Paladin: Dauntless by McLaughlin Kevin

Author:McLaughlin, Kevin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

21

Tristan drummed his fingers on his desk, wondering just what the hell else could go wrong. It wasn’t enough that they were hunted by one of the strongest forces in the Fringe. No, on top of that, the planet they picked to hide out seemed to have secrets of its own.

That woman he fought was not from around these parts. There’s no way she could be, not with her skills. He was fast, he had decades of training under his belt, and he had one of the best nanite suites money could buy, courtesy of some jobs back when money was flowing more freely. Even with all of that in his corner, the only reason he’d ‘won’ was because the shuttle arrived in the nick of time to save him from getting his ass kicked.

No, she wasn’t from around here. Which begged the question, then: where was she from? Also, who did she work for, and why was she here?

Too many questions, and far too little information.

The planetary government was based right here in Sunset City, which is why he’d parked the Dauntless here. They were just about ready to admit they needed help. He’d already quietly made some inquiries, checking to see what the city’s security forces were planning to do about the recent spate of bandit attacks.

There were three large mining companies all vying for top dog on Percival. Each of them had different claims in different directions from the city. They all had their own security, too, and the city wasn’t especially concerned if someone fleeced the mining corps a little bit. If the only people getting hit were mining companies, that wouldn’t necessarily bring enough heat to get his crew hired on.

Which was why they’d hit some of the farms as well. His people had done a good job ensuring the civie casualties were minimal. Mostly, they were just snatch and grab jobs, taking some haulers loaded down with food and such. That filled a double purpose—getting the planetary government a little more alarmed, and also filling the bellies of his hungry mercenaries.

His office door chimed. “Come on in.”

The door slid open and Mark stepped inside. “Heya, boss.”

“How’s our man doing?” Tristan asked.

The med bay on Dauntless was plenty good by itself, especially for healing trauma work. Even the worst injured of his people hadn’t been hurt that badly by the strange woman. She’d focused on non-lethal combat, maybe because Tristan’s people had been using stunners themselves. He had no idea how many lives that had saved, but he had a feeling at least half his team would be dead if she’d decided to be more lethal about her attacks.

He’d ordered everyone checked out anyway, and was surprised when Doc Francis said they’d slipped a tracker into the gunshot wound of one of the captives he’d rescued. Francis took it out and destroyed it right away, of course, but the damage was probably done. They had to know at least roughly where he was based.

Mark sent

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