Sharpe End Read online

  Raven had to laugh. “They sound lovely.”

  Silvanus said, “They are a colony that thrives primarily on exports. A delay in outgoing ships could prove to be costly for them.”

  “I get that,” Raven said. “But I’m pretty sure that having a convicted murderer who likely won’t bat an eye at killing some of the colonists if it helps him escape isn’t gonna be good for business either.”

  “You also make a fair point.”

  “I thought so.” Raven stretched her arms over her head. “So, I guess we’ll just have to work quickly then. Either find out that he’s left and track him, or find he’s still there and catch him.”

  4

  “Alright, so…do we have a plan?”

  Raven squinted at the computer console, even though Blake wasn’t there. His voice was coming through the speakers while she sat on the couch and ate a bowl of cereal. They had another half-hour until they reached the colony, so she was grabbing an easy meal while she had the chance.

  Her food was momentarily forgotten when her annoyance spiked at his presumption.

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?” she returned sharply.

  He didn’t say anything.

  She didn’t say anything.

  He said even less…

  And she sighed.

  “Yes,” she finally replied. “Colony security wants us off their little rock as fast as we possibly can be, so they’ve agreed to help us with some prep work. They will be scouring their security feeds for any sign of him and let us know.”

  “Why now?” he asked. “I mean, I’m sure the police force or prison admin already contacted them, since they knew he was last seen there. I assume they weren’t so helpful with them, since we were hired…”

  Raven chuckled, chewing and swallowing some more synthetically-flavored blueberry oat clusters. Her ship’s processor came close, but it just couldn’t quite capture the complex tang of real blueberries. “It’s harder to turn down someone on your doorstep than someone who just sends a message. None of the police forces actually went to Acadia, they just contacted them.”

  He grunted thoughtfully. “Guess they figured if they needed legwork, they could hire us?”

  “That’s usually how it works,” she agreed. “But now we’re about to be right in their faces, and they know we aren’t likely to go away without what we came for. So suddenly, there is the gleaming light of the spirit of cooperation.”

  “Whatever makes our job easier,” he said with some amusement. “What do you think are the chances of this guy still being on Acadia?”

  Raven ate some more as she considered the question. “My guess? Fifty-fifty.”

  Another eloquent grunt. “Doesn’t inspire confidence.”

  She got to her feet and went to put her empty bowl and spoon in her processor’s recycler. “I didn’t realize that was my job.”

  “It was just a turn of phrase, Raven.”

  It was her turn to grunt. “They said they should get back to me shortly before we arrive in colony orbit,” she said, changing the subject to a degree. “Hopefully, they’ll have some good news for us.”

  “Hopefully.”

  “We are receiving a communication from Acadia Colony,” Silvanus announced about twenty minutes later.

  “Put them through.”

  There was a pause. “It is not a call, Raven. They had just transmitted data and footage.”

  Raven laughed. “This has to be one of the most antisocial groups we’ve ever had to deal with,” she said, shaking her head. Not that she really minded. She would rather everyone just do what was needed and then get out of her way. It seemed the security force of Acadia would be doing just that. “Transmit the footage to Nyx, then bring up everything on my screen.”

  “Done.”

  “You’re the best, Silvanus,” Raven said with a grin as she sat at her console.

  There was a terse message introducing the footage.

  He had been spotted renting a room at one of the cheaper hotels, under the name J. Bond. Well, at least he had a sense of humor. There was no record of him checking out, which of course didn’t actually mean anything, but neither was there any apparent evidence of him boarding a transport off the colony.

  The footage started playing. She peered closely, since the image wasn’t that clear, but it did look like him. That meant that as of four hours ago, he was still there.

  Which meant that if he hadn’t left inside of an hour, he was indeed there. She had called them to shut down outgoing passages about three hours before. So, she would just cross her fingers that he hadn’t left within that hour timeframe. A few other clips and notes gave hints to areas he’d frequented while on the colony.

  But she didn’t congratulate herself on the good luck yet. No, she began to feel a little anxious about it. She struggled to put her finger on why, however. It felt awfully easy, which was probably it. She’d had cases go this quickly and easily before, and she’d always had this sinking feeling. She just didn’t trust what appeared to be good luck.

  All those other times had turned out fine, though. It had all been just what it appeared to be on the surface, with her being paranoid for nothing. Her sinking feeling had yet to prove true, so it seemed pretty unlikely that it would prove true this time. She was just a cynical woman, really. History said that things were usually just what they appeared to be.

  So, she would work under the idea that it would be that way this time too.

  5

  Blake wasn’t feeling anxious when he stepped off his ship and met up with Raven as she came off hers. Silvanus and Nyx had landed on pads next to one another.

  He was feeling hopeful that this time would go better than the last. There was a burning need in his chest to prove that he could do a job and be an asset, rather than just baggage. He knew he had to acknowledge that she was better at it and always would be. It just came naturally to her.

  It was impossible to be better than she was at this job, and he knew that. He accepted it now, certainly more so than he had before.

