Mercy for Hire Mission Pack 1 Read online

  “That was Kubu,” Esper said, cutting Tiffany off mid-sentence in outlaying her opinions on Candace St. Cloud’s choices of men.

  “Whatever. Probably barking at some other dog.” Tiffany took another bite of her breakfast pizza.

  Esper parted the blinds with a finger and peered into the night. The sky had clouded over again, and the puddles rang with raindrops. But the street lamps cast enough glow to make out the approach of a stranger, standing out from the trickle of local pedestrians by the purpose in his pace.

  Not to mention the fact that he was crossing the intersection diagonally through traffic on a homing pigeon course for the very diner where she and Tiffany sat.

  “Look out there,” Esper ordered. “Do you recognize that man?”

  Tiffany rolled her eyes. “Lemme guess. Is he walking some freshly groomed poodle wearing a diamond-studded collar?”

  “Kubu’s not like that,” Esper scolded. “And I’m serious. Someone’s coming right for us.”

  “Duh. It’s a restaurant. You’re acting paranoid. There’s like fifty people here already. What are the odds that—”

  Esper didn’t raise her voice but added a hard edge that she’d been practicing since taking up mercenary work. “Just look!”

  With a sigh that informed Esper that this was mostly to avoid further hassle on the subject, Tiffany tugged down one of the blinds with a finger and peered through the gap. Instantly, she pulled her finger back. “Shit! That’s Odin Masterson.”

  “You recognize him?”

  “No. I fucking forgot the guy completely. He came to my birthday parties when I was a kid. He’s Roger’s pocket man.”

  Esper cleared her throat quietly. “His… what?”

  “Pocket man. Lives in my dad’s pocket? He must have been the one those dick-wits at the bar were waiting for.”

  Esper slammed a handful of extra terras on the table as a tip without counting them. She trusted by feel that there was enough there to cover both their meals plus a tidy tip for the trouble of a manual order.

  As she exited the booth, Esper took Tiffany by the wrist. “Let’s go.”

  “He’ll see us. We should hide out in the ladies’ room.”

  Esper wasn’t heading for the ladies’ room. She stepped aside and drew Tiffany out of the path of a server as he exited the kitchen. Then she towed her charge through the swinging door. “Where’s your back exit? There’s a guy stalking my niece here, and we don’t want any trouble with him.”

  One of the cooks wiped her hands on a towel and pointed past the rows of cooktops and stainless-steel shelves stacked with plates, coffee mugs, and silverware pre-wrapped in napkins. “Back left. Past the walk-in cryo. Mind the loose step.”

  “Thanks,” Esper replied without stopping her trek through the diner’s kitchen.

  Tiffany came along without trouble, but Esper maintained a hold on her wrist. There was just something in the girl’s manner that warned of the possibility that even in the midst of a life-or-death flight, she might wander off or become distracted. The two of them slid sideways through the narrow workspace. Cooks and servers dodged readily aside to allow safe passage. A few offered well-wishes along the way.

  When the back door shut behind them, there was a short flight of rickety steel mesh stairs down to street level. Esper tested her weight on each before advancing. It was the middle step that was loose, though less of a hazard than the cook’s warning might have indicated. Tiffany didn’t even get to the bottom before opening her mouth.

  “That was stellar! You magicked the shit out of them, didn’t you?” The gleam in those green eyes spoke of envy and admiration, not the horror that most would have voiced at such a prospect—if they dared mention such a thing aloud to the one accused of mind control.

  Esper headed off in a direction picked mostly for avoiding being seen from the front of the diner. “Actually, I asked nicely for help and got it. Two women on the run—and I’m aware of our appearances—we’re a sympathy case. If I’d tried to pay them off or we’d crashed through like a stampede of buffalo, they might have helped your friend Odin.”

  “Where are we going?” Tiffany asked, pulling back against Esper’s continued grip on her wrist. “And what about your dog?”

  It was a welcome reminder. Esper raised her voice a tad. “Kubu can meet us at the Lucius January Memorial Starport.”

  “And can you let go of me? I’m not a kid.”

