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

retained her artificial look
and features. She looked like a human woman that was out of phase with her
surroundings, part of the light passing through her and adopting the shifting
colors of her skin. Parts of her face were purple and blue. Her eyes were
green, then black, then green again.
    “We were going to tell you
eventually,” Cass said, knowing they’d accept she had been listening. She was
always monitoring the common areas of the ship. She restricted herself from the
private bedrooms unless it was a necessary interruption.
    Rylan inhaled deeply and then let
the breath go in a loud huff. He raised a hand up to his head and held it
there.
    “I’ve heard of Burke Monrow,” he
said finally.
    Cass looked surprised. Natalie
forked another piece of broccoli.
    “It was on the news. A lot,” he
continued. “Fought through a space station by himself and killed its owner.
Foras station, in Prime. Was that true?”
    “He wasn’t by himself,” Cass raised
her chin. “But yes.”
    “Did the man deserve it?”
    “Yes,” Cass repeated.
    Rylan set his hands down on the
table. Natalie thought he was an odd man. His voice was rarely raised or
lowered. He pronounced words in a peculiar way, often emphasizing each syllable
of longer words like they were a chain of smaller words. She couldn’t gauge how
intelligent he was just yet, but he was clearly uncomfortable dealing with
people. It made sense, she thought. He was a pilot that agreed to live on the
job flying a starship for months at a time. He must enjoy the seclusion.
    “What choice do I have?” he asked
finally.
    “None,” Natalie replied
practically. “You should believe us that Burke won’t hurt you without a reason.
Give him your trust and, eventually, you’ll get his in return. If he is going
to kill you—which he isn’t—then there’s no way you’re getting off this ship
before he does. Why not put your faith in him?”
    Rylan’s eyes widened at her
example. She thought, for a moment, that she could judge his intelligence after
all and prepared herself for a follow-up explanation to calm him down. His eyes
softened, however, and he gave a quick nod. He drummed his fingers on the table
and seemed to understand despite still looking meek.
    “I’m sorry you found out this way,”
Cass said.
    Natalie finished her meal. She
carried her plate and glass into the kitchen and loaded them into the
dishwasher. Rylan walked through the room as she did so, wordlessly stepping
back into the corridor and toward the front of the ship. She walked in the
opposite direction, turning into the armory and looking over the battle aegis
for a moment. Then, she closed the door and looked for the crate of tools she
had left in the room when she first boarded the ship.
    “Thank you for helping with Rylan,”
Cass said, only her voice entering the room. There was no screen in the armory.
    “He’ll be okay,” Natalie said with
a smile. “Can you help me while I do this? Then I’ll go down to the engine room
and help you with Lumen.”
    “Do you think we still should?”
    “I think it’s worth a try. We have
time before we reach the jump gate. I’ll bring down my laptop and take over
watching Kristen. We’ll be fine.”
    “Okay,” Cass said.
    Natalie opened the crate and pulled
out more than a dozen tools and devices. She cleared away one of the counters
of Burke’s handguns and rifles, and laid her tools out in a row in their place.
She dislodged the pieces of the aegis carefully: helmet and arms first, and
then the two halves of the chest piece. She left the leg standing in the middle
of the room.
    There was a deceptively small
device that she used to connect to the left arm of the armor. It was the main
piece that she was installing new hardware on, and then some minor alterations
to the chest piece in order to sufficiently power the new shielding system. The
small device opened like a briefcase, revealing two sets of neatly coiled wires
inside. She