Chapter 7
The Man stood up and wandered off around the room to light more candles. "Never in our history," he said, "has the Federation of Bounty Hunters dared accept a contract on one of ours. Why now?"
NG twisted around in the chair and watched as the Man shuffled from shelf to shelf, the glow in the room brightening as the scent of oils deepened. The answer was a difficult one to voice. And in thinking it, he'd already replied.
The Man turned and smiled. "My ego is not so great that I can't face our limitations, NG." He returned to his seat behind the desk. "So, there are petty factions of men who consider themselves powerful enough to take on the Thieves' Guild?"
"There always have been," NG said. "It doesn't usually take long for them to realise the error of their ways. But occasionally, circumstances collude to create momentum that it takes time to overcome. We can't be everywhere, all the time. Human occupied space is extensive and we have allies but there will always be individuals that have ideas beyond their abilities. They tend to have great influence over the weak and such mob-mindedness is always going to be dangerous."
"And our efforts to countermand the contract?"
"Legal started to fight it as soon as we became aware it was out there but someone was determined to keep it alive. And with that much money on offer, it grew into a legend of its own. The more effort we put into closing it down, the more infamy it seemed to gather. And ironically, the harder it got to find LC."
-
He could tell Sean was fuming when she got back to the ship. She threw her coat into a locker and glared at him in the same way Martha always used to when he'd been an ass.
"Are you insane?" she said.
He assumed it was a rhetorical question and yawned.
Sean frowned. "God, they told me you were hard work - I didn't think you'd have a death wish. I thought I told you not to drink."
"Sean," he started and decided he didn't know what to say so he shut up. It would have been rude to visit Polly and not stay for a beer but he didn't expect her to get that.
"The contract out on LC is going to be very lucrative for whoever takes him in," she said. "Do you understand what that means? You look a lot like him. McKenzie was trying to figure out if your hair is naturally that colour or whether you could actually be LC. NG trusted me to take care of you, Hil. I can't do that if you take off and risk running into money-grubbing bastards like McKenzie."
Hil yawned again. He couldn't help it. He was tired and the whisky hadn't mixed well with the painkillers that Medical had given him before they left.
"Well, LC's not been here," he said. "We should go to Redgate next."
Sean clenched and unclenched her fists. He smiled at her.
"My life has gone to shit," he said sweetly. "Polly's been like a mother to us both for a long time. I trust her. And besides no one on board the Alsatia would let me near a drink."
She let out the breath she'd been holding and sat down. "Okay, okay." She watched as Edinburgh started up the engines then turned to him. "Tell me more about LC. I have to figure out where he's going to be. McKenzie being this close, this soon is not good for any of us."
It took twelve hours to fly into Redgate from the jump point. Sean woke him up when they were less than two hours out and threw a ration pack at him.
He'd woken with a headache and swallowed down a handful of painkillers as he tried to make his way through a squeezy pack of soup that was making his throat protest.
Sean watched him struggle and laughed. "Hangover?"
"Headache," he mumbled.
"So you really have no memory of what happened?"
He shook his head, not wanting to go through it all again. She had all the information from the guild - the report would be in there.
"You don't talk much, do you?" she said.
"What do you want me to say? I've never worked with a bounty hunter before."
"Hil, apart from a few early training runs you've never worked with anyone," she said, nodding towards his file as if to re-emphasise there was nothing about him she didn't know.
He frowned and bit down on the belligerent reply that was his first response. He paused and she smiled at him in the same knowing and annoying 'I know what you're thinking' way that Martha always did and it suddenly hit him. She was toying with him in the same way Martha used to. Used to? Still did. Pushing his buttons to get him off his guard, although to be fair, Martha didn't actually have to do a lot to push his buttons.
"Okay, so you know all about me, I get it," he said grudgingly. "Seems a little unfair, don't you think? What about giving me some background on Sean O'Brien? How come you're working with the guild? I thought bounty hunters were one step short of law enforcement. For NG to call you in at all must be pretty exceptional, never mind for him to say he trusts you."
"Fair enough, we're going to be together a while," she said smiling. "I've done some work for NG in the past. As far as being law enforcement, the badge is tolerated both sides of the line, more as a necessary evil than an officially sanctioned service. It has more influence in some systems than in others." She looked away briefly to check some displays then turned back to him and the smile had gone. "And in some, they don't recognise it at all. Tell me why we're going into Redgate."
"We have a contact there."
"What are the chances that LC is there?"
Hil shrugged.
"What kind of contact?" she asked, sounding frustrated. "Hil, work with me here. Right now we have no idea who initiated the contract or why. That puts me in a difficult position and gives us a time frame that could rapidly diminish if more information on LC appears on the grapevine. I know you're feeling like shit, but help me here."
"The guild has a deep cover intelligence agent in there. He?" It was weird talking to an outsider about all this but NG had told him to so what the hell. "He gets information for us. If LC needed help, he'd come here."
