Hired Gun_Machete System Bounty Hunter Read online

  HIRED GUN

  MACHETE SYSTEM BOUNTY

  HUNTER – BOOK 1

  BY ZEN DIPIETRO & M. D. COOPER

  SPECIAL THANKS

  Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Reads

  Timothy Van Oosterwyk Bruyn

  Lisa L. Richman

  Marti Panikkar

  Scott Reid

  Manie Kilian

  Mikkel Anderson

  James Dean

  Jim Davis

  Copyright © 2018 Zen DiPietro & M. D. Cooper

  Version 1.0.0

  Cover Art by Andrew Dobell

  Editing by Tee Ayer

  Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Michael Cooper

  All rights reserved

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  FOREWORD

  THE RINGTOAD

  THE JOB

  NOT PREPARING

  THE PARTNER

  THE JOB REDUX

  NIGHT ON THE TOWN

  IAGENTCI

  BUBBLES AND MONKEYS

  THE PURSUIT

  THE LAYOVER

  THE ESCAPE

  A VIEW TO REMEMBER

  CARDS AND MONKEYS

  CORNERING PREY

  BUZZFLY’S NEST

  A QUICK EXIT

  A PLAN COMES TOGETHER

  THE NEGOTIATION

  THE BOOKS OF AEON 14

  ALSO BY ZEN DIPIETRO

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  FOREWORD

  Working with Zen on this book has been a pleasure, and a great learning experience. A few years back, I told Zen that her prose was like a word latte for my eyes (or something like that) and had been bugging her to write with me ever since.

  She had a lot of her own projects to get wrapped up, and I also roped her into writing in the Pew! Pew! anthologies, so it took a bit longer than I’d hoped, but here we are.

  The books of this series can be read without any foreknowledge of the Aeon 14 universe, and will also be standalones. So, don’t let that giant list of Aeon 14 books scare you off. Zen (and Reece) will ease you into things.

  If you’ve read other books in Aeon 14, then this one will have a bit of a different feel to it. It’s a slower burn, reminiscent of books like Anne McCaffrey’s Crystal Singer. We also get to see a more in-depth view of a different part of the Aeon 14 universe: the Perseus Expansion Districts.

  When Zen and I were working out what the PED was like, the best analogy we came up with was that it’s the East Germany of Aeon 14. Not modern East German, but back in the cold war (watch Atomic Blonde if you want a good view of that).

  Though the Orion Freedom Alliance possesses advanced technology, they do not believe it is for the betterment of humanity to employ it. As such, many regions of Orion Space are denied more advanced tech, to the point where many people shun any sort of mods and do not even have the Link.

  Here we find Reece—a corporate fixer—working for Rexcare. Her job is to solve problems quickly and cleanly. It might involve the right words at the right time, or it just might involve the pistols she keeps handy when on the job.

  And so, without further ado, I bring you Reece, the Hired Gun—er… corporate fixer.

  M. D. Cooper

  Danvers, 2018

  THE RINGTOAD

  DATE: 03.17.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)

  LOCATION: Ohiyo, Akonwara

  REGION: Machete System, PED 4B, Orion Freedom Alliance

  Anticipating the force of the punch aimed at her cheekbone, Reece ducked under the idiot’s arm. Given how much smaller she was compared to him, no doubt he’d expected her to back up.

  Not happening.

  Reece didn’t like to do the expected. Instead, she moved in, using the entire force of her body to shove him back against the wall of the bar. By the time he’d realized what was happening, she had a knife at his throat.

  “Yield,” she snarled.

  He held his hands up in surrender.

  Reece stepped back and shoved the knife into her belt, grinning. “That’ll be a hundred credits. But don’t pay me. Pay Kippy.” She jerked her head toward the man behind the bar.

  The fight had been Kippy’s idea, after all. Fairness demanded that he should do the math when taking his ten percent cut.

  The off-worlder scowled, but a bet was a bet and he wouldn’t be able to set foot in the Ringtoad again if he didn’t pay up. Kippy didn’t tolerate two-bit chiselers.

