Double Sharpe Read online

  “We have landed,” Silvanus announced, even though Raven already knew that. “I’m processing us through security. You’ll be able to disembark shortly. Standby.”

  Raven unhooked the straps and stood up. She walked over to where the cat pretended to be asleep, or maybe was really asleep now. It was pretty much impossible to tell if Kyra didn’t want her to know. Raven stared down at her, trying to guess if she was awake, but gave up after a few moments and nudged the cat’s belly with the toe of her boot.

  Kyra moved in an instant, curling around her leg and pretending to bite her ankle. She knew it was carefully-crafted pretense, since if it was anything else, Raven would have sharp teeth piercing her leg at that very moment.

  “We’re going to leave the ship soon,” Raven said, staring down at the hundreds of pounds of feline curling around her and pretending to maul her ankle-high boots. “We have to go looking for my idiot of an ex.”

  ‘Just what I wanted to do today,’ Kyra drawled, releasing her light grip and then staring up at Raven until she stepped back. The cougar then stood and stretched, yawning wide and letting her big teeth glint in the light.

  “While waiting for security protocols to complete,” the AI chimed in, interrupting any further ‘banter,’ “I am searching the local area and abandoned buildings in the sections we are most interested in, those containing plants that match the sound we heard on the video. By the time you depart the ship, you should have a few target areas to start with.”

  “You’re beautiful, Silvanus. Have I ever told you that?” Raven said with a half-grin.

  “Once or twice, and I know it doesn’t really apply, but I’m happy to hear it,” Silvanus said.

  Raven laughed quietly and shook her head. Her companions certainly kept things interesting.

  4

  The door opened and Raven strode out before it was even fully open. Kyra was right on her heels as they walked out into the spaceport’s foot traffic lanes. Ships were docked all along the straightaway, some passengers embarking and others disembarking. There were a few just setting up shop at the end of their ramps, though Raven didn’t bother to stop and find out what any of them were doing there.

  She had the map of the area in her mind and knew where she needed to go. Kyra got several odd looks, but no one said anything. That was one of the beauties of running around with a cat weighing several hundred pounds and a perma-snarl. Few people were brave enough to give into their curiosity with Kyra looking at them.

  Raven had to resist the urge to move faster than was smart. She might have run, but she knew that it would be stupid to draw that much attention to herself. No one ran through a spaceport unless they had the law behind them. If Blake was hiding from someone, she didn’t need to make a scene that would lead them to her and then to him…and so despite all emotional instinct to do otherwise, she kept her pace reasonable and measured.

  Fortunately, she had a long stride and with just a little effort, it ate up quite a bit of ground without looking like she was trying.

  ‘This place smells weird,’ Kyra declared with an audible sneer.

  ‘We don’t usually visit worlds with this type of industrial air pollution,’ Raven pointed out, using her neural chip to reply so the people around them couldn’t hear their conversation. ‘I’m sure that’s what makes it smell strange.’

  ‘Well. I don’t like it.’

  Raven sighed, looking to either side of her to remain aware of her surroundings as they headed toward the edge of the spaceport and into the city surrounding it. ‘I don’t like it much either, but if it helps, I plan to be here for as little time as possible.’

  ‘It will still be too long.’

  Raven wasn’t going to bother arguing with the cat. She had found it a terrible proposition to argue with Kyra, especially when she actually agreed with her. Even Raven’s human senses could pick up on the smell of the air quality. True, she was slightly enhanced by the neural chip that had been implanted when she began her bounty hunter service, but she didn’t think anyone could miss the air pollution.

  They walked down the ramp that led into the city, and Raven paused to gather her sense of direction before heading off again.

  ‘You do know where you’re going, right?’ Kyra asked.

  ‘Yes. Shut up.’

  ‘Touchy.’

  “I’m scared, okay!” Raven snapped, whirling on the cat.

  Passersby stopped and stared at her, then looked at the cat and back to Raven. If they knew about bounty hunters and their allied animals, they apparently had forgotten because they looked at Raven like she had lost her mind. Their looks quickly turned to nervousness as they looked at Kyra, and then hurried on about their business.

  Raven huffed at herself for losing her composure and started walking again.

  ‘I’m worried, okay?’ she said, using the proper method this time.

  ‘Afraid that we won’t find Blake?’

  That was one possible bad scenario. ‘Or that we’ll find him and it’ll be too late. That he’ll be…’

  They walked past several businesses that catered to port traffic—inns and restaurant, mostly, as well as shops to stock up on supplies for long space voyages. She checked out every shopfront out of habit, but didn’t really expect to see anything important.

  ‘Human emotions confuse me.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  If it was possibly to hear thinking, Raven would have heard it from Kyra. ‘Didn’t you yourself threatened to kill Blake, just one year ago? Or at least expressed some desire to do so.’

  Raven sighed. ‘Hyperbole, Kyra,’ she said. ‘I never really meant it. I was just upset and venting that in words.’

  ‘Which I suspected, but even if you didn’t mean it literally, it seems to suggest a high level of distaste for the man, but now you’re worried about his well-being?’

