With Guns Blazing (Aeon 14: Machete System Bounty Hunter Book 3) Read online

  WITH GUNS BLAZING

  MACHETE SYSTEM

  BOUNTY HUNTER – BOOK 3

  BY ZEN DIPIETRO & M. D. COOPER

  Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers

  Marti Panikkar

  Steven Blevins

  Manie Kilian

  Scott Reid

  Gene Bryan

  Copyright © 2018 Zen DiPietro & M. D. Cooper

  Aeon 14 is Copyright © 2018 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

  PREVIOUSLY…

  A DAY AT THE BEACH

  SCHRAMM

  OPTIONS

  SAFE AS HOUSES

  EYES EVERYWHERE

  VISITORS

  ARRANGEMENTS

  INCOMMUNICADO

  BACKEND OF NOWHERE

  RECOVERY

  PICKING FRUIT

  BOLT HOLE

  FURTHER ARRANGEMENTS

  THE DEAL

  THE BOOKS OF AEON 14

  ALSO BY ZEN DIPIETRO

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  PREVIOUSLY…

  Reece lives in a system named Machete, deep in the Perseus Expansion Districts. The PED is a region of the Orion Freedom Alliance that can best be described as the East Germany of the galaxy.

  Here technology is limited, and people live a simpler life than is found in the Inner Stars or the Transcend—which is exactly how Praetor Kirkland of the Orion Freedom Alliance likes it.

  In Reece’s previous adventures she was sent on a hunt for a missing researcher along with a new—and largely unwanted—partner, Trey. Utilizing her network of contacts, Reece followed her prey out of the Machete System, and eventually returned him to her world of Akonwara.

  Through the course of the mission, she grew to like Trey, and now the pair of them work together for Rexcare, one of the Big Four corporations that run the Machete System.

  Following that mission, Reece and Trey had to get to the bottom of an attack on Reece’s favorite whiskey distillery, Hatchet and Pipe.

  They put that mystery to rest and saved the distillery from any harm. While doing so, their corporate sponsor, Schramm Mathews, had begun to behave strangely. Not so much that Reece was too concerned, but enough that she suspected that something may come up before long….

  A DAY AT THE BEACH

  DATE: 05.23.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)

  LOCATION: Tommy’s Gun Shop, Ohiyo, Akonwara

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

  “When I said we should enjoy a nice vacation, this isn’t what I had in mind.” Trey’s voice conveyed a puzzled mix of amusement and disappointment.

  Reece paused to look up at him, a plasma-lance rocket-pod launcher balanced on her shoulder. Truth be told, she felt quite formidable at the moment, and she doubted any fun-in-the-starslight spot could match the feeling of more power and bwa-ha-ha-ness of holding the weapon

  “You got upgraded to weapon-carrying status,” she reminded him. “What could be better than following up on that?”

  Trey shrugged. “Sand between my toes, the gentle roar of waves, and a cold beer while I refuse to look at the chronometer all day long?”

  Actually, that did sound nice, but they were here for a purpose. Reece reluctantly handed the plasma lance launcher back to her old acquaintance, Tommy. Today wasn’t the day to dream, apparently.

  Instead, she moved to the other side of the smallish but well-equipped storeroom—where the pistols lay—while Tommy watched from a distance, already familiar with her buying habit. “I guess it doesn’t mean as much to you, not growing up the Machete System but being permitted to carry a weapon is a very big deal here. Just having one designates you as someone of importance. It’s gotten me what I wanted lots of times.”

  Trey joined her, looking down at the hand guns on display. “I don’t know. I just don’t love weapons the way you do, I guess. Maybe it’s because they’re so common where I’m from.”

  She gave him a long, appraising look. “Maybe. Or it could be that you are a weapon. With your superior strength and reflexes and heat-seeking abilities and all that.”

  “I don’t have heat-seeking abilities. I’m not a missile. I just have the ability to see thermal signatures, and…” he trailed off. “Yeah, I guess that counts as heat-seeking....”

  Reece patted him on the shoulder. “You’re becoming self-aware. That bodes well for you, but bad for humanity.”

  He laughed.

  His humor was coming along.

  Actually…Reece cracked a lot more jokes these days. Maybe it was her humor that was progressing—as a result of Trey’s influence. Not that she’d ever admit that to him. He’d just get all smug about it.

  Reece skimmed her hand over the display case as she looked at the contents within. Her eye caught on pure beauty and she stilled.

  A pair of Rikulf Specials—quite similar to hers—lay there, resting serenely with the sort of aura only something truly magnificent emits.

  Trey must have noticed her sudden lack of movement as he shifted closer and said, “Oh. Those are just like yours.”

  “Not just like,” she corrected.

  Reece felt a little peeved about his lack of knowledge regarding the finer details of weaponry, but she’d let that pass. For now. Instead, this could be a teachable moment.

  “Mine are optimized for heat dissipation and accuracy. That makes them a good choice for sudden use and sustained use, both of which are highly likely scenarios for me. These two here,” she tapped the case with her forefinger, “have been retrofitted for larger, higher velocity rounds. It takes a deadeye to use them, but they sure pack a punch.”