  Reece returned to her spot at the bar, picked up her glass of whiskey dregs, and downed it.

  “Another?” Kippy asked. He wore his dark hair in a rakishly tousled style, though it was practically disheveled today. Kippy didn’t make much effort with his appearance, but then he didn’t need to. His bourbon-colored eyes had enticed more than one customer to linger a little longer at the bar. Reece liked to tease him that he could serve gutter water and still maintain a loyal clientele.

  “Just one more. I need to stay sharp. But make sure it’s Akon whiskey, not that crap from Soson. You know I can tell the difference.”

  “I know, I know.” He said it with the resignation of the long-suffering, and with good reason. They’d been friends since childhood.

  Every now and then he tried to slip her a cheaper brew, but she always knew immediately. Only the barley that grew on Akonwara—or Akon, as people tended to call it—had that nutty flavor, almost like a pecan.

  “Why do you need to stay sharp?” Kippy asked when he returned with the drink—Hatchet and Pipe if she gauged the color right. “Got a job lined up?”

  “Not yet. But it’s been a week. Something’s coming. I can feel it in my bones.”

  “Are you sure it’s your bones, and not just the laws of probability? Rexcare doesn’t employ you to sit around picking bar fights.”

  Reece placed her hand around the glass but didn’t yet take a drink. She ignored his comment about her picking a fight. He liked that she had thuggish tendencies, and didn’t mind profiting off them by making bets on whether or not the latest overcharged muscle-head could beat her in a fight.

  They’d made a lot of credits with that hustle over the years, and she wasn’t about to feel sorry about it. “I could enjoy that kind of life, not having to be at the beck and call of a corporation.”

  Kippy snorted. “Maybe you should try another planet, then. Last I heard, corporations here employ ninety-four percent of the population in one way or another. Too bad you weren’t clever enough to become an entrepreneur like me.”

  “Yeah, right. Even you have shareholders to please. You’re your own little corporation.”

  He gave a gasp of mock-indignation. “Am not. I’m a sole proprietorship with investors. There’s a difference.”

  “Says you,” she shot back.

  “At least I’m not a bounty hunter,” he said innocently.

  She sent him a dirty look. “I’m a corporate fixer. There’s a difference.”

  “Do you hunt down people on behalf of Rexcare, who would rather not be hunted down?”

  She sighed. “Yes.”

  “There you go. Bounty hunter. You may be other things too, but you seem to do a lot of people-hunting.”

  “Somebody’s got to do it, so I might as well get paid. You grew up the same way I did, and I know you’re not going to miss the chance to get all the paychecks you can either.” Instead of pointing her finger, she picked up her glass and tipped it toward him.

  She cast a wary eye toward the table where the off-worlders sat. Once or twice, someone she’d beaten in a fair fight took the loss hard and tried to sneak up on her for a sucker punch. She wasn’t having any of that nonsense.

  Not that such cowardly
tactics had ever worked. She’d been hired by the biggest, richest corporation in the Machete system for a reason: she was good at what she did. Growing up poor had taught her how to navigate ugly places and get what she needed.

  “How’s Aunt Ruth?” Kippy wiped down the counter with a cloth.

  “Fine. You know her. She’ll outlive us both and keep on making fish soup for whoever she can give it to.”

  Kippy laughed. “I do love her cooking. I haven’t been to see her in a few days. I’ll have to pop by tomorrow.”

  “And get some soup?” Reece teased.

  “Of course! Or whatever else she’ll feed me. I’m not picky.”

  They’d grown up together in Slagside, which was as lovely as it sounded.

  Kippy had spent a lot of time at her house over the years, and Aunt Ruth had become his de facto aunt as well. Reece hadn’t had parents, but at least she’d had her aunt. Kippy had had parents, but…well, of the two of them, Reece had gotten the better deal.

  A lull in their banter gave her the chance to ask a serious question. “How are you doing these days?”