  But he wanted to prove that he wasn’t useless, either.

  Kyra and Axel walked alongside them, earning a few curious and uncertain looks, but not too much. Docking districts were usually filled with strange sights, so anyone who spent much time in them wouldn’t be easily fazed. As for Kyra and Axel, well, they weren’t fazed by anything anyway.

  “We’ll start at the hotel,” Raven said, “see if he’s still around. Maybe we’ll get lucky and catch him in his room.”

  “When have we ever been that lucky?” Blake returned wryly.

  Raven snorted. “Never,” she said without hesitation. “But there’s a first time for everything.”

  ‘You two talk too much, ’ Axel chimed in. He was a laconic creature. Blake often wondered if every wolf enhanced into companion service was like that, or if it was just a personality quirk of Axel’s.

  ‘Shut up. ’

  The Blue Light Hotel was a three-story metal-composite building that had been colored in the gaudiest blue one could imagine seeing on a building. It was so bright and horrendous that Blake almost turned around and left. He saw Raven hesitate and felt vindicated by the idea that she was thinking the same thing.

  “Their decorator should be shot,” Raven said, then added after a moment, “And Kyra says that they should not be fed to anyone, because that bad taste has to have sunk in.”

  Blake laughed and even heard amused noises from the wolf.

  Despite the exterior, however, they forced themselves to keep walking and go inside. Naturally, the interior wasn’t much better, although at least the colors weren’t blinding.

  There was a young woman—seemingly human—sitting at a console in the first room. She looked up when they entered, a touch of boredom to her features even as she forced a polite smile. “Can I help you?”

  Raven had the picture already up on her data-tablet as she showed it to the woman.

  “Have you
seen this man?”

  The woman’s brows knit. “Who are you?”

  “Bounty hunters,” Raven said flatly. “He’s a universe-class killer.”

  Blake watched the color drain from the girl’s face, and he asked, “Have you seen him now?”

  The girl’s overly-wide brown eyes blinked a couple of times, and then she nodded shakily as she turned back to her console. “He’s in room four-four on the second floor,” she said, tapping at her keys. Then she handed them a small data-card. “The key. He hasn’t checked out, though I haven’t myself seen him since my shift started. If he’s here, please take him away.”

  The fear was almost palpable and thus pretty convincing.

  “We plan to,” Blake said as he took the key.

  He and Raven left her, figuring the best way to put her mind at ease would be to get this guy and get him out of the hotel…assuming he was still in the hotel, which Blake was hoping he was. They could always use a few easy cases here and there.

  They discovered this hotel didn’t have any lifts, and so found the stairs and climbed to the second story. Forty-four was near the center of the building, which took a few winding corridors to get to.

  Raven didn’t bother knocking. She just inserted the data-card. To his skeptical look, she shrugged. “He doesn’t live here, so he doesn’t have a right to say it’s breaking and entering if we have the key,” she said easily.

  She pulled out the card when the light turned blue, which he assumed meant it was unlocked, and pushed on the panel. The door slid open without any trouble and Raven pulled her gun from her hip. Kyra slunk past her and into the room, padding along, low to the ground, as she checked it out in advance.

  Axel was right behind her. Raven waited for a few moments before nodding at Blake and following the animals.

  It was one small room with a tiny private bathroom. Most of the room was dominated by the bed, and there was just a shallow closet. They still checked every angle of the bathroom, as well as inside the closet and under the bed. Raven poked the giant pile of blankets at the end of the bed with her gun, but didn’t seem to feel any bodies because she continued on.

  “He’s not here,” she declared after a few moments. “Kyra says that the scent is pretty recent. He hasn’t been gone for long.”

  ‘The cat is correct, ’ Axel concurred. ‘I would not guess more than…an hour or two, going by your human measurements. ’

  ‘I still don’t understand how it is that you do that, but the corroboration is useful, thank you. ’

  “Axel thinks an hour or two,” he offered, although Kyra had probably already told her that much.

  If the cat had, though, she didn’t say. She just nodded as she looked around the room, the familiar ‘thinking it through’ look in her eyes. Blake just waited her out.

  “Let’s try the familiar locales first, then spread out from there,” she said.

  “Sounds good.”

  6

  Raven had known they wouldn’t be lucky enough to catch Greyson in his hotel room.

  After leaving the Blue Light, and a rather disturbed-looking receptionist, they headed out into the dock district. All of the footage sent to them from colony security—who didn’t seem interested in talking to them now that they were there—had been from this district. It seemed that while he was here, Greyson hadn’t been too interested in going too far. That made sense if he was planning to leave again at the right moment…whenever the ‘right moment’ was for him.

  The first place on her list, a rather short list at that, was a bar named Brass Knuckles. She couldn’t help but think of how amazingly unsubtle that was, but apparently no one had an issue with it, because it was still in business, and very busy.

