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Large corporations now run Earth and its colonies throughout the galaxy. Governments and dictatorships replaced by the rich. Local law enforcement, still handled by local police forces, remain in place. The galaxy is large, though. Notorious criminals find refuge in its far corners. This requires a different kind of force to deal with them. An entity known as the Library provides that force. Bounty Hunter services that keep the corporations interests safe. But who keeps the citizens interests safe from the corporations?
It's 200 years before the Psychic Knights fought their battles to save the Naturals. Ellery Holt is a unique Bounty Hunter among his peers. He has one weapon that stands him out from other hunters. His mind.
Follow Ellery as one of his hunts turns in to an investigation. It leads to a plot to take control of the Bounty Hunter services and a threat to the very lives of all Bounty Hunters.
Chapter 1
I climbed up high to get a better vantage point. The going is tricky with loose rubble taking away my assured footings, but I managed to get to the top without too many cuts and bruises. My dried skin from the stale hot air had enough to be going on with.
As I reached the summit a small reptile fled its basking area allowing me to keep low to the dusty rock. Down below is my recent prison. A raiders camp that sits at the northern tip of the capital city, Brontel. It’s a temporary camp that’s easily dismantled and re-erected at a moments notice.
I can see three of the raiders who had captured me earlier, milling around and arguing about my escape. Their voices are taken away on the gentle breeze, but their actions show their annoyance. One of them throws a punch that catches another on the side of the head knocking him to the ground. He stays down rubbing the side of his face.
“That’s gonna be the least of your problems,” I say to myself.
A battered vehicle rumbles across the desert ground towards the three. It stops at a tent and a tall female gets out. I recognise her at once. She tended my wound before forcing a metal bar against it to inflict more pain. I wince at the memory and involuntary touch the bandaged area on my left shoulder.
She is clearly the leader as the three cower when she approaches them. She wears a leather vest and leather leggings. Her dark hair is tied back revealing her pale skin tinged red by the sun. In a civilised world she would be called beautiful, but out here the ravages of the weather has hardened her features to a permanent scowl that accentuates the many wrinkles that line her skin.
Neither of these four are my intended target. That man is her second. He is wanted on murder charges in the capital. The price on his head is, I think, a little on the high side for a nobody, but who am I to complain. If that’s what he is worth to the people of Brontel then I will take it with a smile. But first I have to capture him.
My first attempt was interrupted by an unforeseen natural phenomenon that knocked me over, easing my capture. The seismic activity is less known to the Library on this world otherwise I would have been prepared. My recorder will rectify that lack of knowledge for my employers.
My weapon and any supplies I had around my waist were down in the camp, relieved from my person when I was captured. My pockets were emptied and the access card to my speeder was taken too. I would have returned to the city and come back here another time but for this problem. But surprise will be on my side now. They won’t be expecting me to return so soon.
I scanned the rest of the camp. Several fires are burnt out where food had been cooked. It was mid afternoon and half of the camp had left. No doubt terrorising some innocents with the intention of stealing from them. The remainder were either out looking for me or lazing around their tents.
My first aim is to arm myself and spotting the parked vehicles close to the base of the high rock I am on, I think I know how. I noticed them on my first foray into the camp. Each vehicle sports a long barrelled gun strapped to its inner roof lining. Heading back the way I had come I slide down the pathway.
My shoulder is stiffening up a little and the pain is considerable. I have to grit my teeth on a couple of occasions to stop myself from screaming out. What I wouldn’t do for a pain inhibitor right now.
The high rock face is part of a geological phenomenon that forms at the edge of the great sea. It spans thousands of miles and from the sky looks like rows and rows of teeth jutting up from the salt beds of the desert. It provides a haven for raiders, but also gives me unlimited possibilities of places to hide after my escape. Except that I’m not hiding.
I double back when I reach ground level, weaving my way through the jagged peaks, some as high as the tallest buildings in Brontel. Some no bigger than myself. My sense of direction is being tested to the full today with a majority of the peaks in this vicinity being almost identical, but I keep my head and find my way to the mouth of one of the entrances to the raiders camp.