  ‘I thought I explained this to you before,’ Raven said as she turned down a side street that would lead them to the outskirts of this rough city. As they moved further away from the “downtown” area, Raven forced herself to become more aware of everything around her, because she certainly didn’t feel like getting mugged today.

  ‘You did,’ Kyra granted. The low set of her front half suggested she felt the same way as Raven about their vigilance. ‘But even your explanation simply plays into the fact that I don’t understand human emotions, and the choices and actions it leads you to.’

  ‘To be fair, Kyra, I’m not sure anyone really understands human emotions. Even—well, especially, we humans.’

  Kyra made a strange noise that Raven didn’t even bother trying to figure out. If there was anything that she understood even less than her own human emotions, it was trying to figure out the mental and emotional state of a cat. Kyra might act like her emotions were simple and thus figuring out everyone else’s was a chore, but Raven knew from experience that it wasn’t like that at all. Kyra’s emotional state was just as complicated as Raven’s, and perhaps in need of even more care.

  The cat didn’t really seem to have much to reply to that, and Raven figured that Kyra had decided the same thing: don’t argue when you agree with someone. Kyra knew just as well that humans rarely understood themselves.

  Soon, the buildings began to thin out and the air began to thicken. There were fewer people in the streets alongside them, and those that were seemed to care even less about them as they walked by. These were clearly the people who worked in the factories and they just wanted to get to work and then home again.

  It got harder to breathe, but Raven fought back her urge to flee.

  This was the industrial area, and so this was where she needed to be.

  This was where she hoped Blake was.

  5

  There were three buildings in the industrial sector of Caltos that Silvanus had identified as possible locations that matched all the clues seen in the video.

  The first one was a bust without even seeing the inside. Every door and win
dow was covered with sheets of metal and bolted fast. From every possible angle, none of it had been touched in a very long time. There was a thin layer of dusty grime clinging to every surface without a single clean spot or streak to evidence panels being removed or put back into place. While she might suspect that the “bad guys” could have made it look like this, she knew Blake would have been in too much of a rush without any tools to do it.

  She spent only as much time as it took to be sure of every wall and corner before moving on to location two.

  This building was a better candidate. There had been panels, but they looked like they’d been removed just as long ago as the other building’s had been in place. The same dust and grime covered them, but they sat on the ground or half-leaning against the structures around it. Kyra paced the length of the perimeter with her nose pressed to the ground. She was no bloodhound, but still did better than Raven could have.

  It was also a lot easier for Kyra to do that than Raven. Just the image of her trying to put her nose to the ground and walk around like that was comical.

  ‘I can’t tell if Blake has been here or not,’ Kyra said. ‘Too many people come and go through this building and the scents are too distorted.’

  ‘Then we’ll just have to go inside to look around and see what’s there,’ Raven said, hoping that she didn’t find other people who were there. She just didn’t want the hassle.

  Once Kyra had finished her circuit of the building, they entered through the broken doors. Raven pulled her weapon, just in case, as they stepped into the dim light of the abandoned factory.

  Inside, it was one large room. There were places where it was clear that large machinery had been but the room had long since been gutted. A few columns and bolts remained, but that was about it. There were windows lining the top that hadn’t been covered over, and that was where the only light inside came from. It made searching difficult, but her eyes eventually adjusted and Kyra was as good in low light as regular light.

  They cautiously walked the interior of the building, looking inside the shadowy recesses of the few side rooms and checking behind the small number of things big enough to hide a body.

  Raven didn’t want to call out, just in case someone or something else was in there. She wanted to hurry, but forced herself to be thorough. And yet, with each step it seemed less likely that he was there. It seemed less likely that anyone was there at that moment. While she was okay not finding hostile strangers, she felt her frustration rise at the fact that she wasn’t finding Blake either.

  She reminded herself, however, that she wasn’t finding a body either, and so that was a good thing.

  ‘He’s not here,’ Kyra declared, already moving toward the door.

  Raven hesitated, wondering if there was something in here that she had missed and would regret later…but she knew she couldn’t waste time on second guessing herself. She could spend all day trying to scour every nook and cranny but still come up with the same results.

  Meanwhile, Blake was hiding somewhere else, in fear for his life.

  “Yeah,” she said quietly, forcing herself to turn and follow Kyra out.

  Two for two on false leads. That left one more possible building, and if that proved to be a bust as well…

  Well. She wouldn’t let herself suffer future pain. One thing at a time.

  While the first two had been fairly close together, the last one was, of course, on the other side of the considerably large industrial sector. There was no public transit and she didn’t have her own, so they just had to hoof it to the other side. Not wanting to trust she could navigate any path but the most direct, they were led through the heart of the district where most of the factories were still functioning.

  This meant nonstop complaints from Kyra about the air and the smell. Raven wasn’t any happier about it, but she also knew that she couldn’t change it.

  ‘Your ex-husband is going to owe us for this,’ Kyra grumped as they hurried onward, hoping that when they started moving toward the outer edge, it would start to clear up again.