  Esper wanted to pretend she didn’t hear the request, but given Tiffany’s nature, she knew that the repetition would come loudly and with a few extra words sprinkled in for color. “I could let go of your wrist, but I’m opting not to. I promised your mother I’d get you home safe, and this is the best way I know how.”

  “I’m telling my mother why my wrist is bruised.”

  Esper led onward, choosing a side street at random and heading down it. “If there’s a bruise, I’ll heal it before we get you halfway home.”

  If there was a rejoinder lined up to follow Tiffany’s latest argument, it de-orbited at the prospect of magical healing. “You can do that?”

  “Yeah. And maybe if you don’t cause me too much trouble, I’ll teach you how. I was about your age when I learned.”

  Tiffany snorted as she stumbled along, trying to keep up with Esper’s frantic pace. “I’m no wizard.”

  “At your age, neither was I.”

  The city smelled like people, food, yucky chemicals, food, old rain, and food. Kubu couldn’t help but keep noticing the latter since he was parked outside a diner and had the aftertaste of bacon clinging to the back of his throat. The diner person had been nice to come out and leave the bacon on a plate but had taken the dish away before Kubu had a chance to lick it clean. It almost seemed as if the nice diner person was afraid, but Kubu had been very polite—despite remembering not to talk in front of strangers. All he’d done was eat the mouthful of bacon Esper had sent him.

  Kubu sighed.

  The rain was starting up again. He didn’t mind the wet. Rain was just lonely. There was no explaining why.

  Through the glass of the diner’s big front windows, he listened to Esper talking with Tiffany. Esper always said nice things about Kubu, even when she didn’t know Kubu could hear her. Tiffany didn’t say many nice things at all. Someone’s mommy wasn’t teaching her right from wrong. That was Kubu’s assessment.

  He wished he had a datapad. A funny little flatvid would be a great way to pass the time while the slow eaters had a late dinner and Esper explained everything Tiffany needed to know to get saved properly. But Kubu had a job to do. He wasn’t just outside because dogs weren’t allowed into the diner—and while Kubu certainly wasn’t a dog, he was currently disguised as one. He was on guard duty.

  Kubu’s ears perked up at the sound of a blaster. It was faint, just a sizzling hum muffled by buildings and the falling rain. He sniffed the air and waited. Blasters had a scent all their own, similar to the exhaust from a vehicle’s ion engines but sharper and quieter. English lacked good words for the shape of smells, but Kubu understood the difference better than he could ever explain it. When he caught a whiff of blaster discharge on the night breeze, he turned to face the direction it had come from.

  At no surprise to Kubu, the sound and smell had come from the same direction. Between the echoes from buildings and the currents of the air, he had a pretty good idea where to look.

  Kubu stared.

  Humans blinked a lot. They got distracted. Kubu could get distracted, too, but not when he had something that demanded his attention like the man who rounded the corner in the direction where the blaster had fired. There had been several other people walking around that same corner, mostly human except for a laaku couple holding upper hands. None of them had fired the blaster. None of them walked mean.

  Kubu barely remembered his early life. Flashes of forest. A rumbling of lullabies. He’d been raised among humans. He knew the gait of a woman scurrying to get indoors before the rain resume
d in earnest, the hunch of a man with a long way yet to walk girding himself against the storm, the weary shuffle of someone with no place to be. This man had somewhere to be, and he was heading right for it.

  Compared to other humans, this man wasn’t remarkable. On the big side but not too big. No fur on his face. Most of his shape was obscured by a dark gray trench coat. What little hair peeked out from under the brim of his hat was dark. The muscles at his jaw clenched. The two pockets of his coat didn’t bulge the same. One probably just had a hand in it; the other, a hand plus a blaster.

  Kubu liked when he made smart guesses like that.

  As the man started across the street, headed right for him, Kubu remembered that he wasn’t just out here to make smart guesses. He barked once, the off-key holler of his cousin species echoing back from the buildings across the way. One of these days, he should find someone who knew more about dogs and learn a proper bark. Hopefully, the man with the blaster in his pocket wasn’t the kind of dog connoisseur to hear the difference.

