The Bounty Hunter: Into The Swarm (3 page)

“You mean the
vampire
?” she said sarcastically.

He laughed. She was right, he thought, and she was turning his own
joke back on him. Species 1260 were shrouded in mystery and conspiracy theories
about their origins. Havard did his job well of keeping that information under
wraps, but that didn’t stop people from speculating. They had been dubbed
“vampires” and were a common topic in horror stories. Most of the theories
around them were wrong and most people didn’t believe they existed. Burke
disliked the name as well but had used it mercilessly to tease Cass.

“I’m still not sure about handing it over to Havard,” he said more
seriously. “Am I over reacting about this?”

“Maybe,” Cass said and then hesitated. “Remember what you did to
Geoff?”

Burke closed his eyes and winced as if he had been struck across the
face. Geoff was one of his oldest friends and Burke, after escaping from his
three years of isolation, had made the mistake of thinking Geoff had helped
Adam try to kill him. Burke had acted on impulse and nearly killed Geoff
without giving him a chance to explain. The old man had forgiven him but he
always saw the trepidation in his eyes when they met face to face for work,
like Burke was a rabid animal that might lash out at any time. Their friendship
had been permanently damaged from that day.

“I remember,” he muttered.

“Well, you had more of a reason to be suspicious of him than you do
of Havard. I don’t like him either, but we haven’t seen enough to condemn him
just yet.”

“Maybe you should make those decisions from now on,” he said with a
small smile.

“What?” she sounded surprised. “You mean you don’t know that I do
already?”

He let out a quiet laugh and shook his head. He stood up and felt
that the pain in his leg had subsided enough that he might be able to sleep again.
He walked out of the armory. Cass’s voice followed as he walked up the stairs.

“Burke, I have something to ask. I’ve been wondering for a while.”

“Okay,” he said as he walked into his room.

“You trust me. I know you do, but Adam worked with you longer than I
have. Why do you trust me after what he did to you?”

“I could say that it was because of what happened when we were
stranded. I could say that you didn’t only keep me alive, but kept me focused
and as calm as I possibly could be in that situation. I could say that but it
would be a lie. Do you really want my honest answer?”

There was a moment of silence as the question lingered in the air.
The lights of the room dimmed and Burke stood next to the bed.

“Yes,” she said finally.

“I don’t know.”

* * *

Cass undocked the ship from the jump carrier when they arrived at
the star system. It was one of the first that humans had colonized shortly
after expanding from Earth. Despite being a system with fewer planets than
most, there was a large population present around the star. There was a high
density of space stations and sealed, protected cities on the barren moons
orbiting each planet. Burke was familiar with the system and had taken
contracts in it many times.

“I don’t see where ACU is located,” Cass said as they drifted away
from the jump carrier.

“They’re not in the system,” Burke began to explain as he took his
seat at the helm. “They’re outside of it, and you won’t find them on any public
records. It’ll be at least three more days of travel before we reach them. Less
when we have a faster ship.”

“A rogue planet?” Cass was incredulous. “That’s highly impractical.”

“That depends on your priorities. The work they do requires privacy.
Not everything they do would be considered ethical, even if it is ultimately
necessary. As far out as they are, they’re rarely bothered by ships and can
easily monitor any that come close.”

The thrusters on the ship turned it into the direction of the
coordinates Burke entered from memory of his previous visits to ACU. He had
purchased both Cass and his aegis from their facilities, although Cass had no
memory of the place after he removed her restraining programs. The ship’s
displays were soon dark and empty as they left the star system behind them.

“We should use the days we have to finalize the details of our new
ship,” Burke suggested. “Did Havard tell you how much he would be paying us?”

“Enough that we can afford some of the ships we looked at before.”

He nodded and leaned back in his chair. Cass displayed the top five
candidates of ship models that they had previously looked at on the ship’s main
screen. The most expensive had an impressive list of features: weapon systems
for both space warfare and planetary attacks, ample storage space, and multiple
prison cells for transporting more than one bounty at once. At more than one
hundred meters long, it was nearly double the size of their current ship and
comfortably out of their price range.

The third ship on the list was the most expensive one they could
afford and they spent most of the trip to ACU discussing which variations on
the model that they would require. Cass wanted a more robust computer system
inside the ship and Burke agreed, knowing how essential her information
gathering had already been on their current ship’s less than stellar hardware.
The point they contended was the ship’s living quarters.

“All I want to add is a food processing unit,” Burke stated. “I’m
sick of the simple meals that I have to eat when we’re away from a station for
weeks.”

“That’s fine,” Cass said tersely. “You’re not listening because I’m
not disagreeing with you about that. I think you’re allocating too many of the
rooms for storage. We need more rooms with beds in them.”

“No,” he said firmly. “We only need one, and I’ll be the only one to
use it.”

“What if Geoff needs to be present for a contract?”

“He has his own ship,” he retorted.

“What if someone asks us to rescue someone? What then?”

“There’ll be beds in the prison cells.”

“You’re being unreasonable,” she said. “Besides, we could avoid the
issue entirely by saving up for a little while longer. We’re not far away from
affording our first choice.”

“No,” he said, softer but with more of a scowl on his face. “We’ve
passed up too many jobs because they didn’t pay enough. I’m tired of saying no
to catching murderers because we need the money from a different job.”

“I understand,” she said. “We’ll save up again eventually. Please
try to reconsider the rooms. You don’t have to let someone use them
permanently, only when it’s necessary.”

