Echo Omicron by Mann Theo

Author:Mann, Theo
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781961511668
Publisher: Novus Mundi Publishing
Published: 2024-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

Dice, Fiddler, and Emmet aimed their XQs at the crew compartment while Lyons slotted Captain Boyne’s security key into the door lock. It opened.

All the Reserve Wing personnel stood on their feet inside. Boyne glared at the friends with smoke billowing out of his ears. “You’ll pay for this! You won’t get away with this.”

“Get off our ship,” Lyons ordered. “You have enough to worry about just getting yourselves to safety. I wouldn’t waste my breath with threats right now.”

Boyne took one look at their weapons and stormed out of the compartment. His people followed him to the cargo bay, but when they saw the auxiliary town waiting for them, they hesitated to leave the ship.

“What the hell is this place? You can’t leave us here. These people will tear us limb from limb.”

“This is Scion of Hubris,” Lyons told him, “and before you complain, just remember how you laughed when your admiral abandoned Davenport here. We’re doing you a massive favor by putting you off on a friendly planet. Your intelligence station is about five miles that way.”

“Five miles! We can’t walk that far.”

“We can fly you a thousand miles out into the ocean if you prefer.”

He glared even more furiously, but he had no choice with Dice, Fiddler, and Emmet all holding him at gunpoint. He stormed down the dusty streets to the auxiliary town. His crew followed him casting terrified glances around them.

At the far end of town, they turned a corner and Fiddler lost sight of them. She lowered her XQ. “I’m going out there. I’m going to find Davenport.”

“You’re insane!” Lyons protested. “He could be anywhere.”

“If he’s alive, he’ll be here. You heard what the admiral said. The intelligence station’s security detail will be watching out for him. Either they captured him and he’s already dead or he got away. If he got away, he’s here or someone here will know where he is. I’m not leaving without him.”

“Well, we are,” Lyons yelled after her. “If you go out there, don’t expect us to be here waiting when you get back.”

Fiddler shot her a sneer over her shoulder. Fiddler might be a lot younger than Lyons, but she knew a hollow threat when she heard one.

She set her XQ in a corner of the cargo bay and strode out into the street. Emmet appeared at her side, and a minute later, Beauty, Dice, and Lyons caught up with them.

Lyons sniffed at the shabby surroundings. “This is the armpit of the universe. These people eat lawmen for breakfast.”

“Davenport isn’t an ordinary lawman.” Fiddler didn’t know how she knew this, but she knew it was true. “He’s here…somewhere.”

She heard music coming from a rotten old watering hole on the corner. Fiddler stuck her head inside The place smelled of piss, unwashed bodies, and moldy beer. “This is the place.”

“Davenport is probably bleeding out in their deep freeze by now,” Lyons surmised.

Fiddler ignored her and approached the bar. A wizened Oziel worked behind the bar doing four jobs at once.

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