  He shrugged. “Fine. It just takes some time to find a new routine.”

  “You and Janice were together two years. It was a record for you.” She’d hoped Janice would be with him for the long haul. Kippy deserved to finally have a family of his own.

  “Yeah. But I wanted to stay here, and she needed to try her luck in the Brunae System. We couldn’t both be happy if we stayed together.”

  She sighed. “Sucks.”

  “That’s just how it goes. You and I weren’t meant for the kind of life where we get everything we want.”

  She grabbed a bebo nut out of the bowl in front of her and tossed it at him. “Speak for yourself. I’m going for an underdog-prevails-and-wins-all story.”

  “Hey, don’t make a mess. I’ll make you stay until close and wipe tables.” He bent to pick up the nut.

  “It wouldn't be the first time you used me for slave labor.”

  Kippy wasn't shy about putting her to work. He kept his costs down by scheduling his handful of employees only during peak hours.

  “Had any fun customers lately?” She sipped her second whiskey, hoping for a good story. Ever since he’d opened the Ringtoad for business, he’d regaled her with tales of his clientele. She’d once tried to convince him to write a book about them, but he’d insisted even if the book was fiction, people would say the stories were too farfetched.

  He’d been right, and she’d stopped trying to convince him.

  “Nothing too wild,” he said. “Just a guy who swore he had pants on when he most certainly did not, and a woman who insisted she was a cat.”

  “How many drinks did they have?” she asked.

  “That’s the thing. They hadn’t ordered yet.”

  Reece laughed.

  “I’m pretty sure they were stone cold sober,” he added, making her laugh louder.

  She swirled the last of her drink around the bottom of her glass, then tossed it back. “It’s getting late. I should get home. I’ll see you tomorrow—unless I get an assignment.”

  “Tell Aunt Ruth I’ll be by around ten, before I open up the Ringtoad.”

  “Will do.” Not too many twenty-seven-year-olds lived with an aging aunt, but Reece wouldn’t have it any other way.

  As she stepped out into the bright sunlight, the heat of the season hit her full-force. Akonwara was at the peak of a perihelion conjunction year, aligning the planet precisely with the closest point to the pair of stars it orbited, the baleful Hawenneyu, and the dimmer Doyadastethe. The Machete system possessed a third star as well, Gendenwitha, but the people on Akon would only notice its light when the planet continued further along its elliptical orbit around the central stars.

  Because the world of Akon only rotated twice every year, a day lasted three months, and a perihelion conjunction day really built up into a raging inferno.

  Which was why, as Reece walked the familiar path home, she soon broke into a sweat.

  I like a star day better than a star night, even during a perihelion, she reminded herself resolutely. I’d rather have three months of blazing natural light than the overcast, rainy-day feel the three fusion burners on the other side give off to keep everything from dying at night.

  As her armpits grew sweaty, she had to remind herself extra hard how much she preferred star days. The somewhat gloomy star nights tended to bum her out, and she refused to go take the mood elevators that many people did during that season to help them get through. They made it hard for her to sleep, which she hated far more than feeling mildly depressed.

  She turned right a block past the Ringtoad, and two blocks down, and the scenery changed from the commercial district to that of a residential area.

  Sunstone was a middle-class neighborhood. The residents were, for the most part, decent people with middle-management jobs. They were law-abiding enough to make it a safe place to live. Almost as importantly, they were far enough from the top of the food chain that they weren’t major assholes as neighbors.

  She didn’t know for sure, but she had a reasonable assumption that corporate VPs tended to be the you-kids-get-off-my-lawn types.

  Reece swiped a hand over her forehead and wiped it off on her stomach, wetting her cotton tank top. Her long, nearly-black hair was slick with sweat, and she wished she’d pulled it up into a bun or something to get it off her neck.

  Damn her vanity.

  Whatever. She’d be home in a minute. She could already see the quaint little square-shaped house with its little flower and herb garden in front. Back when she’d first seen it, Reece had known it was perfect for her and Aunt Ruth.

