The Temptation set down on Axis the next day. Unwilling to attract unwanted attention, the captain landed the pirate ship in an expensive private bay on Level Two. She nodded to Coldhand as he disembarked and offered no parting comment or well wishes. The woman didn’t seem displeased to see the bounty hunter go.
An hour’s walk brought him out of the private landing bays and into the busy streets of Axis proper. Coldhand found a public computer terminal with a short line. Looking back over their shoulders at him, two humans and a chubby Dailon decided that their business could wait and left.
Coldhand fed a silver chip of change into the computer and the monitor flickered to life. It displayed the black and white Starwind logo just long enough to make an impression, and then brought up an Axis mainstream search screen. He keyed up the records for his Raptor, grounded on Level One, and frowned. His unexpected trip to Stray and back had left his fighter moored longer than expected. The uncaring computer monitor told Coldhand that he owed almost three hundred cenmarks in fees and the Raptor was impounded pending the payment of the balance.
He brought up his accounts in another screen. Overdrawn. Coldhand had spent most of his money paying his fare on the Temptation. The color in his pockets was all he had and even that was barely enough to cover a few meals and a place to stay. He drummed his cybernetic fingers on the edge of the terminal’s keyboard, thinking. The computer flashed a red-lettered warning, telling the bounty hunter that his credit was about to run out. He gave the machine another silver cenmark.
Coldhand needed work. Almost a year of exclusively chasing Cavainna had paid nothing so far, leaving his accounts and pockets almost empty. He needed a bounty, something short term that would pay the bills until he brought down his Arcadian mark. With his bird grounded, he could not take any off-world bounties.
He needed something local, something close that required no ship. Coldhand pulled up a third screen, this one branded across the top with the blue, white and green of the Central World Alliance. He scanned through the CWA bounty listing. It was short, as usual. The Alliance had more than enough men and firepower to bring in its own criminals. Coldhand keyed up another listing, bounties listed by individual worlds.
A handful of notices caught his attention: Zoen Temple, wanted on Giadeen for shipping illegal chemicals. Titania, an Arcadian wanted on Kahl for questioning related to a pair of particularly gruesome murders. Toku Miagawa, a human member of the Sisterhood wanted for five counts of rape on Mir. Interesting, but nothing close enough to chase down himself without his ship.
Instinctively, Coldhand began to pass up the Stray listing. The ratty world made high color harboring the kind of people that often had bounties on their heads. It didn’t pay to hire hunters to kill or arrest their patrons. On occasion, a personal bounty would crop up on Stray, but usually for some petty crime or vendetta that simply did not interest Coldhand. This time, one listing made him hit a key to freeze the screen and read the details.
The bounty was for a Dailon man by the name of Vyron Fethru. The bounty was posted from Stray, but the mark was on Axis. It was a private listing. The client gave no name, only a radio frequency for contact once Fethru was brought to Stray.
Fethru was wanted for gang-related crimes on Axis, listed as the front man of the group. He and his gang were under suspicion for several killings, kidnappings and high color chem running. He was to be taken alive only, unharmed, and delivered to Stray for retrieval. His bounty, however, was to be paid out of an Axis account. No number listed. The amount was an adequate four hundred cenmarks. It was to be paid on capture, confirmed by genetic scan. Another four hundred was promised on Vyron’s delivery to Stray.
Eight hundred. Coldhand pondered the posting. The initial payment would be enough to get his bird off the ground and back into the sky, where it belonged. One hundred left over would cover the cost of repairing the casing on his cybernetics. Another four hundred color would pay for his hunting of Cavainna for at least another month.
Coldhand checked the date on the listing. Two days ago. That was ample time for any number of other hunters to see the listing and begin tracking down Vyron Fethru. Bounty hunting was not a widespread occupation, but Axis was the most densely populated world in the core. At least a dozen other hunters had surely seen the posting by now. He would have to move quickly to reach Vyron first.
- End Chapter 12 -
Clever!