I crouch low behind a row of rocks that run in to the camp. The female and three men have moved away further into the camp, but I can now hear the arguments they are having after a fourth man has joined them. It’s my target, Seamus Hinks. He is a stocky man rising to no more than the height of the woman’s shoulders. He too has dark hair, much shorter and receding and wears similar clothes to her. He has no qualms about arguing with her and almost acts as though he is in charge. Either way, as long as they keep themselves busy it’ll give me a chance to get to a gun.
The three trucks look like hunched killing dogs waiting to pounce. They reek of the synthetic fuel they consume and when running are so noisy it’s hard to communicate while driving them. I haven’t been in one, but I’ve seen and heard enough throughout the colonies to know what the passengers go through on each trip.
I skit across the ground like a sidewinder across sand, my eyes darting in all directions. The sun is at its highest point now and I can feel the burning sensation across my back and shoulders. I had been relieved of my top when my wound was being treated.
Making it to the first vehicle I wait and listen for any signs that I have been spotted. There’s nothing. As I open the passenger door it moans a metallic sound. The strapping for the gun hangs down loosely. The holster is empty. I curse under my breath and make my way to the rear of the vehicle.
It’s parked too close to the wall of stone and I have to climb on the bumper to get passed it. The bonnet is warm. I can’t tell if it’s from the engine or the sun. As I open the second trucks door I catch a glimpse of something moving twenty metres from the front of the truck. It’s one of the raiders.
She stops by an almost dead fire. As she stirs the embers looking for a flame to light her cigarette her eye-line catches the first trucks open door. Stooping down she draws in on her cigarette from a rejuvenated fire keeping her sight on the truck. I am just out of sight in the second cab and watch her move gingerly over to the door. When I look up to the roof, it too is gun-less.
Damn! If I’m not careful I’ll get caught and if the third truck is empty I’ll be a sitting duck. I duck low carefully closing the door. By the time it’s closed the woman is alongside the first truck looking inside. I have to concentrate. Enter her mind. Distract her away from checking all of the trucks.
I usually only do this when I have eye contact. It’s too much of a strain on my mind without it, but I can’t take the chance that she’ll raise the alarm before I find the right area in her mind if I was in her line of sight.
As I close my eyes I hear her slam the door shut. It’s only a matter of seconds before she’ll be upon me.
Out into the ether I go and latch onto her brain. I have a faint feeling of trembling, but when I am out of my body anything that is physically happening with it seems like a distant sensation at the back of my mind and could easily be confused with a memory.
In her mind I dig deep looking for her subconscious, that part of the mind that makes all of the decisions. It is a tricky area at the best of times, but without direct line of sight I run the risk of being sheared from my body and a life of mental instability is the best I could hope for.
I plunge in to the mire that is her subconscious as soon as I find it without time to tread carefully. This increases the risk of her knowing I am there and possibly countering my changes. But I don’t have the time to take all of my usual precautions. The tweaks are made and I quickly return to my body and wait.
And wait.
Footsteps on hardened soil stop just short of where I hide. There is a moment of silence and I brace myself ready to strike at the woman’s throat as soon as she opens the door. Then more footsteps as she moves away. I take a deep breath of relief. Letting a few seconds pass I raise my head to look out of the windscreen. She is gone.
Chapter 2
A pain shoots through my shoulder as I move from my awkward position. I move as quickly as it allows me, again having to climb over the vehicle to get passed it. This time I struggle. The rear of the truck is closer to the wall and the bumper is just wide enough for my frame to squeeze by.
Thankfully, the third truck is still armed. A laser rifle, power cell half full. Plenty for what I need it for. It’s a particularly powerful gun which suits me fine. I just need it to stop people. I’m not one of those bounty hunters that need to make as much mess as possible to make a point.
