Bounty Hunter at Binary Flats by John Bowers

Author:John Bowers [Bowers, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: FTL Press
Published: 2015-07-04T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

“Was that a good idea?” Nathan asked as Nick pulled away from the Prater estate and followed the winding road down the side of the ridge. They had arranged to leave Nathan’s car at the estate while they ventured south to see where that might lead. Nick slipped on his sunshades to combat the glare from twin suns.

“Was what a good idea?”

“You gave away your whole case back there. If Prater is guilty of something, now he can cover his tracks.”

Nick shrugged. “Sometimes you play it close to your chest until you figure things out. And sometimes, when you aren’t getting anywhere, you just dump the facts on your suspects and see what they do with it. If you’re lucky, they might panic and do something stupid.”

“And if they’re innocent? They might talk out of turn to the wrong people without even knowing it and tip them off that you’re closing in.”

“Do you think we’re closing in? I don’t. Right now I have more questions than answers. Nothing about this makes any sense so far.”

Nick reached the plain at the bottom of the ridge and turned south, cruising at ninety knots and fifty feet of altitude. The terrain ahead looked empty, desolate. Here and there he saw farms and the occasional dairy, but mostly it was undeveloped country. He wasn’t sure how far they had to go to run into the settlements everyone said existed south of Centauri Springs, but it looked like it might take a few hours. He glanced at Nathan.

“Looks like we have some time on our hands. You want to hash it out? I’ll run the evidence by you and you tell me what it means.”

“Fire away.”

“Okay. First, the wanted poster was a fake. Except it wasn’t. Vanov told me the poster was real, but it wasn’t for Prater, it was for me. What does that tell you?”

“Doesn’t tell me anything. It raises two questions: Who wants you dead, and why?”

“I can answer those,” Nick said. “The poster was issued by the Rukes, according to Vanov. He said they were pissed at me for ending the war. He said the Rukes lost a lot of money when the coalition collapsed.”

Nathan looked at him in surprise.

“You ended the war?”

“No. I had a hand in one particular battle, and the war ended soon after that. The revolution was already losing and they were about to fold anyway.”

“So what did Vanov mean?”

“He believed the revolution was still strong, but the cultists lost heart after that one battle. It’s bullshit, but that’s what he said.”

“Okay…”

“I don’t buy any of it. There’s another reason for the poster, but I don’t know what it is.”

Nathan frowned. “If the wanted poster was issued by the Rukes, then how did it get into Prater’s possession?”

“Prater said it came in the mail, but I think we’ve established that it didn’t. Somebody placed it on Michael’s desk with the regular mail. The whole idea, according to Vanov, was to get me down here where they could get at me.

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