Read Online Bounty Hunter 1: The Bounty Hunter's Revenge by Joseph Anderson - Free Book Online
Authors: Joseph Anderson
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Cass
locked and sealed the pieces I had managed to equip but I still felt exposed
with right arm, my dominant arm, having no armor.
There was a gun in the hip compartment
of the suit but I needed something that wouldn’t make a lot of noise. I grabbed
the blade that I had fashioned out of the broken armor pieces, with the same
hilt of layered wrapped cloth that I had made so many years ago, and held it
with my right hand as I walked to the entrance of the room. I used the tip of
the blade to knock the power cell from the wall and the lights of my room went
out.
The door was open and I leaned against
the wall next to it, with my right leg straight and my left slightly bent. I
listened.
“—telling you Marc, someone has been
living here. The kind of bombs that were used here wouldn’t have done all
this.”
“Doesn’t matter,” another voice, a
little deeper than the first, answered. “Look at this place. It’s been falling
apart for years. We’re here for some dead guy in a battle aegis. Or just the
hardware. Just shut up and look for it. And you call me Boss when we’re
off-ship.”
From the way the sound of their voices
traveled to my ears I estimated that they were only just walking down the
stairs and onto my level. I had cleared the path as much as I could but enough
remained that I still heard the crunching of shattered concrete and rubble
below their feet. It would be harder to pinpoint where they were when they got
onto the clear floors of the hallway but they would be closer then.
“Did you catch all of that, Cass?” I
whispered.
“They’re here for us. Someone has been
talking about us.”
“After all this time?”
“Maybe Adam didn’t want to say what
happened until now. Or maybe you’re a story. You were very close to being
famous, and I am a very expensive piece of machinery. At least I was. I better
still be.”
The smile on my face from what she had
said soon faded. They were moving closer. It was difficult to tell their
footsteps apart as they echoed down the hallway but it seemed like one was
moving toward me and the other was searching the other way, toward the water
room. I secured my grip on the blade and waited.
“Some sort of set up in this room,
boss,” yelled the man that was closest to me, walking to my room. “Everything
is dark, though. You were probably right about it being abandoned.”
“Of course I was,” the other voice
sounded distant. I could barely hear it. “Didn’t I say to shut up and search?”
“Asshole,” I heard the closest one
mutter.
He was in the doorway, nearly right next
to me, and he had spoken so quietly that only I had heard him. I held my
breath. He was so close that all he had to do was turn his head to the left and
he could have seen me. My heart was pounding from the intensity of the moment,
being so close to a kill or being seen and caught. It had been years but it was
still a rush. I had missed this life.
Just as quickly that rush turned to
anger. At Adam, for stealing this away from me. Four years of work, of danger,
and the payoffs that it brought. The muscles around my mouth curled up into
something close to a snarl. This man in front of me wasn’t Adam. He hadn’t
wronged me yet, but he was here for what was mine, and the rifle that I saw in
his arms showed me that he was ready to fight for it.
This man wasn’t Adam, but he was the
closest thing to it at that moment.
“Burke. No.”
I exhaled as I turned into the swing. My
bad leg may have restricted my movements after I had first fallen but I had
adapted over the years. I kept it rigid and used it as a point to turn my body
around, putting my weight into the turn and focusing the momentum onto my right
arm and the blade. I kept my eyes locked on the target: the man’s neck, fast
enough to silence him but not hard enough to sever the head.
The blood came out of his neck like
vomit, hot and heavy, and spilled down over his chest. He barely had time to
realize what had
locked and sealed the pieces I had managed to equip but I still felt exposed
with right arm, my dominant arm, having no armor.
There was a gun in the hip compartment
of the suit but I needed something that wouldn’t make a lot of noise. I grabbed
the blade that I had fashioned out of the broken armor pieces, with the same
hilt of layered wrapped cloth that I had made so many years ago, and held it
with my right hand as I walked to the entrance of the room. I used the tip of
the blade to knock the power cell from the wall and the lights of my room went
out.
The door was open and I leaned against
the wall next to it, with my right leg straight and my left slightly bent. I
listened.
“—telling you Marc, someone has been
living here. The kind of bombs that were used here wouldn’t have done all
this.”
“Doesn’t matter,” another voice, a
little deeper than the first, answered. “Look at this place. It’s been falling
apart for years. We’re here for some dead guy in a battle aegis. Or just the
hardware. Just shut up and look for it. And you call me Boss when we’re
off-ship.”
From the way the sound of their voices
traveled to my ears I estimated that they were only just walking down the
stairs and onto my level. I had cleared the path as much as I could but enough
remained that I still heard the crunching of shattered concrete and rubble
below their feet. It would be harder to pinpoint where they were when they got
onto the clear floors of the hallway but they would be closer then.
“Did you catch all of that, Cass?” I
whispered.
“They’re here for us. Someone has been
talking about us.”
“After all this time?”
“Maybe Adam didn’t want to say what
happened until now. Or maybe you’re a story. You were very close to being
famous, and I am a very expensive piece of machinery. At least I was. I better
still be.”
The smile on my face from what she had
said soon faded. They were moving closer. It was difficult to tell their
footsteps apart as they echoed down the hallway but it seemed like one was
moving toward me and the other was searching the other way, toward the water
room. I secured my grip on the blade and waited.
“Some sort of set up in this room,
boss,” yelled the man that was closest to me, walking to my room. “Everything
is dark, though. You were probably right about it being abandoned.”
“Of course I was,” the other voice
sounded distant. I could barely hear it. “Didn’t I say to shut up and search?”
“Asshole,” I heard the closest one
mutter.
He was in the doorway, nearly right next
to me, and he had spoken so quietly that only I had heard him. I held my
breath. He was so close that all he had to do was turn his head to the left and
he could have seen me. My heart was pounding from the intensity of the moment,
being so close to a kill or being seen and caught. It had been years but it was
still a rush. I had missed this life.
Just as quickly that rush turned to
anger. At Adam, for stealing this away from me. Four years of work, of danger,
and the payoffs that it brought. The muscles around my mouth curled up into
something close to a snarl. This man in front of me wasn’t Adam. He hadn’t
wronged me yet, but he was here for what was mine, and the rifle that I saw in
his arms showed me that he was ready to fight for it.
This man wasn’t Adam, but he was the
closest thing to it at that moment.
“Burke. No.”
I exhaled as I turned into the swing. My
bad leg may have restricted my movements after I had first fallen but I had
adapted over the years. I kept it rigid and used it as a point to turn my body
around, putting my weight into the turn and focusing the momentum onto my right
arm and the blade. I kept my eyes locked on the target: the man’s neck, fast
enough to silence him but not hard enough to sever the head.
The blood came out of his neck like
vomit, hot and heavy, and spilled down over his chest. He barely had time to
realize what had
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