  Inside the diner, Esper heard Kubu’s signal. Good. She was going to get Tiffany out of the diner through a back door. When they entered the diner’s kitchen, Kubu could no longer hear what they were saying.

  That was fine. Kubu had a job to do.

  The blaster man in the trench coat and hat was almost to the diner. Kubu wandered into the man’s path. He issued a low growl.

  Blaster Man shot him a glare. “Beat it, mutt.”

  Kubu knew better than to reply in English. He deepened his growl and showed off his front teeth. He tried hard not to like scaring people, but he had to admit it was funny seeing the man flinch and break stride to get out of Kubu’s reach. The sweat under that heavy coat tinged with fear.

  However, Blaster Man seemed to understand how leashes worked. He skirted around Kubu just far enough that the leash wouldn’t allow Kubu to bite or scratch him.

  Kubu heard a door. A clatter of feet on metal stairs. Two pairs. The sounds came from the back of the diner. Faint. Indirect. They’d gotten out. Kubu just had to delay Blaster Man long enough for Esper and Tiffany to find a new place to hide.

  Jerking forward, the collar tugged at Kubu’s neck. Stiffening the rock-like muscle beneath his fur and leaning his weight into the motion, the leash snapped.

  “Holy fuckin’…” Blaster Man stumbled backward in his haste to put distance between him and Kubu.

  Now, there was no path to the diner door that Kubu couldn’t block.

  It was when Blaster Man pulled out his blaster that Kubu realized the error in his plan. A dog on a leash was an obstacle. A dog off a leash was a threat.

  With a blaster aimed his way, Kubu didn’t react in reasoned, well-thought fashion. There was no time. Instinct kicked in. While many humans are trained to fight, their natural inclination is to flee danger. Kubu’s species—canis ultra poltidae, with no common name—was predatory, territorial, and dominant. Without conscious thought, Kubu lunged, teeth bared in a snarl, front feet aimed for Blaster Man’s chest to bowl him off his feet.

  The first stun blast made every muscle in Kubu’s face tingly. He flopped to the ground, unaware of how he missed Blaster Man. Shaking his head to clear the fuzzy thoughts floating through it, he looked around for where the trench coat-clad human had gone.

  He was standing over Kubu, blaster aimed down. “Sturdy fucker, aren’t ya?”

  Kubu didn’t hear the trigger. He just felt his whole body get a case of the prickles, same as when his foot fell asleep. As he struggled to his feet, his body suddenly buzzed like that time he’d picked up a power cell in his mouth.

  Then everything went black.

  A hand patted his face. “You OK, boy?”

  Kubu blinked. Rain was falling on his face, in his eyes. A person was over him, acting like an umbrella but not doing a very good job. After a few more blinks, he recognized the waitress who’d delivered his bacon. “I think so. Where is Esper?”

  The woman blinked.

  Oops.

  Kubu hadn’t been supposed to talk. Too late to untalk, he pressed onward. “Did you see where she went?” He strained his ears, but there was a high-pitched whine dulling his distance hearing. He snorted a splash of puddle water to clear his nose.

  The waitress swallowed. Kubu smelled the sudden fear in her, too, and felt bad about it. “She… uh, they… they left out the back.”

  Kubu knew that much already, but he’d scared the poor waitress enough. Wobbling to his feet, he shook to clear the worst of the water his fur had absorbed, apologized for getting the waitress wet, and bounded off.

  He might have lost track of Esper, but he’d never forget her smell.

  City streets flew past in a blur. Esper was barely navigating anymore. This was more about distance than direction. However far they got from this Odin Masterson character, they could reconnoiter the starport with time to spare before their ship’s morning departure. For now, all that mattered was putting distance between them and the man trying to re-kidnap Tiffany.

  “Isn’t the starport the other way?” Tiffany asked with a shout. With traffic picking up toward the heart of Shetland even in the dead of night, the noise from hovercars and the city tram system threatened to swallow her words.

  Esper slowed and looked all around. Tiffany caught up, panting for breath. The girl was right. They’d been turned around over the course of multiple direction changes. The idea of randomizing their flight held a warm place in Esper’s strategic mind, but in practice, she’d thwarted herself just as much as Odin.

