A Dark Horizon (Final Dawn, Book 3) by T.W.M. Ashford

Author:T.W.M. Ashford [Ashford, T.W.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-03T06:00:00+00:00

15

A Deal’s a Deal

Jack slammed the black box down on Ichor’s desk.

“There. I got it for you. Now tell me who put a bounty on my head before any more planets get wiped out.”

He wasn’t sure how much of the water dripping off him was sweat from their escape or rainwater from the storm outside. Klik had only driven the stolen hoverbike about a single block from the garage before they abandoned it for the Scrap Rats to find. Stealing the black box for the Crimson Crosshairs was illegal enough – they didn’t fancy adding grand theft auto to their growing rap sheet.

Ichor looked up from her reports and laughed.

“Somebody’s got a pretty big estimation of himself, hasn’t he?” She put down her data pad and picked up the box. “First things first…”

“There wasn’t a key,” said Jack, feeling his face turn hot. “You—”

Ichor raised her hand and Jack stopped talking. She put the box back down, pulled open one of the drawers of her desk, and revealed a small, bronze key.

“You had the key already?” asked Klik, who’d been allowed up to the penthouse office this time rather than confined to the bar.

“No, I had a key.” Ichor slipped the key into the hole and turned it. “Come on. You don’t really think people in our profession get through locked doors by knocking, do you?”

The tumblers fell into place and the top half of the black box popped ever so slightly open. Ichor smiled, pocketed the key and lifted the lid.

Jack tried to peer inside but the upright lid blocked his view. He needn’t have bothered. Ichor triumphantly lifted the precious contents up for all in the room to see.

“A wonderful vintage,” she said, turning the flask-shaped glass bottle so that its label faced outwards. “Ode always did have such refined taste.”

“Whiskey?” Jack felt rage build in his chest. He gripped the edge of the desk and noticed Ichor’s bodyguards grow tense in his peripheral vision. “You made us do all that for a damn drink? You have an entire bar available to you downstairs!”

“Yes, but it doesn’t stock this. Very few of these bottles were ever made, you see. Fewer still survived the fires of Bel’Roth. Ode and I planned on sharing it one day, but…”

Ichor delicately placed the bottle back into its box and stashed the whole thing inside her desk drawer.

“Besides,” she continued, her mood brightening again, “you didn’t ‘do all that’ for a drink, no matter how valuable it might be. You ‘did all that’ for an answer.” She leaned back in her chair and shrugged. “A deal’s a deal. I’ll tell you who wants you dead.”

She brought up her holographic monitor with a wave of her hand. A few more elegant swishes brought Ichor to the file in question. Jack tried to look himself but, from his side of the desk, both the text and images were blurred.

“Oh, this is very interesting,” said Ichor, breaking into a grin.

“What? Tell me!” Jack knew he was dangling on the end of Ichor’s hook.

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