A Brother's Debt (19 page)

“Are you kidding, all the best fun involves danger, staying safe is boring as hell. Besides, you need me to fit the parts I was able to get out of my friend, not to mention watch your back, with the amount of trouble you seem to get yourself into you need someone by your side.”

Step looked at his friend for a moment, and then shrugged, relieved that Jay was planning on sticking around; he didn’t really fancy traversing the sector alone in Gambler’s Luck. His one solo journey in it had been enough to tell him it would be a lonely and boring life. “You’re a grown man, it’s up to you. If you want to risk your life I’m not going to stop you. I’m sure you’ll come in handy; if nothing else you’ll be something for me to hide behind the next time shooting starts. As big as you are you’ll make a better shield than the cab did,” he said with a smile.

Jay laughed at that. “So what’s the plan? Where are we going from here?” he asked when he stopped, which took a while.

Step opened his mouth to reply, but was forced to close it and dig a hand hurriedly into his pocket as his communicator sounded. “Step Velkin,” he said flicking his thumb across the small screen. The call was from a blocked number,

 so it wasn’t until he heard the voice on the other end that he knew who was contacting him.

“Luigi Fesa here, Captain, I’ve just received some information I thought you should be made aware of.”

“What might that be, Mr Fesa?” Step asked, hoping for once he was going to hear something good, though his instincts told him that was unlikely.

“Grange Dollier has put a bounty on your head, quite a generous one it has to be said. He is offering one hundred thousand credits to the person who kills you, and two hundred and fifty thousand to anyone who brings you to him alive. I know of pirate captains that have smaller bounties on their heads, Dollier must be really pissed off with you,” Fesa remarked with a chuckle.

“Thanks for letting me know.” Step didn’t find it quite as amusing as Fesa did.

“You’re welcome. Oh, your friend has a bounty on his head as well; you might want to let him know. It’s nowhere near as impressive as yours, only ten thousand, and there’s no bonus for delivering to him to Dollier alive.

“I guess he hasn’t pissed Dollier off enough to deserve personal treatment. Probably a good thing for him.

“I’ll pass the message along.”

“Good. I advise you to get off the planet a.s.a.p., before someone decides to try and earn the bounty on your head. The message being posted around contains plenty of information about you, including your ship’s ident code. It won’t take long for people around here to find out your ship is at the spaceport. If they don’t make an attempt on your life before you lift off, they’ll be right behind you when you do.”

“I’ve got a few things to do before I can leave, but I’ll be off the planet just as soon as I can be. Thanks again for the warning, and the advice.” With the communicator once again in his pocket Step turned to Jay.

“Let me guess, we’ve got more problems.”

Step nodded. “It appears Dollier has put bounties on our heads; ten thousand on yours, and twenty five times that on me.” The look on Jay’s face when he said that would have made him laugh, at another time, and under different circumstances. “That’s if they deliver me to Dollier alive so he can kill me himself, presumably in the most painful fashion he can devise. I’m only worth a hundred grand if I’m dead when I reach Dollier.”

“Herschla!” Jay swore. “He doesn’t take disappointment well, does he.”

“Clearly, are you sure you want to stick with me? If you stay here, or go somewhere else, you might not get found by any bounty hunters, they’ll all be focused on getting me, since I’m worth so much more.”

“With my luck they’d all keep looking for me in the hope I can lead them to you, I might just as well stick with you. Besides, I figure you’re my best chance of making some money, rather than scraping by, like I have been doing.

“At the least, if things get too tight for comfort I can turn around and sell you to Dollier.”

Step saw, from the look on his friend’s face, he wasn’t being serious. “If things get that tight I’ll probably be willing to sell myself.”

“To get back to the question I asked before Mr Fesa’s call, where are we going from here?”

“Back to Hanratty Station. Since you’re going to stick around, you can get the ship ready for departure, while I take Zialla to the orphanage, and then stock up on supplies. We’ll need more than we’ve got to reach Hanratty from here.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Though he had made it sound like a relatively simple task in the cab with Jay, Step found getting Zialla to come with him anything but.

“No way! I’m not going to any stupid orphanage!” Zialla insisted when told where Step wanted to take her.

“Zialla, you have to, it’s for the best.”

“No it’s not, you just want rid of me.”

