Bounty War by Kate Sheeran Swed

Author:Kate Sheeran Swed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Spells & Spaceships Press

CHAPTER 12

The message from Lager came in while Gareth was helping the kids settle in on Sabre.

Nothing notable yet, Lager’s note read, but I assumed you wouldn’t want to miss this.

He’d attached a video, but it wasn’t marked urgent, so Gareth set it aside. The counselors had suggested they keep the kids together, and he’d spent the first few hours after their evacuation in one of the mess halls, helping to shove tables aside, arrange cots, and assemble a meal for them. A few soldiers went digging through supplies for toys to occupy the younger kids, while ground teams combed the asteroid inch by inch, searching for clues.

So far, they’d only found bodies.

By the time the counselors convinced him to leave the hall—now a makeshift dormitory—with assurances that they had everything well in hand, Gareth’s head was thrumming with exhaustion and grief, and it wasn’t until he’d showered and returned to his cabin that he remembered Lager’s message, and the unwatched video.

Long day. Very long. Gareth sat down at his desk—just a strip of metal that’d been bolted to the wall, with a metal chair to match it—and opened the file, not quite knowing what to expect.

The hov-train in the video might have been anywhere in the galaxy; their interiors were fairly standard. But even though the landscape blurred by too quickly for him to make out the exact location, he knew the train had to be on Scope. Because Sloane Tarnish was front and center, and she was doing her best to knock a very large Federation employee out of the open doors.

Why the train doors were open while the train was careening above the city, well, that was anyone’s guess. It was Sloane, which meant anything was possible.

Someone had taken the video from the far end of the car, and their hand was shaking badly—no surprise there—but the picture was clear enough. Gareth watched, heart in his throat, as Striker swaggered into the shot. The train was humming too loudly for him to hear what the Federation coordinator was saying, but Gareth could imagine it well enough. Threats, taunts, and more threats. Striker was nothing if not predictable, at least in that respect.

The video jolted, and then a man in a long coat was swinging into the car and planting his boots directly in Striker’s face.

Damian Riddle. Dramatic entrances might as well be the man’s middle name. While Gareth watched, Damian handed Sloane a rope, and they were jumping out of the still-moving car together. Brighton Walsh followed, along with a woman Gareth didn’t recognize.

The video ended, and Gareth realized he was smiling. It’d been the worst kind of day, the kind that made him want to bury his head in his hand and weep. But seeing her like that…it eased something in him, something he hadn’t quite realized was hurting. Like a balm that soaked into the skin. Healing.

Before he quite knew what he intended, Gareth was initiating a direct call to her. She was likely still on Scope, so he’d have to leave a message.

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