As I exit the truck I stay low surveying the area, getting my bearings. Seamus is out of sight now. Quickly finding cover in the camp I gingerly make my way through it keeping as low as my shoulder will allow me. I stop at the side of a tall porta-hab that shades me from the sun. The sudden coolness is refreshing and I linger there for a moment.
When I look around the corner of the portable building Seamus and the other four have stopped again and their conversation has calmed down. They are now outside the self building tent that I had been kept in, my speeder parked up by its side.
The whole camp is a mishmash of porta-habs and tents arranged in no discernible pattern. There is no military experience in anything I have seen going against all of the information I was given on Seamus’s allegiances. Have the authorities in Brontel got things that wrong? If that’s the case what else have they got wrong?
I begin to raise the laser rifle to get my aim in, but the pain in my shoulder becomes unbearable rendering the weapon almost useless. I need another way and quickly.
The group are just fifty metres away and I have a clear line of sight. There’s just one option for me. My mind travels the distance in an instant and is in the mind of the first man, the one with the sore jaw. I zip along familiar pathways ending up in his subconscious and set off a motion of sequences that are passed to his conscious mind. When I return to my own mind I watch.
The man, only realising too late what he is doing, pulls out his weapon and shoots his two friends. He looks on in horror unable to control what he is doing. Before he goes any further the woman draws her own weapon and shoots him dead.
Seamus and the woman begin arguing again. From what I can hear it’s about who had brought the man into the group that had just been on a firing rampage, but to be honest I’m not listening. I focus on the woman. Her arm suddenly comes up and catches Seamus on the side of the head with her weapon knocking him out cold.
Her face is a mask of confusion and she drops the gun. She looks at her arm and I can tell what she is thinking. I’ve seen that look many times before. She is trying to work out how her arm and hand had acted on their own and it’s beginning to freak her out.
She finally looks up as I approach.
“YOU! Did you do this? How did you do this?”
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’m here to collect my man and you’re going to help me.”
The woman reaches down for her discarded gun, but I shoot it away from her hand.
“Now I want you to go to my stuff in the tent and get the mag-cuffs. I’ll be following you with this gun so don’t try anything. Secure Seamus’s hands and put him in my speeder.”
The woman looks terrified. I suspect not from the threat of the gun, but from the fear of having her limbs do things she isn’t in control of. Another look I’ve seen many times before.
I follow her in and collect my things. My shirt is shredded and discarded on the floor. My belt with my gun and supplies lays over a chair. She takes the cuffs off of the belt and returns to Seamus, securing his hands and then dragging the small man into my speeder. She is a strong woman.
“Now what?” she asks once Seamus is stowed away.
“You’re coming with us. I want to make sure I won’t be attacked on my way back to the city. Soon as we’re on the outskirts I’ll let you go. There’s no bounty on your head.”
She is about to protest, but I can see in her eyes that she knew it would be fruitless. It is just a natural reaction for someone like her. The instinct subsides and she begins to climb in to the speeder.
“You drive,” I say. “Wouldn’t want you getting any ideas about trying to subdue me in any way.”
She stops, then proceeds to get in the drivers seat. Having her drive has an added benefit. She will be the only one seen as the speeder only has views out of the front. The passenger bay is concealed.
Chapter 3
The way out of the area is unchallenged. I can see, through the front, four of the raiders looking on as we speed by, but seeing their leader at the wheel they think nothing more of it.
I pull a shirt from the storage rack above the seat Seamus is dozing in. In reality this isn’t really a speeder. It has the capacity for four passengers plus luggage and only really got the tag as a speeder because it just about reached the speed required when it was fully empty. I sense a little artistic license in the naming conventions by the leasing company I acquired it from.
Struggling through the pain to get my shirt on it finally settles on my body and the holographic bounty hunter badge displays immediately, pulling my ID from the DNA on my skin. I have to keep it displayed at all times to allow me to carry my weapon and be assured of certain privileges that no other ordinary citizen in any of the colonies has. If I don’t I would find it hard to collect the rewards from my work.