  They reached the third building and the air was at least a little better. It wasn’t much, just enough to get Kyra to stop complaining. They found the structure in a similar shape to the second one and did the same routine. Kyra made her scent-circuit. There weren’t as many scents but still too many to be sure.

  ‘I’m not feeling much confidence in the foundation of the building,’ Kyra reported once she returned. ‘It doesn’t look to be in great shape. Let’s make this fast.’

  Raven nodded. The cat wasn’t exactly an expert in architecture, so if it was bad enough for her to say so, then it had to be pretty bad. Raven didn’t want to spend any longer than absolutely necessary in this building anyway, but she did have to go in and search it to make sure Blake wasn’t there.

  They entered the broken building through a similarly broken door. She had to stifle a sneeze as a small puff of dust blew up at them, but at least this building was smaller with more windows. Light flooded in and made it easier to look around, although there were also more abandoned machines that took away the advantage gained.

  Halfway through the search, all they had found was a few birds, startled out of an open window. Raven was beginning to lose heart of finding him here, when—

  Creak.

  Both human and cat froze. Eyes were wide as they looked around for the source of the sound. It had sounded like the building, although she hoped maybe it was just machinery…or something else altogether…

  Creak.

  ‘That’s bad,’ Kyra needlessly commented. Her ears flicked forward and back, trying to pinpoint just where the bad was coming from.

  ’Wait!’ Raven cried inwardly. ‘We’re only half done!’

  Kyra was already backing up slowly, eyeing the building like she might an enemy about to attack. ‘We have to go…’

  Raven took a step, but hesitated. “Blake!” she called, knowing she wouldn’t have the time to search like before, so she had to take the risk.

  Whether it was her shout or just coincidence, they felt a rumble from the floor. Raven still hesitated, cursing hotly until Kyra swiped at her leg—claws retracted, thankfully—and that knocked her out of her stupor. They turned and ran for the door, just as they heard something cracking from inside the wall.

  6

  ‘The building tried to eat us,’ Kyra declared angrily as they sat in a small tangle of human and feline limbs on the far side of the street from the building that had partially collapsed while they were inside. Big clouds of dust were still floating around them and Raven hacked half of it out of her lungs.

  ‘Yeah, it did,’ she agreed, even as she stared at it and wondered if Blake had been in there… She would never know, she realized, although she couldn’t imagine that he had been. Kyra would have smelled him, or they would’ve found him, or he would have replied to her call…

  She hoped.

  ‘He wasn’t in there.’ Kyra’s voice, suddenly less angry, intruded on her thoughts of returning to the building. She knew she shouldn’t—couldn’t—go back in, but she stared at and thought about it.

  ‘Are you sure?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  Kyra’s confidence soothed Raven somewhat, although she still had doubts. However, her rational voice broke through and she knew that there wasn’t anything else she could do. They had done all that they could. Every possible building had been checked to the best of their ability, so all they could do was keep trying…

  That part didn’t help so much.

  Kyra hauled herself to her feet and bumped her big furry head into Raven’s shoulder as she said, ‘We need to get back to the ship.’

  “I agree with Kyra, Raven,” the AI said once the pair of them made it back to the ship. “I do not believe that Blake was in that last building.”

  There was a bowl on the floor and a glass in Raven’s hand as she and the cat drank lots of water to try to flush out the taste of the air. Raven als
o felt like she needed to take a shower and clean it all off, but she wouldn’t do so until she knew she had time to. And this moment was not that time, no matter how disgusting her body felt.

  “Alright,” she said, putting the glass back in the processor for more water. “I won’t argue with you.” Although she really wanted to. “He’s not here. That means we go to the next planet, right? The next likely place?”

  “Yes,” Silvanus agreed. She sounded like she was trying to be soothing. She was a computer, but she emulated it fairly well. She had been Raven’s ship and AI for long enough to know how best to react to her human. “That is Kona IV. I will admit that there is not a great deal of information in my databases about the planet aside from industrial classifications. I will perhaps be able to gain more information once we are in sensor range.”

  Raven nodded, if only to herself. “How long will it take to get there?”

  There was a pause as the AI calculated. “Nine hours.”

  “Set course and let’s get going,” Raven said.

  “Doing so now.” There was a long pause. “You should get some rest.”

  After finishing another glass of water, she put the glass back into the processor to be recycled back into the system. She rubbed the back of her neck and closed her eyes. “Yeah, I should,” she agreed quietly. “I’m going to shower first.”

  She left the main cabin for the small side room attached to it.

  The ship of a bounty hunter, at least in service out of Halliwell Bounty Hunters Company, was not a big one. They were designed for a single human and a single large animal. The companions were always bigger than the average house pet, though never huge. They had to fit in the ship, after all. Big cats and wolves were the most common, although some had birds of prey or other sorts of wild dogs. Raven even knew of one who had a hyena.

  The hunter, the companion, and the AI made a trio that was hard to stop. The intelligence enhancements to the companions and the neural chips that linked them all bonded them in ways that no other pair or group could hope to replicate.