Gambler (20 page)

They were both good, but Nova was better. As
play continued the pile of tokens in front of her grew and Vicki's
smile slipped.

"I guess I could handle it," Nova said as
Vicki dealt another hand.

"Luck," Vicki said.

"Then let's make it interesting," Nova said.
"All in, this hand."

She clutched her cards close to her chest
and kept a steady gaze on Vicki. The other woman glanced at her
cards and her pupils dilated.

Nova's stomach clenched. Vicki had good
cards, whereas she'd been bluffing; her ten and six weren't going
to do her any good.

"All in," Vicki said, her sneer
returning.

Nova bit her lip, considering another card,
but that would be a sure way to lose. She took a deep breath and
revealed her cards.

Vicki's sneer turned triumphant as she lay
down two queens. She hugged the pile of chips and pulled them to
her chest, licking her lips.

"Grishnak!" Nova slammed her palm onto the
table and stood up.

"I guess the best player won after all,"
Vicki said.

Nova didn't bother responding. She marched
away from the private tables and stormed out of the casino, all the
way back to Crusader. Once inside, she let her shoulders relax and
a grin spread across her face.

"Did she buy it?" Cal asked.

"Hook, line, and sinker," Nova replied.
"Time for phase two."

She dropped into the pilot's chair and
composed her face.

"Cracos," she said.

A moment later the screen flickered and
Cracos's chubby face appeared, complete with a fat cigar that hung
out of the corner of his mouth.

"What the hell do you want?" he said,
frowning.

"I thought you'd like to know who the thief
is," she said.

Cracos pulled the cigar from his mouth and
blew a puff of smoke at the camera. "Well?"

"Two thousand credits."

"If your guess comes through then you'll get
paid."

Nova crossed her arms over her chest.
"Vicki."

"What?" Cracos said, the cigar nearly
dropping from his mouth.

"She's been using fake chips. You can search
her now if you want to."

"You're lying. The chips are scanned when
they're counted. Counterfeits would be spotted immediately."

"Then somebody got hold of your codes. I
didn't think you'd believe me, so I took the liberty of sending one
up to you. It should be on the floor outside your office."

Cracos's nostrils flared as he waved at
someone off screen, who appeared moments later with a red and black
chip, decorated with gold designs. Cracos ripped his top desk
drawer open and pulled out a scanner that he ran over the chip. It
flashed green.

"See, legitimate," he said. "I'll kill you
for wasting my time."

Nova stared, unblinking, back at him.

He growled and from the same drawer withdrew
a razor sharp pair of scissors. With a brutal clunk he clamped them
around the chip and it fell in half, revealing red plastic. He
stared with an open mouth at the broken chip.

A bead of sweat rolled down his nose as he
waved someone over, and Brick's large body filled the screen. They
spoke in low tones for a few moments and then Brick disappeared.
Nova heard the faint sound of a door closing.

"Two thousand credits," she said.

"After the trouble you've caused me, do you
really think I'm going to pay you?"

"Honestly?" Nova replied. "Not really."

Cracos frowned and sucked harder on his
cigar. "Then get out of my face," he bellowed, reaching for the
disconnect switch.

"I just thought you'd want to know," Nova
said. "I sent a few photos of you to some people."

"What?" Cracos's frown deepened.

Nova snatched the copied images from her
control board and held them up. The first showed Cracos in a very
compromising position with the wife of his competitor.

Cracos's face flushed red. "What? How—"

"It's amazing what you find lying around,"
Nova said, flicking through the other images.

Some of them showed him negotiating deals,
handling drugs, handling people, and all of them would make him a
target.

"You can't send those. If they're seen by
the wrong people, I'll be killed!"

"Unfortunately for you, I've already sent
them. I guess you've just been thrown into a fighting pit. If I
were you, I'd leave Tabryn within the next ten minutes."

Cracos's face went slack and beads of sweat
rolled down his forehead. He yanked the cigar from his mouth and
tossed it into a far corner. His eyes rolled about the room before
finally coming to rest back on Nova.

"You haven't."

"After all the trouble you've caused me, did
you really think I'd let you get away with it?" Nova said,
mimicking him.

"You bitch! You've killed me!"

Nova shrugged. "We'll call it even
then."

She severed the connection and leant back in
her chair. "I suppose we should get out of here before they find
us."

"I thought you'd want to see this," Cal
said.

Crusader's front screen filled with a new
image of the casino floor. Vicki was strutting between the tables
when two burly men grabbed her arms. They yanked away her purse and
pulled out the chips, cutting one in half with a sharp knife. Red
plastic glinted like blood in the bright lights.

