prejudices and work with her. I want LC back, here within the safety of the guild.”
“How do we know she won’t sell us out once she has her hands on him?”
“Hil, give me some credit here. How much do you think we’re paying her?”
“The Chief said I was grounded,” he said, feeling unsettled and out of his depth.
“He’s aware of the new situation. He wants LC back. We all do. We’re looking into what happened, Hil. And I have to say, there are some people calling for me to throw you into the lock-up. Concussion aside, Legal don’t believe your story. Being out there with someone I trust is the best place for you right now.”
Skye was horrified that they were sending him out with a bounty hunter. “Good gods, Hil, what are they doing to us? Why don’t they send out the extraction teams?”
He threw some essentials into a holdall and rummaged around his locker. He’d lost his favourite coat and the only other one he had wasn’t as warm. He checked the pockets. It would have to do.
“They have,” he said. “They’re doing everything, Skye.”
“She’s registered with Earth. Can we trust her?”
“I trust NG and he’s told me to go. What else can I do?”
“I’ve heard that her ship has a terrible reputation, Hil. Their apprehension record is phenomenal but over eighty per cent of her captives log an injury on deposit. I’m sorry but I don’t trust her to look after you, honey.”
“If I walk up into Legal right now, they’re going to throw me in jail. Which do you prefer?”
She went quiet.
“Exactly,” he said. “I have no choice.” He slammed the locker shut and kicked the drawer closed.
“Hon, I’ve been told to give them whatever information they need on you and LC. But I can’t tell them what I don’t know, Hil honey, can I?” she said, distressed at having to talk about him to people she didn’t know.
It sucked. And he knew that sitting there in lock down was tough for her. Not being trusted by the guild was tough on both of them.
“Just keep your ears open, Skye. I’m sure LC is laying low somewhere. See if you can find out what happened to Mendhel. I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
The engines were already firing up as Hil walked on board. The ship talked him through their procedures and told him where to stash his gear. Edinburgh was a small two-seater with a holding cell in place of a cargo bay and it was strange being a passenger but he was still tired so he just buckled up and closed his eyes. Apart from a couple of curt, polite comments, the bounty hunter ignored him until they were about jump distance away from the cruiser.
“It’s Hil, right?” she said. “That’s what you prefer?”
He knew she was looking at him so he nodded.
“The more you help me, Hil, the faster we’ll find him.”
“I don’t know where he is,” Hil said stubbornly, repeating the mantra that had been his only answer since he’d been picked up after the crash.
“Yeah, yeah, amnesia, I know, they told me all about that.” Like she didn’t believe him. “So where first?”
“Abisko,” he said without thinking. It was in the Between, not far from the system where he’d been found. Something that no one else knew, not even Mendhel, was that the two of them had a series of drop boxes hidden on orbitals across the galaxy. If LC was alright, he’d leave a message in one of them at some point. And one of the boxes was on Abisko station. It was a long shot but hey, where the hell else was he supposed to start. “There’s a bar we know. We’ll try there.”
“Be straight with me, Hil,” she warned. “I don’t tolerate time wasters.”
“I’m not a good team player, Ms O’Brien,” he fired back. “I’m sure they told you that about me.”
She smiled. “They told me a lot about you.”
That didn’t bode well.
“You’re a lot alike, you and LC, according to everyone I’ve spoken to. That should help us find him.”
He frowned. He wasn’t anything like LC. They were a similar build, that was all. Slender and agile, but then so were a lot of the field-ops – it suited the job. Apart from that, they were nothing alike.
Sean laughed. “Yeah, they said you’d deny it too.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
She laughed again. “Defensive, arrogant, fearless. Same height, same weight – give or take a few pounds, same average for a hundred metre sprint, same Paninski profile. Same hungry look in the eyes. You’re both near as dammit ambidextrous, except that LC is naturally left-handed. The only thing I can see that separates you both is your arrest record. You get into more trouble than LC.”
“They give you our whole freaking personnel files?”
She threw a board over to him. “The whole caboodle.”
She had everything. Not just personnel notes and training logs, the board contained full ID data, DNA tags, fingerprints, retina scans, photos. A chill gripped his stomach.
“This is private,” he said quietly.
“Not any more.”
Guild field operatives didn’t exist. They were all issued with a different ID and documents ever
y time they went out on a tab. No one anywhere knew anything about any of them. Wrong, no one outside the guild should have known anything.
“There’s already a contract out on Anderton,” she said. “With a price that’s attracting attention. There’s a basic physical description in the public domain. But that’s all. So that gives us an advantage. I take it he’s smart enough to change his appearance if he doesn’t want to be found?”
Hil shrugged, still irritated that she had their personal data and disturbed that she’d confirmed the rumour that there was a price on LC’s head. “I don’t know why he’s disappeared so I don’t know what he’s thinking. Has anyone considered that he might be hurt somewhere?”
“Your guild is checking out that possibility. I’ve been hired to assume he’s on the run.” She leaned forward and entered the coordinates for the jump. “Edinburgh, start jump procedures. Hil, don’t worry, that information’s not going anywhere except with me.”
Hil liked Abisko. That was another reason it had come to mind as the first place to look. Abisko was a mining colony. Neutral alliance, tough environment with most of its deposits under hundreds of metres of ice, and one of the best rec scenes on any of the orbitals in the Between. The planet also had some kind of research status so the station teemed with science types as well as the mining facility operatives. And working in those kinds of harsh conditions meant everyone was up for a good time when they had leave. They had some good friends here and if nothing else, he thought, downing the last of the amber liquid in his glass, they had good whisky.
O’Brien had caught hold of his arm and ticked off her rules before they’d left the ship.
“Stay out of trouble,” she’d said. “Check your contacts and get back here in two hours. In the one in a million chance that Anderton is here, bring him back to the ship. There are too many people interested in this contract. Don’t get their attention. No drinking, no fighting. And call me Sean, for Christ’s sake.”