"And where is this guy? Last I heard, Redgate wasn't terribly hospitable."
He shrugged again. "They don't know which side of the line they want to be on. It doesn't bother us. We're never exactly legitimate visitors."
"This contact - what's his name?"
"Badger. He works out of the North Shore of the capital."
"Nice area. You have a way in?"
Hil closed his eyes and leaned back. "Course I do."
"We go in together on this one. And we get in and out fast. I don't want to spend more time in there than we need to."
"Don't worry," he said. "This isn't going to be a social visit like Abisko. Badger doesn't like company." And they didn't have a drop box there. If LC was there, he'd be with Badger; if he wasn't, Badger would know if he'd been within fifteen systems of the place. The guy had access to the best material the guild's techies could supply on top of all his own sources. And they had no way of communicating with him, except physically flying in and fighting through a war zone to get to him. Badger listened and watched, he didn't broadcast. That was how he'd managed to stay hidden so long. And he was not going to appreciate Hil trooping in there followed by a host of bounty hunters. "It might be best if I go in alone," he said.
Sean hit him on the arm. "No way. I'm not letting you out of my sight again."
He sat up and looked at her. He didn't have much choice in the matter and he knew it. "We go in silent," he said. "No electronics, no wacky devices for anything. I know what kind of stuff you people use. You have to go nakid, nothing live at all or he'll spook and we'll never find him. And if he's got LC with him, we'll have no chance."
"What about weapons?"
"Everyone carries weapons in Redgate. He won't care about that. But you'll have to lose the badge. And if you take so much as a whistling key fob, he'll know."
It was unsettling to be going in there without Skye. She always gauged the situation and gave him the rundown on troop movements and current politics before he went in anywhere.
"Can you monitor chatter from the surface?" he said.
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The ship had been quiet but she piped in then, "Of course we can. What do you need to know?"
"We'll have to wait for a ceasefire. And we need to check who's in control of the area around the airfield. Bring up maps of the city and I'll show you where we're going."
He followed Sean through the terminal, glad he'd put on extra clothes, and uneasy to see so much security.
They had waited for two days while reports of escalating trouble came out of the capital. Redgate had been enjoying a precarious rumbling peace, rumoured to be at the behest of some Wintran corporation that was looking to invest in the city. Hil couldn't see that there was much of a city left to invest in and according to the reports that Edinburgh was picking up, the Earth Empire loyalists had ducked for cover and were trying to build a case to blow off the deal. What a corporation would want with the place, he couldn't fathom. It was lousy timing that they'd arrived just after a band of loyalists had attacked a Wintran envoy and sparked a new round of hostilities.
They'd watched the reports and finally Sean had declared that they couldn't wait any longer. Hil had reluctantly agreed. Usually he had an unlimited time frame in which to operate. Timing was everything and waiting for conditions to be right was a key part of every tab. This time, they had no time and he had to give in and take a chance.
He'd told Sean to wait until the city was on the darkside to start their descent. Edinburgh had flashed up more information than he could digest and he'd had to harry her to condense it all to the facts they needed. Sean had laughed and asked her ship to behave. It felt like he was outnumbered and like he was the butt of a private joke between the two of them.
From the data Edinburgh had gathered, it was cold in the northern hemisphere and the temperature in the capital had dipped well below zero.
"Tell me there's somewhere warm next on your list," Sean had grumbled, pulling on extra layers and cold weather gear.
"LC likes the cold," he'd said. "I'm thinking Winter itself next," and she had looked at him like she thought he was insane, or maybe she'd been thinking that she was insane to be there with him.
The papers she produced cleared them through customs, with only a short delay while the official decided whether the bribe was adequate, and they took a taxi into the city. A light snow was falling and the vehicle was freezing cold despite the proud reassurance of the driver that his was the warmest car in the rank. Smoke was trailing skywards from bombed out buildings and the car passed tanks and armoured soldiers at each street corner.
"Wintran militia," Sean said. "Their gear sucks. See, they haven't even got full body armour."
They were stopped at two roadblocks before they reached the city centre and the massive warehouses bordering the river. It would have been better to get further in but the military presence was getting heavier and they needed to duck out of sight before someone decided to put a tail on them. They had about an hour before curfew, less than that to disappear.
They pulled over and he watched the street while Sean paid the driver. Half the buildings didn't have lights and most of those that did looked like they'd been damaged. It was worse than the last time he was here, but for the moment it was quiet. They walked briskly for about half an hour, the pavement getting increasingly icy, their breath frosting in the chill air. The main street was deserted already and they walked along it, travelling parallel to the river, seeing glimpses of it to the north between buildings. There were more potholes and bomb craters than he remembered and all the shop fronts that weren't boarded up had broken glass in their windows.