  Trey pursed his lips, his brow creasing as he stared intently at the pistols on display. “You can tell all that just by looking at them? I mean, they really do look just like yours.”

  Reece let out a small breath, trying not to feel too disappointed in him. What was the sense in Trey having those mods built into his body if he couldn’t even appreciate the finer points of personal protection? “Yes. Here, I’ll show you.”

  She glanced at Tommy, who quickly opened the case, tossed a shiny black cloth over it, then gently lay the pistols on top.

  Reece drew her right-hand pistol—which she privately thought of as Righty—from its holster and aligned it with the model on the counter. “See this tiny ridge?”

  She pointed at the barrel of her gun, then to the other weapon. “This one doesn’t have it. That tells me it’s been retrofitted with a barrel that has a greater internal width, allowing for a larger bullet.” She tapped the back end of the weapon for sale, just above the hand grip. “And here. If we turn them and look down the two guns’ profiles, you’ll see that this one is slightly wider than mine. That gives it the bigger boom to launch that bigger bullet.”

  Trey nodded. “Ahh, now you’re using technical terms like ‘boom’. I see.”

  “I thought it would be best if I used words you’d understand,” she teased. “Anyway, this set would be perfect for you.”

  “But it’s like your set,” he said, showing a disheartening lack of passion for these fine works of art. “I think I should have something different.”

  “These are different,” she argued. “Your visual acuity makes you ideally suited for this pair. I wouldn’t be nearly as good with these as you would be.”

  Secretly, she felt
like she probably could match him at the shooting range, even with the other guns. An appeal to his ego couldn’t hurt, though.

  “Still,” he said slowly. “Seems odd for us to be all matchy-matchy.”

  Tommy had stood by quietly up until this point, but he hurried to say, “These are a rare find. Since so few people are licensed to carry projectile weapons, it’s a low-volume business that tends to require special ordering anything like Rikulfs. I only have these because they were part of a refurbishing lot I purchased from a merchant who was passing through Machete.”

  Trey shrugged. “I don’t put a lot of stock in what’s rare, or what’s trendy, or any of that.”

  Frustratingly, Trey continued moving down the case, gazing at the various items on display.

  Tommy blinked in confusion, then quickly put a hand on Trey’s arm to keep him from moving away.

  Trey stopped and looked at the hand.

  Tommy snatched back his hand, now a little flustered as he said, “I’ll cut you a great deal on the Rikulfs. You’ll get a huge value. Otherwise, I’ll be sitting on them for months waiting for another buyer with an executive-carry license to come along and want something this powerful.”

  Trey hesitated. He looked at Reece, then Tommy. “I do have limited finances, since I so recently moved here. I barely even have any furniture in my new house.”

  Instead of renting the house in Reece’s neighborhood, Trey had purchased it outright, saying he preferred to own what he used. The result of which was a sad lack of furnishings for his new home.

  Trey shrugged at Reece. “I guess if you can make sure it’s the best possible deal, I’ll take them, even though I don’t especially like them. I have to think about my finances ahead of my desires.”

  He had to have his arm twisted in order to agree to own two of the finest pistols this side of the Machete System? The man was impossible.

  But the bargaining table had been set. Tommy named a price that Reece laughed at, and she named an insultingly low sum in response.

  Back and forth, parry and lunge, and in less than two minutes, Reece had secured the weapons for Trey at a tremendous value.

  As he paid for them, she said, “Once your finances are in better shape, if you want to get something else, I’ll buy these from you.”

  Trey shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll be fine. It’s not like I think I’ll need to use them.”

  Reece stared at him. “There are times when I think we’re getting along great, and then you go and say something like that.”

  He grinned.

  Trey seemed to have more fun selecting the color and style of the weapon holster she’d negotiated into the price. In the end, he chose a waist-worn type, similar to the one Reece wore.

  “Thanks, Tommy,” she said. “At least he’s wearing something respectable, even if he doesn’t truly appreciate the Rikulfs.”

  She shook Tommy’s hand and she exited the shop with Trey, who now wore his corporate-sanctioned firepower.

  As they walked outside, she had to wonder if it was the harsh light of the perihelion alignment that made him suddenly much better looking.

  Odd. For a second, she could almost see what Raya saw in him.

  Trey smiled as they walked to the metro station.

  “What?” she demanded.

  “We were like peanut butter and crackers back there, like we’ve been partners for a decade. You really went along with my whole disinterested buyer thing. Tommy totally bought it.”

  “Oh. Right.” She pretended she’d known all along what he’d been up to.

  “It gives me a good feeling about our future endeavors together.”

  “Sure,” Reece agreed.

  “But I still think we need a team-building exercise. Something to really cement our partner bond, you know?”

  She sighed, knowing exactly what he was driving at. “You want to go to the beach.”

  He pointed at her. “Bingo.”

  She sighed again. “And you’re going to insist that I come, aren’t you?”

  “Oh, yeah. Definitely.”

  “Sand is bad for guns,” she pointed out.

  “So, we’ll leave them locked up inside,” he answered reasonably.