  It had just enough space inside and outside, without being too much to keep up with. Aunt Ruth tended the garden and yard, as well as doing a good deal of the housekeeping. Reece did her share when she was home, but she was often working.

  Aunt Ruth was more than happy to care for the happy little home. While Reece was growing up, Aunt Ruth had never complained about the low-paying job she’d worked as an administrative assistant, but she’d hated it nonetheless. She had been delighted to quit once Reece began making enough money to support them both, though she’d insisted on earning her keep by managing the home, which she loved doing anyway.

  The arrangement worked perfectly for Reece too. She didn’t care for doing yardwork and housework, but she loved having a cute little home in a safe neighborhood. She’d grown up vowing to make that happen for herself and Aunt Ruth, and four years ago, she’d done it.

  She liked success.

  As she walked up the short cobblestone pathway to the house, a breeze cooled her sweat-slicked skin and brought the scent of the herb garden to her.

  Akonwara’s strange seasons had created an environment that allowed a tremendous variety of rare plants to develop. Even during the hot seasons, thousands of plant species thrived.

  The diverse and vibrant plant life and the cheap solar power had brought Rexcare and other corporations to the planet, and had continued to keep them there even though the world was deep in the gravity well of the Machete system’s twin stars, and therefore less convenient for interstellar trade.

  Cheap and abundant supply trumps all.

  She opened the door carefully—in case Aunt Ruth had gone to bed—but when she stepped in, she saw the dear woman sitting in her favorite chair, watching the holodisplay.

  Aunt Ruth had a thing for game shows.

  “Home so soon?” Aunt Ruth asked, barely glancing away from the holo.

  “It's hardly early, but I didn't want to stay out too late. I thought you might have gone to bed already.”

  “New episode of 'Million-Credit Quiz Show'. Didn't want to miss it.”

  She could always watch it later, but Reece didn't mention that. Aunt Ruth always preferred the live feeds. Reece kicked her shoes off by the door. “Okay. I'm going up to bed. I'll see you in the morning.”

  “Night, sweetie.”
Aunt Ruth blew her a quick kiss, still not looking away from the holodisplay.

  Smiling, Reece climbed the steps to her room.

  The bedroom and its adjoining bathroom were the only living spaces upstairs, which provided her with some privacy. As much as she loved Aunt Ruth, Reece needed space. She also liked that she had a large storage closet next to her room where she could stow the tools of her trade.

  At least, that was what Reece called them. Aunt Ruth called them her ‘bang-bang toys’. Reece had tried correcting her about a thousand times before giving up.

  Aunt Ruth didn’t mind the weapons and tools, but she clung to the belief that Reece’s love of sneaking around, fighting and using guns had been the reason behind her career choice, rather than simply being equipment Reece needed for her job.

  She wasn’t far off, either. Reece enjoyed going on a good bang-bang adventure—as her aunt called it. She did a lot more than just that, though. Sometimes she had to clean up indiscretions made by company executives or even lower-level employees.

  More than once, she’d been tapped to negotiate with another company via backchannels. One memorable time, she’d had to handle a public relations snafu regarding a baybeast at the regional conservatory that served as a living mascot to a Rexcare brand.

  That had been interesting.

  She did whatever the company needed her to do. Thus far, she had never failed to deliver results. She planned to keep it that way.

  After washing off the day’s sweat in the shower, she reached out to start the water reclamation cycle, then remembered that Aunt Ruth hadn’t gone to bed yet. No doubt she’d take a shower too, and would start the cycle afterward. They saved sixty percent off their water bill by using their surplus of cheap solar energy to reclaim the water.

  When Akonwara had adopted this process, the water shortages disappeared, even during the hot season. Good thing too, since it was always the people with the least money who suffered when water was scarce, while the corporations barely scaled back their excesses.

  It was a pretty good metaphor for life on Akon in general. There was no beating the bigshots. They’d get what they needed while everyone else just tried to stay out of their way.