  “We still have plenty of time to catch our transport,” Esper insisted. Her jacket was holding in heat, wafting a chimney effect from the collar of her shirt. “If we miss it, we’ll catch another.”

  When Esper released the girl’s wrist, the teenage fugitive bent over with her hands on her knees. “Can’t we just take a cab?”

  In theory, they could have. Esper was running low on hardcoin, but she probably had enough for a ride to the starport. “Kubu wouldn’t be able to track us. I’m not leaving without him.”

  “Nice to know where I fit in your priorities. Second fiddle to a dog.”

  “He’s not a—” She shook her head. It wasn’t worth the trouble. Instead, Esper reoriented herself based on what she remembered from studying the Shetland tram system prior to making planetfall. The two of them were just a few dozen meters from a junction station where passengers from the north-south high line could transfer to the east-west low line. There were five high lines in the city; the westernmost would bring them straight to their starport. “C’mon. This way.”

  Tiffany accepted Esper’s hand this time. The girl’s skin was slippery with sweat and smooth with youth and the type of pampering that any teenager with money at home indulged in. There was fear in her grip to keep Esper from worrying that Tiffany might slip away in the crowd. She followed Esper’s lead, angling down the line of pillars that supported the magnetic tram.

  Her young charge kept looking back.

  “He won’t notice you if you don’t show him your face,” Esper warned.

  “But he’s not fifty meters back from us,” Tiffany said breathlessly. “He’s coming.”

  “Poo!” Esper said with a huff. She drew to a halt and let go of Tiffany’s hand. “I may have to deal with him. Stay behind that pillar, and if he tries to come at you, use it to keep him at bay.”

  Tiffany glanced at the blaster Esper kept strapped to her right thigh. “Jesus! You’re gonna dust him right here in the streets?” She retreated behind the pillar nonetheless.

  Esper followed the girl’s glance. Then she twisted to hide the blaster from Tiffany’s view. The last thing she needed was the girl getting ideas. “Just let me handle this.”

  Odin approached like Tiffany had him on a winch. He sliced through the crowd as if the people around him were mere furniture. His eyes were barely visible beneath the brim of his hat.

  Just as he came within conversational range, Esper dodged into h
is path. “That’s far enough. She’s not going anywhere with you.”

  At the sound of running footsteps, Esper turned. Tiffany bolted, running off into the Shetland night. Poo! How was she supposed to keep the girl safe if she couldn’t keep her close?

  Just as Odin moved to shove past her, Esper blocked his way yet again. One problem at a time.

  “Move it, lady,” Odin said, his voice like a sack of rocks. He was taller in person than he’d appeared at a distance. Esper would have looked him square in the throat had she kept her gaze forward.

  Instead, she grabbed him by the coat lapels and hauled him down to her own eye level. “Incoming communication: buzz off. I know you’ve probably got a job to do. Figure out how bad failing it will look on your resume compared to what I’ll do if you get in my way. Tiffany’s going home. End of comm.”

  Odin slapped her hands away, and Esper chose letting go of the coat over tearing the fabric in her grip. “You don’t want to land in this zone, kid. Miss St. Cloud’s going to stay with her father, and Candace can listen to the business end of a blaster for all anyone cares.”

  “I’ve been hired to bring Tiffany home safely. Money might make the worlds go ’round, but this isn’t a run for my money; it’s the right thing to do. Maybe you should consider a line of work that doesn’t involve working for a man like Roger St. Cloud.”

  Odin stepped back and wagged a finger in Esper’s face. “Oh, no. You don’t get to pull that high-and-mighty bullshit on me. Candace is a crazy bitch, filling that kid’s head with her stupid shit. And you’re a crazy bitch buying anything she sells. Take your half payment and walk away.”

  “I didn’t take half upfront,” Esper replied softly.

  Odin barked out laughing. “What fucking amateur shit-show you running here? Get off my planet and find a real job. Maybe teach kindi-garden or something.” Again, he tried to push his way past.