  “We should invite Raya.” With a stroke of genius, she realized that if Raya kept Trey busy, he’d have less time to insist Reece have fun out in the blistering heat.

  “Great!” he enthused. “Now we’re talking. We’ll invite Kippy, too.”

  She cringed inwardly. Not that she didn’t like the idea of spending time with Kippy, but they were on uncertain ground these days. Were they friends who had shared one hell of a kiss and a lot of increasing electricity, or had they passed over into some other relationship status?

  Reece wasn’t sure, and she didn’t like things she wasn’t sure about.

  She tried to imagine what a trip to the beach with Trey, Kippy, Raya, and Dex would look like.

  It would either be fantastic, or truly awful, but she could tell from the look on Trey’s face that it was going to happen, one way or the other.

  * * * * *

  Reece had to admit that, when it came to sitting and doing nothing at all, Trey had it all figured out. Even she—who didn’t care much for ‘basking’, has he called it—had begun to enjoy the fresh air, lovely view, and the sound of the waves rolling against the sandy beach.

  After Trey had put up overhead heat-filtering screens and fans, that is. He’d brought chairs, too. Surprisingly comfortable folding lounge chairs.

  “For a guy who claimed poverty at the security shop, you sure spent a lot on all this beach rig,” she observed, sipping a pineapple and coconut drink he’d called a colada-something-or-other.

  It was damned tasty.

  “I invested in my future, because my future involves a lot of days on the beach,” he said.

  Raya tilted her head so that the wide brim of her hat cleared her vision enough that she could see Reece. “He makes a good point. It’s been ages since I took a lazy day off. I need to do this more often.”

  She let out a blissful sigh and sank back into her chaise.

  Raya’s hat was the most substantial piece of apparel she wore. As soon as her sandaled feet had hit the sand, the woman had stripped off her coverup and revealed a bright red bikini that had made even Reece stumble when she saw it.

  Kippy lounged next to Reece, looking as happy as she’d ever seen him. She didn’t think it was because of the bikini, though. Somehow, Kippy always seemed to be looking somewhere other than in Raya’s general direction. During conversation, Reece noted that his gaze went directly to her face, then swung away.

  She had the feeling he was doing it for her benefit, even though he made it seem completely natural.

  Reece smiled and sipped her colada-whatever.

  Dex chirped at her and she looked down to see him, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and holding out a perfect sea shell to her.

  “Thanks, Dex. Good boy.” She took the shell and he chittered happily, then scampered a few meters away.

  Who ever heard of a monkey that liked hunting seashells?

  “We should have invited Schramm,” Trey said, drawing her attention from the monkey she’d grown quite fond of.

  Reece chuckled. “Schramm Matthews at the beach? I can’t imagine it. I’m pretty sure he’s had his business suit permanently embedded into his skin, for ease of use.”

  “Have you ever seen him outside of work?” Trey asked.

  “Sure. We’ve had lunch or dinner on numerous occasions. But it was only because he has to eat and meeting while he gathered sustenance was the most effective use of his time.”

  “I’m glad I’m not an exec,” Raya said. “I don’t mind working round the clock for short periods of time, but to have that be my way of life? I can’t imagine it. It’s no wonder so few execs get married, and if they do, they tend to marry other execs within the same company.”

  Reece snagged on the topic of marriage before anyone could
move the conversation onward. “Do you have plans to get married, then?”

  Raya laughed. “Someday, maybe. I don’t know. But I like that it’s a possibility, whether I ever do or not. That’s the fun part of life—seeing what happens. I can’t imagine leading a completely inflexible life, like an exec.”

  “I’ll agree with that.” Kippy stared out at the waves ahead. Every now and then, a big one brought a thin river of water up to the ends of their chairs, before the wave quickly receded and the sand began to visibly dry under the heat of the two stars glaring down from above. “Possibility is what makes life worth living.”

  “Count me in. I’ll agree, too.” Trey stood. “I’m going to go take a splash. The canopy and fans make the heat bearable, but a good soaking is all the better. Who’s with me?”

  Raya flipped up the top of her hat to gaze up at him. “I would, but I’d have to take my sandals off, and then the sand would burn my feet.”

  Trey pretended to give that some serious consideration, with one hand on his chin. “I could carry you to the water.”

  “Sure, that’ll work.” Raya gazed up at him coyly, kicking off her sandals.

  Trey bent and scooped her up. “Off we go, then. Pineapple!”

  He trotted the few steps into the surf, then waded out waist-deep, still carrying Raya, who was laughing and kicking her bare feet.

  “Pineapple?” Kippy asked, an eyebrow raised.

  “It’s his idea of a rabble-rouser. Something to say when things are going to get exciting.”

  “Ah. He’s funny.”

  “I know, but don’t tell him that. It would only encourage him.” Reece smiled.

  Kippy watched the pair out ahead, now splashing each other with water and laughing. “They seem really well suited.”

  “They do, oddly enough. Who would have thought?”

  “Does it bother you?’ he asked.

  “What for them to date? No. Why would it?”

  Kippy only shrugged in response.