They hadn’t reached a consensus before they reached ACU. The planet
was lost in the darkness of space without any nearby star to illuminate it. It
was only when they were close to it that the lights from the sprawling
structures on the surface were visible. The planet itself was a stark, gray
rock devoid of any life or atmosphere. ACU’s structures consumed most of the
surface and even stretched above it into space, connected with some of the
orbiting stations with vast elevator systems.

The planet had a solitary moon that had been similarly built upon
but with a higher density, as if it was one solid structure instead of separate
ones that had been built gradually over its surface. Burke had never been to
the moon and had always wondered about its purpose.

It had been four years since his last visit and the only new
addition to the facility surprised him. A jump gate, smaller than the ones that
the standard jump carriers used but recognizable all the same, now orbited the
planet. He saw no carriers circling around it. He made a mental note to ask
Havard about it if he got the chance.

A warning appeared on the ship’s screen as they lowered down into
orbit around the planet. The screen was white with large red, bold letters
instructing them to turn away and that they were in restricted space. Burke
opened a communication channel and spoke loudly into the room.

“Clearance code: 268780. That’s probably out of date. Since I know
someone is already listening to this, get Natalie Ambrose to confirm access for
Burke Monrow.”

A few minutes passed before the screen changed again to display a
woman’s face. Her eyes were narrowed at first, as if she was skeptical of what
she was seeing as she looked at him. He smiled and her eyes relaxed. She smiled
back.

“I thought you were dead,” Natalie said.

“That’s what the guy who tried to kill me said.”

“Well done,” her smile widened. “Your new code: 942157. Our identity
scanner is picking you up as Jack Porter? That’s new.”

“A fake. A dead soldier, I think. I don’t like it but I didn’t get
to ask for who I got,” he explained. “Is Havard available to meet me?”

“I’ll find out while you land. Sending coordinates now. It’s nice to
see you again, Burke.”

“You too.”

The ship descended smoothly toward the planet’s surface. Burke got
out of his seat and prepared to disembark.

“I like her a lot more than Havard,” Cass commented. “Maybe we can
deal with her from now on?”

Burke went to his room for a glove to protect his hand as he handled
the alien’s core. It was capable of leeching resources from his flesh if he
held it for long enough, a painful process that he knew felt like being burned
from the inside. He held it safely with the glove and walked down into the
cargo hold. He stood and waited for the docking procedure to complete.

The ship’s doors slid apart and Burke squinted at the brighter light
that shone into the room. The interior of ACU’s buildings were mostly white,
and were a severe contrast to the dim light in his ship, especially after weeks
of the darkness of space outside the window. He saw several figures in the
light before his eyes adjusted to it. He blinked a few times and then saw them
moving onto the ship.
There were at least
six women and men and Havard stood in the middle of them.

Burke was surprised by his presence. In all of his visits to ACU,
Havard usually met with him long after he arrived. The other people that
entered the ship rushed passed without even looking at Burke, sweeping through
the ship and checking all of its corners. He was used to that invasion, but he
still didn’t like it. He tolerated it, knowing that they had to check for
anything that might be smuggled into their facilities; they had a strict
control on what entered and left the premises. He also knew that they were
checking for potential stowaways: any of Species 1260 that was hiding in the
shape of a crate or blending into one of the walls. They would be looking for
hours.

“Took you longer than usual, but I can see why,” Havard said and
then gestured to the dingy insides of the ship. “I’m glad to see that you’re
still as capable as when we last worked together.”

“Good,” Burke replied simply.

“What happened here?”Havard asked as he looked at Burke’s leg.

Burke didn’t know how Havard could tell the augmented leg apart
through his pants, and he grinned to mask the anger that threatened to show on
his face at the blunt question. He hadn’t been paid yet. He didn’t like the leg
or the implant in his cheek that was required to bridge the artificial nerves
with his brain. Often, he found that his cheek itched whenever he thought of
it. He disliked that Havard was so casual about asking, too.

“It had to be cut off.”

“I see that,” Havard shook his head. “What I don’t see is the kind
of quality augment that we could have given you. Why didn’t you contact us? We
could have worked something out.”

There it was, Burke thought. That was the reason. “Maybe one day. But
for now, no debts. I don’t want to owe anything to anyone.”

“The past four years have changed you then,” Havard said with a nod.
“In this case I think it’s for the better.”

He had a tablet in his hand and brought it closer to his face. He
ran his right hand over the display, tapping his fingers on something Burke
couldn’t see. Two of the people walked out of the ship and toward the doors.
They were carrying pieces of his aegis with them. He opened his mouth to object
but then recalled Havard’s offer to repair the damage done to it. Still, it was
another thing that didn’t sit right with him.

“I’m staying in the ship,” Cass said, directly into his ear via
stimulation from the implant in his cheek. “I’ll stay connected with you but I
don’t trust these people. Havard wanted to buy me when I spoke with him. They
might try to copy me!”

Burke smiled. Havard raised his eyes from the tablet and looked at
him.

“I just sent your payment. You should see the new balance within an
hour. Now, I have another job for you if you’re interested. First, come with me
and bring the core. I have something you might want to see.”

They walked side by side off the ship and into the dock. Every room
they passed and every corridor they walked stayed a consistent, immaculate
white. It made the rooms look more spacious and clean but, as Burke saw more
and more ships trading crates of supplies throughout the dock, he knew that it
was anything but that.