Human civilisation is full of red tape.
I strap my communicator to my arm and key in the code that tells my employers that I am bringing the bounty in. This gives them time to prepare whatever it is they have waiting for him and ready my credits. To be honest I don’t care what happens to him. As long as my payment is in my account as soon as he is delivered. I’ll just get some medical attention before I leave and hopefully will never have to return.
Can’t say it’s been a pleasant experience. This is my third time on this scorched rock and it’s not something I want to repeat a fourth time.
Seamus stirs in his seat. He slowly straightens up and takes in his surroundings. Finally, his eyes focus on the driver.
“You bitch! What happened to loyalty among raiders?”
“I’m sorry,” is all the woman can say. After all, how can she explain what happened without sounding mad.
He turns his attention to me.
“You’re making a mistake.” He turns to a more pleading manner now. “I’m a nobody. I’ve hardly done anything on this planet yet.”
His accent is certainly not of this world. It’s more of an Earth accent akin to my own.
“So I suppose you’ve not murdered twenty nine people in Brontel,” I say.
Now, I never bother myself with the crimes of my targets. Like I said I don’t care what’s been done only that I catch whoever I’m after, but something is nagging at the back of my mind. I think it’s the size of the reward. I want to know what sort of person is worth that amount of credit.
“WHAT!” he cries, eyes wide. “I’ve never murdered anyone! I’ve just been caught a couple of times raiding in the city.”
He certainly sounds sincere. I can usually tell when someone is lying. Something about their voice triggers something in my mind. Another ability I have that I can’t explain.
“So why would the city officials put a bounty on your head for fifteen times the normal rate?”
“You must have the wrong man.”
I shake my head.
“Nope. The DNA readings I took when I first saw you confirm that you are Seamus Hinks.”
“I am, but there’s been a mistake. I’ve never murdered anyone in my life. I couldn’t hurt a fly.”
“So these are just for show,” I say raising the rifle in my hand.
“They’re nothing to do with me. I’m scared of guns. Ever since one accidentally went off when I was a kid and pierced a hole in my leg.”
“It’s true,” joins in the woman. “I’ve never seen anyone so scared of guns before. He wouldn’t even have one in any transport he was in.”
“I’m nervous just sitting here next to you with that thing in your hand.”
He does look nervous, but I just put that down to the situation he is in. Alarm bells are going off in my head now. What is so special about this job? Why the high price tag? Things aren’t adding up.
I sit quietly running through the situation in my mind. Seamus carries on talking, pleading his innocence, but I just shut him out. It’s true I have gained a reputation in the business and I am one of only a handful of hunters with a hundred percent success rate so when I am asked for personally I think nothing of it. Now, however, I am wondering if this has all been a set up. Just a rouse to get me to this planet.
I desperately go back through my memories of this place. The jobs I have done here. The first was a simple collection. It was in the early days. My first job alone. All I had to do was collect an escapee from the open prison world of Pen One. These are white collar criminals no more dangerous than amateur bar room fighters.
There had been a mass escape and my mentor, Danyor, thought it would be a good initiation as a lone bounty hunter. The idea for first hunts is to gently break the newbie in. There’s a kind of cutting the cord ceremony when the first hunt is brought home.
The bounty hunter business brings its own problems with targets seeking revenge, but I can’t see white collar criminals taking that path.
The last one was a team effort. There were very few times when bounty hunters teamed up, but through Danyor I had made some friends in the business and he had come to us all with a proposal. It was to break a cartel here. One the authorities in Santos in the southern hemisphere had put up with for centuries, but now wanted to finally do something about.
They had tried several bounty hunters, the cartel having numerous bounties on some of the higher rank members, but all had failed. It was Danyor who had gone to them with the idea of a team. The job went smoothly, but serious enemies had been made.
The cartel was totally broken down and their assets were absorbed into the local economy so the enemies that were made were incarcerated and had no money left to fund any sort of revenge. Although, they did have powerful friends. Maybe they were calling in some favours.
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