  There was a small crowd hovering around the entrance. Raven thought they weren’t very subtle either. Someone had apparently found a caricature of a “seedy bar” in some book and found a way to replicate it in real life. Even these dirty toughs parted when they saw Kyra and Axel padding their way, though.

  They eyed the big animals with naked concern. Raven smiled politely and nodded to them, her eyes swiftly searching each face for any sign of Greyson, before walking into the bar with the animals paving the way. She would have given almost anything to have Kyra’s night vision as they entered the nearly black barroom, or at least it seemed that way after having been in the sun moments before.

  Her eyes adjusted, though, and she looked around. Quickly, and as casually as she could, so she didn’t arouse too much suspicion.

  “Let’s order something at the bar, just to give us a little time to check everything out,” she said in a low voice.

  There was no music in this place, just the dull din of voices and clinking glasses. Her eyes continued to get used to the darkness, picking up more details out of the dim shapes and faces around her as they made their way to the bar. She knew that they weren’t exactly inconspicuous when walking with their animal companions, but she also knew that the darkness and the press of the crowd would keep most from seeing Kyra or Axel too easily.

  At least, she was pretty sure about that.

  “It’s hard to see any face too clearly,” Blake commented in a low voice as they reached the bar. There weren’t any empty seats, but there was a length of bar without any barstools where patrons could at least reach the bartender to order a drink. They made their requests then turned to face the interior while they waited.

  “Is Axel picking up on anything?” Raven asked. ‘What about you, Kyra? ’

  ‘This place stinks, ’ Kyra replied with disgust in her voice.

  ‘The people? ’

  ‘Among other things, ’ the cat agreed. ‘It smells like the odor of unwashed humans, as well as unwashed floors. Sometimes you can smell the soul of a place. ’ A pause. ‘And please, no comments about poetry or philosophy. It’s simple truth that sometimes what you would call a psychic echo can be sensed in other ways. This place is like that. Violence is it's echo. ’

  It wasn’t the first time that Kyra had said something like that, but it wasn’t very common. Normally, it was the usual sorts of smells that she could pick up on, but sometimes a place was so extreme, she ‘saw’ something more.

  “From what Kyra is saying,” Raven said, leaning close to Blake so he could hear her as she pitched her voice low. “I wouldn’t actually drink your drink. Sanitizing doesn’t seem to be at the top of their list.”

  “Gotcha,” he said with a low, disgusted noise. “Axel says much of the same. He thinks he might be picking up on Greyson’s scent, but it’s hard to tell through all the olfactory noise, so to speak.”

  “You know, sometimes I’m more than happy that I’m human and not an animal with noses like theirs,” Raven commented.

  ‘That is never something to brag about, Raven, ’ Kyra responded immediately.

  Raven might have retorted, but her eye caught something out of the gloom.

  “Blake,” she said, voice suddenly low and tight.

  He looked in the direction she was and a moment later, saw what she had seen.

  “Greyson,” he said in a low voice. Then, as if choosing that moment to take her advice, he determined their plan. “You approach him from in here. I’m going to circle around the back and cover any secondary escape.”

  Any objection that Raven might have made was cut off when Blake headed back out of the building, though she likely wouldn’t have. It was as good a quick plan as they could get.

  She watched him for a moment, observing his behavior and the setting while giving Blake time to scout out any secondary exits from the building. She thought she saw the lines of a door toward the back, although she wasn’t sure.

  When she felt like enough time had passed, she and Kyra began to make their way across the bar. It was hard to remain inconspicuous when there was a giant cat next to you, but maybe he wouldn’t spot the cat before it was too late. Raven, for her part, tried to look as casual as possible. Just another patron of the bar, mingling
and moving around other patrons…

  As she came through the final cluster of bodies before reaching him, he lifted his head and their eyes met.

  He stared at her, and she stared at him.

  Then he looked at Kyra.

  And he ran.

  Raven and Kyra both cursed and took off after him.

  7

  What really sucked about this particular foot chase was that Greyson obviously knew this place better than they did. Instead of bolting for the front door or the back door, he was cutting across the center of the room and going…

  …right up a set of stairs that neither of them had even known was there.

  ‘Oh, come on! ’ Raven thought with frustration.

  ‘It’s always a set of stairs, ’ Kyra added to the feeling.

  They went crashing through the people just standing around, and none of them seemed too shocked by the act. Raven figured they were either on drugs or this was somehow a common occurrence. She figured it was an equal chance either way.

  Greyson was already at the top of the stairs by the time they hit the bottom step, but she was just able to see which way he turned. She leapt them two at a time until she reached the top, following the way he’d gone. There didn’t seem to be many doors or options along the hall, so she was able to track him relatively easily to an open window just in time to see him jump out.

  “Oh, you son of a—” she growled. “You go downstairs!” That was to Kyra, because Raven was going out the window.

  It was clear from the way he was running off without any sign of injury that the rumors were true and he had been enhanced in some way. Since she was as well, she could take the second-story drop without injury as well. She was still too far behind him to make any successful sort of attempt at leaping for him, so she just tried to run faster.