The Bounty Hunter: Soldier's Wrath by Joseph Anderson Read Free Book Online Page A

said to
him. Whatever it was, Natalie was thankful.
    She turned the lights off and
opened the door in one quick, smooth motion so it didn’t make any noise. She
closed it similarly behind her and then stood in the main corridor of the ship.
Her hand felt instinctively for her tablet in her pocket and she felt a sudden
pang of guilt at the act. She pressed it aside.
    The moving parts of the ship’s
engine were visible through the far doors to her right. The command room of the
ship was visible to her left. Rylan was no longer seated at the front chair and
she wondered at that. She had many things to do, installing the new hardware to
the Phalanx Ti Battle Aegis chief among them. She remembered well her first
meeting with Burke and teaching him how to use the armor, urging him to be
careful until the suit adapted to how he moved. Her thoughts were about to
drift back to that day when she felt her stomach growl. She couldn’t remember
when she last ate.
    The ship’s kitchen was more robust than
the one in her apartment at ACU. She wanted to laugh at that: Burke and Cass
had only had the ship for a short time but it already felt homely and lived in.
In her home, she ate mostly dried packets of food that resulted in the minimal
amount of mess to clean up. On the Brisbane, she rummaged through a full
freezer and then fridge, finding more raw ingredients—meats, fruits, and
vegetables—than precooked meals. The food was packed tightly together in
separate boxes, ensuring that nothing would ever shift around and smash
together if the ship either lost gravity or took a direct hit from something.
    She decided against cooking
something from base materials and chose one of the rare microwavable meals
hiding at the bottom of the freezer. She poured herself a glass of apple juice
from a large, resealable carton in the fridge.  When her meal was heated up,
she stabbed through the dull looking meat and vegetables with a fork and, when
she was satisfied with how hot it was, emptied the food onto a plate and
carried it into the meeting area adjacent to the kitchen.
    Rylan was sitting alone at the
extended table. There was a wide screen display on the wall that was usually
set to current news and reports. The display was turned off, however, and Rylan
was sitting in the room in silence. She took the chair across from him. He
looked at her, opened his mouth, and then closed it again. He closed his eyes
and she watched them shift about in thought under his eyelids. When he opened
them again, he spoke quickly.
    “What happens to me now?”
    “What do you mean?” she asked.
    The pilot angled his head toward
her, looking impatient at her apparent stupidity. She thought his reaction was
funny but kept her face expressionless. She skewered a piece of soggy broccoli
with her fork and put it into her mouth. The vegetable was full of moisture
that was far hotter than she expected. It burned her tongue. She kept her face
plain, not reacting to the pain as she stared at him.
    “When is Burke going to kill me?”
he asked.
    “That depends,” she said.
    “On what?”
    “Well, he’ll only kill you if you
give him a reason to. It would have to be a good reason, too. Do you plan on
doing that any time soon?”
    “No, but—”
    “But nothing,” she said curtly.
“That man has hunted and arrested serial killers, giving them over to the
authorities instead of killing them. He gave the justice system its chance to
punish them. If it failed, which it sometimes did, he hunted them again and
kill them before they can hurt another person. Are you a serial killer, Rylan?”
    “No, but—”
    “Then I wouldn’t be too worried.”
    The screen on the wall came to life
seemingly by itself. The screen was a uniform blue for a few seconds before it
switched to black. Cass appeared on the screen as a copy of her holographic
form over the podium in the command room. Despite the two-dimensional screen’s
capabilities at rendering her as more human, she