Hand of Steel by Jessi L Roberts

Author:Jessi L Roberts [Roberts, Jessi L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mountain Star Press
Published: 2019-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

The minister placed a bag of flexsteel coins on his desk and began fiddling with his own datsheet. “We’d been looking for this little piece of pitbait for years. Good work, Krys.” His hair had gone gray with age, but he still had coiled muscles, hinting he’d probably been a bounty hunter before getting a less dangerous job.

“You should have killed me!” Nerrini shouted from her cell.

I ignored her and grabbed my new license from where it lay on the table.

Nerrini kept shouting. She’d done it the whole way to Saddat. I’d gotten a good look at her record. If anyone deserved to fight and die in the pits, it was her. Even the old Torf captain of the Samaritan hadn’t complained about me taking her bounty, or threatening to starve her until I got the information I needed.

“Thanks for the coin.” I stuffed it in my pack. “Are there any jobs around here?” If I could get stable work hunting local low-end bounties, the kind who paid the fine instead of being punished with slavery, it would be a lot safer. Those bounties rarely shot back, and I might even get a wage for enforcing the law, rather than depending on the bounties alone.

The minister shook his head. “Sorry. There aren’t any towns around here willing to employ teenagers, at least not ones of your rank.”

I frowned. It wasn’t a surprise, though it was a bit of cruel logic. No one wanted a kid, which meant I’d have to get by on my own.

The minister’s face softened. “Are you any relation to the other Karzils hunting here? There’s a group led by Akar, then a couple more led by Madok.”

“Akar’s my uncle,” I said. Madok must have been some other Karzil that was no relation to my family. “Thanks.” I stepped out of the bounty ministry and headed down the streets of Saddat’s capital. I’d find my relatives if I got in trouble, but right now, I wasn’t ready to face that. They enforced the law like Dad and I had done, but sometimes, the end justified the means for them.

Shops stood on either side of the paved road, which was wide enough for large hovers. Unlike Tupra or even Lokostwa, these shops were indoor businesses big enough to employ others. The buildings around me had clear, domed roofs signifying that they were all upper-class buildings, not those belonging to the lower classes. Those would be near the edges of town, places where bounties sometimes hid.

I passed the buildings and paused by one of the many trees. Finally, I’d returned to a land of blue skies and rolling prairies, as well as an open city with room to walk on the streets and grass around the buildings.

I sat in the soft grass under a tree and began thumbing through the list of bounties in the area. Nerrini had given me some decent info about a few of her associates who helped with illegal slave trafficking. These weren’t some poor children who got caught stealing bread.

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