Biddy shook her head, not looking at Hastings. “I don’t hunt Augments.”
Hastings made a sort of choking noise in the back of his throat, but he didn’t challenge her.
The plastic man paused, receiving more instructions. “Could I talk to you alone?”
Biddy felt a flash of irritation. Now he was simply wasting her time.
“No. Say what you need to say then get back to wherever you came from.”
“What about Iona Beach?”
A knife blow. That’s what it felt like. One driven in low, just below the ribs. Biddy could feel the wound left by the words. She turned back to the plastic man.
“This way,” she said, hissing out the words.
“Biddy?” Hastings was offended, she could see that. But she couldn’t have this conversation in front of the crew. Damnit, she didn’t want to be having it with anyone. But the plastic man had said the magic words and now it was time to watch his trick, whether she wanted to or not.
She could feel the avatar’s smirk as he followed her to the door near the bar. The barman gave her a brief nod as she led him in.
“This better be good,” she said, closing the door behind them. The room stank of stale beer and condensation oozed from the walls.
“Good… or important.”
Biddy realized she was grinding her teeth. “If this is just a trick to get me to listen to you…”
“It isn’t. I have a… friend who runs the mineral mines on the moons of Haumea.”
“This friend would be a member of the Knights?”
“Could be, could be. He inherited the mining settlement of EndSat.”
“Iona Beach.”
“The settlement of Endsat, otherwise known as Iona Beach. The name given by those who settled it a hundred years ago. The artificial planet they built there around the moon Hiʻiaka. The locals called it after a tiny island on Old Earth. Some even called it Tirnanog. It was settled by the people of the Celtic Alliance until seventy years ago when EndSat was reclaimed by the Galactic Bank, representing the Knights.”
“Thanks for explaining my own history to me,” Biddy said, annoyed by the whine in her own voice. She should have known better than to let this guy get under her skin.
The plastic man blinked, then continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Since that time the EndSat has been run as a tourist destination for wealthy clients.”
“And interstellar criminals.”
“Undoubtedly.”
“And the Celts have been fighting the longest legal battle in Fast Light history to get it back.”
“Including your own family, whose entire fortune was invested in an attempt to recover the Iona Beach colony. The reason why you had to become a bounty hunter for the Void.”
Biddy grimaced. “Scotclan prefer the word ‘Detective’. Bounty Hunter has kind of negative connotations.”
“Is that so?” A drip of condensation fell from the ceiling and landed on the plastic man’s jacket.
“We’re still happy to take a bounty though, should it be offered.”
“Does that mean you’ll take this one? Iona Beach. Back in the hands of your clan.”
Biddy avoided answering. She looked at the dead glass eyes of the falsebody. “This Augment. One man. How can he be worth all that?”
“You know the answer.”
Biddy sighed. “Because he is a God. Let me get this straight: if I don’t do this then I lose the only chance we’ll ever have at getting Tirnanog back. It’s blackmail.”
“Or an offer you can’t refuse. Come on, Mackay. Do this job, and your people get back what they’ve been trying to obtain for three generations. Do you really have any other choice?”
Biddy didn’t answer. She didn’t have to.
Chapter 2
They had called him God. He had been revered by humanity. Then feared. Then they had imprisoned him. It was all so… impolite. And now the strangest punishment of all. They had made him disappear.
The cargo hold stank of fuel, hot electrics and old sweat. Men with broad shoulders and heavy overalls worked at the machines, connecting cables and lifting metal. All these centuries of technology beyond the old Earthers’ wildest dreams and manual labor was still the easiest way to move awkward cargo.
The God stretched his back. He was no longer 213. That wasn’t the sort of name that made you invisible. Now he was Lu Tang, a starfreighter mechanic from EarthSat 5. Lu Tang had had an unfortunate accident which had led to him having sections of metal plate implanted in his skull. This had the benefit of disguising the surgery that marked him out as an Augment, but it was a clumsy solution at best. At least his genes were sufficiently mixed that he could pass for someone of Far Eastern heritage. He was starting to run out of his emergency identities. What he needed was a new face, but those were not easy to come-by in this sector of the galaxy.
After the total disaster that had been the Westward Ho!, he had managed to make it as far as the asteroid belt just outside of the Rodenberry system. He had blagged his way onto a starfreighter that was looking for laborer’s. The ship looked like it was held together by black tape and prayer. Two centuries since humanity had entered the age of Fast Light, and it was still frontier territory as soon as you got a couple of solar systems away from Earth.
“Hey, these barrels won’t load themselves!”
Lu Tang stared at the man who had shouted at him. The stranger was shaven headed, thick-waisted and had a serious tic under one eye. Lu Tang considered the merits of crushing his windpipe with a single, accurate blow. Then he reluctantly acknowledged that now was not the time.
“Yes sir,” Lu Tang replied. The subservient words felt alien on his tongue, but they were also somehow thrilling. How easy it was to deceive the humans.