They were running out of time and it was tempting to run but twice, armoured vehicles crawled past them, soldiers sitting upright on top tracking them with rifles. There was always tension in the Between, lots of skirmishes and rebel actions but it wasn't often that outright war broke out. Redgate was different and it had always been different. It was the forgotten frontier, the last way point between Earth and the colonies that had been bypassed and abandoned long ago as the jump range of ships increased, except by the people who lived here who had pledged their allegiance to one or the other and who were stubborn enough to keep on fighting. For the guild and Badger it was the perfect place to monitor both sides of the line.
The snow began to fall in heavy billowing flurries and it was a relief when finally the faded sign of the tube station appeared up ahead. Hil led the way down icy steps to the underground system. It was damp and cold. Most of the lights were out and a heavy odour of unwashed bodies and smoke held in the air. A prickly unease nagged at the back of his neck and his eye caught the twitch of a surveillance camera swivelling to focus on them. It had been burnt out but new wires showed that someone had bothered to fix it.
"Something's wrong," he muttered.
He slowed, feeling the chill seep through his joints despite the layers of clothing. He'd wrapped a black thermal bandage around the wrist on his right hand, finger tips to elbow over the brace, and even that wasn't stopping the bone deep ache that was setting in.
Sean was pushing through the abandoned barriers. Something in the air was setting his nerves on edge. "Wait up," he hissed. Faint voices echoed up to them from the stairs ahead. Angry voices. She stopped and looked back at him, pulling the pistol from her leg holster.
Someone was in trouble down there. The underground tunnels were the only way across the river without getting shot at or targeted by mortars, and as much as every sense he had was screaming at him to back up quietly and head for the surface, and leave whoever it was to their fate, he knew they wouldn't make it to the next station before curfew.
There was a shout and sounds of a scuffle.
"We have to go back," he whispered and pulled out a knife, holding it loosely in his left hand.
Sean backed up to stand beside him and they turned.
Shadows moved. Hil took a step back and an arm grabbed him from behind, tight around the throat, as a hand grasped his wrist and twisted.
Sean cursed and struggled against the figure that had caught hold of her, and as their eyes met in silent agreement to break free, another figure emerged from the shadows in front of them, gun up and a shit-eating smirk on his face.
"What do we have here?" the newcomer said. He was wearing body armour but it was a mishmash of pieces strung together over dirty fatigues. He waved the gun casually. "Lose the weapons."
Hil relaxed, shoulders dropping, and he let the knife fall to the floor. His captor frisked him, pulling his coat aside to take the gun from his waist and the other knife from his belt, the hand clamping firmly around his neck again.
"We have business here," Sean said calmly, relinquishing her pistol without argument.
The man smirked. "I know exactly what kind of business people who run around in the snow at curfew are after. Ditch the vest as well."
Sean shrugged out of her coat and let her armoured vest drop to the floor with a clatter. The guy holding her was wearing a massive rain cape, hood up, that still dripped with melting snow. He produced a wand that he waved up and down over her body, careful not to stand in his boss's line of fire. The wand beeped once. He grinned and reached into her trouser pocket to take a small knife that he threw down onto the floor. Once satisfied, he shoved her aside and moved to Hil.
Hil smiled softly and balanced his weight. "I heard the mutants had taken over the sewers this side of the river," he said.
The guy in the cape growled and the hand from behind tightened around his neck.
"Shush now," the guy with the gun muttered, taking a step forward to look into Hil's face.
He thought for a second that he'd got their attention away from Sean but the guy stepped back abruptly, increasing his angle to cover them both. So they weren't all stupid.
The wand beeped only at Hil's wrists as he was checked again. Cape guy pulled up Hil's sleeves, satisfied that the brace on the right and the band on the left were no threat and stepped back with a guttural grunt.
A
scream echoed up from the station below them.
The main man smiled and waved his gun again, gesturing towards the barriers. "Shall we go and join the party?"
Hil braced himself as the guy behind took hold of his arm and tried to turn him. As the pressure on his throat eased up, he pushed sideways and dropped his weight, throwing the guy off balance and sending them both tumbling.
He heard Sean yell, gunshots echoing loud in the confined space, then he was rolling free. He managed to get to his knees, pulled the knife out of his boot and threw it in one fluid motion, the projectile leaving his fingers an instant before the guy tackled him and threw him down.
For a moment his vision swam as his head hit the floor and the guy pummelled a fist into his face. Hil tried to curl up and tensed but the weight vanished, Sean leaning in close to hold a hand gently against his cheek.
"Nice throw," she said and pulled him to his feet.
He groaned and looked around. The two bodies of the heavies were still twitching but the bossman was dead, Hil's knife embedded in his throat.
"Come on," Sean said, "we should go."
Hil walked unsteadily to the guy he'd killed. He looked down. It wasn't often that he'd ever need to go to those extremes and it made him queasy.
He knelt and pulled the knife out, wiping it on the guy's sleeve. He stood and twirled the knife slowly between his fingers, staring at the body. "Shit."
Sean put a hand gently on his shoulder. "Come on. We're going to have to risk the surface. You up for a race?"