Nova couldn't hear what they were saying but
Vicki's expression of horror was entertainment enough.

"What if they kill her?" Cal said.

"They won't," Nova replied. "She'll tell
them it was me, and they've got video footage to prove it. At least
it'll give her a scare, keep her on her toes for a while."

Nova chuckled. "Okay, let's get away from
this hell hole."

"Where are we headed?" Crusader asked.

"Just grab the next warp trail and let's see
where it takes us."

She didn't bother watching Tabryn disappear
behind them. She planned on staying away from the crime-riddled
planet for as long as she could.

Stars whizzed by as Crusader sailed along on
the warp-trail of some other ship. It was a cheap way to travel but
you never knew where you were going to end up.

Just how it should be.

EPILGOUE

"The Confederacy are planning something
big," Aart said, snatching a gun from his shelf and shoving it into
his overflowing bag. "We've got to get out there."

"What are you talking about?" Nova asked,
holding one hand over the bag and gripping his arm with the
other.

She'd just returned to The Jagged Maw from
Tabryn, only to find him in the midst of gathering a small army. So
far she'd only managed to extract frenzied fragments from him.

"It's got something to do with those missing
people on Tabryn," Aart said, brushing her arm aside and shoving
more weapons into the bag. "I followed a lead, thought I might be
able to help you out. And it ended up being connected to the bloody
Confederacy. There's something going on, and it's headed straight
for Grixis."

"Grixis?"

"Yep, small outer-planet. It's only recently
been colonised; just one city so far. Whatever the Confederacy are
doing, it's happening there."

"So you're taking an army with you?"

Nova threw her arms into the air. It was as
if Aart had lost all common sense and was ready to throw his life
at the Confederacy. She grabbed his bag and hurled it onto the
floor, snatching his shoulders and staring into his eyes with
fierce intensity.

"It's not an army," he said, shrugging.

"It looks like an army."

"There are only eleven of us. Just a few
Hunters checking out a new planet. There's nothing wrong with that.
Twelve if you come along."

Nova groaned and collapsed onto the end of
Aart's bed, holding her head in her hands. He patted her shoulder
as he collected his bag from the floor.

"I've never known you to want to bury your
head in the sand."

"I'm not… I just don't see the point of
rushing in, guns blasting. We have no idea what's going on."

"Exactly. Which is why we have to find
out."

"I've signed up for another job. It starts
in a couple of days."

Aart rolled his eyes. "I think this is a
little bigger than a job."

Nova clenched her teeth and stared at the
metal floor. A part of her wanted to hurl Aart into a dark closet
so he couldn't leave, while another part of her knew that he'd
never stay there and that she couldn't let him leave without
her.

She groaned as she got to her feet.

"So, you're coming?" Aart grinned at Nova,
eyes twinkling.

"I can't let you go off on a suicide
mission. Someone's got to keep you alive." She gave a half-hearted
smile.

"I knew you'd come." Aart winked at her.
"The others are already loading up their ships."

Nova nodded once without looking at him and
stomped out of Aart's room, annoyed that he was dragging her into
yet more trouble.

Nova's Journey
Continues…

After the Ancients and the lecheons, Nova is looking
for something simple, but life is never that easy.

Murder, man-eating plants, and rumours of
cannibalism from the Inner Galaxies all await Nova in Book 5:
Justice.

Find Out More:

http://www.saffronbryant.com/books/Justice

http://www.saffronbryant.com/free-books

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Find all of Saffron's Books
At:

www.saffronbryant.com/books

The Lost Child Saga - An Epic Fantasy
Series

The Fallen Star

The Herald of Darkness

The Hordes of Anarchy

The Nova Chronicles

Survivor

Pilgrim

Hunter

Gambler

Justice

Junkie

Adventurer

Prisoner

Stranger

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Saffron Bryant was born on the 17th December
1990 in a small town in North Queensland. In 2010 she was diagnosed
with a brain tumour. After extensive, life-saving surgery she
returned to her home in Queensland to recover and finish The Fallen
Star. She received a Bachelor of Biomedical Science in 2011.

Saffron has been interested in fantasy and
science fiction writing from a very young age, writing her first
story at the age of seven. She has always been fascinated by
fantasy stories and has a passion for The Lord of the Rings and The
Hobbit. Saffron currently lives in Sydney with her partner Michael
Lee where she is completing her PhD in chemistry.

Connect with Saffron:

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www.saffronbryant.com

EMAIL: [email protected]

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