“We wouldn’t want that, would we?”
Chapter 13
Back on the bridge, things were escalating. Wren was all over me about what went down in pig Pazarol’s crib, even though I assured her it was all just show. We’d suffered another close scrape under impulse power by what I guessed were Baer’s bounty hunters: two ships we’d barely evaded before a jump to hyperspace’d saved our hides. Why was Baer riding our asses so closely? Then again, I had blown off the guy’s arm.
“Those bastards are everywhere at once,” I muttered under my breath.
“And why shouldn’t they be?” Wren growled. “Either they must have tracked us prior to the last repairs, or the Barenium’s still leaking.”
“Maybe somebody tipped them off,” suggested TK.
Wren waved a hand. “If you hadn’t brought that piece of shit microchip bad luck aboard, we’d be in none of this mess.”
“That again?” I groaned. Shaking my head, I wished I’d never let them in on that tech. What one didn’t know, couldn’t hurt him, right? A shuffle of boot sounded behind me. I turned, scowling to see Raez hovering there like a ghoul. “What do you want?”
“I just wanted to check if we were good with the transshipment. We’re going in tandem, right—or you going solo? Think you should put me on lead. Wren as backup, you to man the ship. What do you think, Rusco?” He gave her a lascivious look.
My fists clenched in an involuntary ball. “We already discussed that, Raez. I go in with Wren, you’re backup. You keep your mouth shut. Remember, you’re only here as a courtesy.”
“Just wanted to double check.”
Yeah, double check my ass. Any bit of eavesdropping you can do, you’ll do, you piece of shit. I flashed Wren a warning glance, but she didn’t seem to pick up on it.
Raez was one of those weasely types, slicked-back hair, thin jaw, who hangs out as a lurker, the smiling, grinning predator who looks for any trusting person or piece of interesting dirt that he can dig up, one that can be useful. I feared his sleazy habit would spill over into his work.
I had to put this apprehension aside. This was business and once the deal was over, I’d set the bastard down on the nearest transhub and be done with it. “Okay, let’s go through the motions again. I don’t want any margin of error.”
Within moments, Raez sighed and threw down the map I’d drawn out painstakingly by hand. “Listen, we pick up the merchandise from this Gizren place on Besi, at what, 08:00? Why’s it so hard? Dolgra or Dogface, and his Tanza boys’ll be there with heavy guns, wanting insurance and money up front. We move in, take it aboard, guide the freighter, do whatever the hell those monkeys want done. If we get our jobs done, nobody gets hurt and everything rolls like a greased wheel.”
“Yeah, exactly, if everyone gets their jobs done.” I leveled him a stare.
“And what’re you insinuating?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. It means let’s study the map another time, and a hundredth time if we have to. I don’t want any screw ups on this.”
“Alright already. Don’t get your tubes in a knot.”
“Up yours, Raez. I’m sick of your wise-assing about. Either you up your game, or I ship you back to daddy Paz. Let him cater to your moods.”
The others tensed.
Raez glared at me for a time, his mouth working in a mincy little line. He did his huffy routine, shifting from foot to foot, quivering and looking all mean, as if he were some big shot mobster. Then as I stared him down, daring him to go further, he backed down like a coward. It wasn’t a subtle thing, just a change of psycho-physical energy in the air palpable to all. One I knew well. One of which I seemed to be in more command. He settled down in a snit, shook out his grease-slicked hair. But I could tell his nose was out of joint on this one and he’d be looking for some way to gain face. Let the man sulk, for fuck’s sake. What did I care?
* * *
Besi 6 was a sparsely-populated, impoverished world closest to the sun Jesra. The biggest city, Tyaan, had more outdoor markets than any in the solar system, the bazaar capital of the solar system, but the rest of the planet was just scattered villages in a dry, windswept sandbath.
Because of its poverty, Besi had been spared the scars and gutting of war like the multi-citied worlds. But there were some heavy players with goods to sell and hustles to go. We were going straight into the heart of the wild, trigger-happy western tribes that spanned the arid gulches, the parched, baking wasteland.
Pazarol had mentioned the dominant tribe, the Gedra, known to extort the smaller clans of their exports, which they called ‘protection fees’ or some kind of fool tax for being in their territory. The Tanza of Gizren, of course, refused to pay, so I hoped we didn’t have trouble with any of them this day.
Starrunner and Urgon rode low over the dust-cloaked valley. It was wide and swept with low dunes of fine, white sand. To the side snaked a ridge of pale red outcrops and black-flecked rock. On the other side, a long, thin lake, or what looked like a body of dark, greasy water, lurked. Probably caked with alien salt and poisons of high concentration.
Urgon landed at the base of the ridge where a group of rusted tin outbuildings clustered and what seemed an abandoned oil rig. But I kept Starrunner back, closer to