Step did his best not to sigh in frustration, but it wasn’t easy. “It’s not that at all. I’m doing this because it really is the best thing for you; it’s not safe for you to stay on Gambler’s Luck with me and Jay.”

“Why not?”

“Because it isn’t.” Step didn’t want to tell her about the price on his head, nonetheless it was on his mind as he tried to persuade the young girl to go with him. “My life is dangerous, and you would be in danger if you stayed with me, you won’t be at the orphanage. Besides, I don’t know anything about looking after a girl, especially one your age, and it wouldn’t be right for you to travel about with two men you’re not related to.

“Somewhere someone would think something peculiar was going on, even out here in this sector, and then they’d try to save you by taking you away. Things would be a whole lot worse for you then than being in an orphanage here on Onegal, and for me and Jay. You wouldn’t want that.”

“I don’t care, I’m not going!” Zialla declared, crossing her arms and looking so determined Jay laughed, earning him a cross look from Step.

“Yes, you are,” Step told her. “It’s for your own good, the nuns will look after you better than I can, and I won’t have to worry about you getting hurt by people trying to get to me.”

“You said you’d help me find my family, now you just want to dump me!” Before Step could say or do anything to stop her she ran from the crew lounge, her footsteps echoing down the passage.

“Dammit!” Step swore. “What am I supposed to do now?”

“Don’t look at me.” Jay shook his head. “I’ve got no idea how to deal with her; I’m useless with any bird who hasn’t turned at least eighteen.”

“Fat lot of good you are. Go get us ready to take off; I’ll see what I can do about Miss Stroppy.” Striding down the passage, Step stopped in front of the door to Zialla’s cabin, where he knocked, out of habit, not any desire to be polite. “Open up, Zialla.”

“No! I’m not leaving! I’m staying right here until you find my family, like you promised.”

“I don’t have the time to discuss this with you,” Step said using his override to open the door. “You’re going to the orphanage, where you’ll be looked after by the nuns. I promise I’ll do everything I can to find your family, but it...” A beep from his communicator interrupted Step before he could finish what he was saying, and he reached into his pocket with a scowl. “Velkin,” he answered the phone abruptly.

“You need to stop whatever you’re doing, return to your ship, and leave the planet immediately,” Luigi Fesa said urgently.

“I’m already on board my ship, Mr Fesa, what’s the urgency? Is someone coming after the bounty?”

“I couldn’t say on that score, but I’ve been contacted by one of my men. He works in planetary security, and told me an order is going out to the port authority to prevent you leaving. He doesn’t know why as yet, though he promised to let me know as soon as he finds out.”

“Could it have something to do with Dollier?”

“It’s possible, but I wouldn’t have thought he could get the kind of influence necessary to arrange something like this in just the couple of days he’s been here. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter, what does is that my man can only delay the order for an hour, if you take any longer than that to get off the planet you won’t be able to.”

“An hour’s not enough time to resupply the ship.”

“Then you’ll have to make do with whatever supplies you’ve got on board, or risk stopping at Febru to resupply. The Febru authorities co-operate with planetary security however, and the chances are the moment you lift off from here they’ll be in touch with Febru in case you go there.”

Step bit back the urge to swear. “Thanks for the warning, Mr Fesa, I’ll leave immediately.” Though he knew it was rude to just hang up he did exactly that. “I guess you just got lucky, Zialla,” he said as he stuffed the communicator back into his pocket. “There isn’t time to take you to the orphanage; we have to get out of here. Jay!” He yelled, leaving the cabin. “JAY!”

“What?” Jay wanted to know when he found his friend in the pilot’s seat, running through the start-up checklist.

“We have to get out of here right now, or we’re going to be in shit. Planetary security wants us for something, me at least anyway, if we don’t leave in the next hour we won’t be able to.”

“What about the supplies? And Zialla?”

“Zialla will have to come with us, which I’m sure is making her happy,” Step said, scowling fiercely at the young girl, who was standing in the bridge doorway, a smile on her face. “As for the supplies, we’ll just have to make them last as long as we can. There isn’t the time to resupply here, and I don’t think we can risk stopping at Febru to do so there.”

Jay looked at his friend for a moment, and then nodded. “I’ll be in the engine room then, getting as much out of this old bucket as I can. I’m sure planetary security will send a fighter or two to turn us around, if they’re that keen on keeping us.”

While Jay headed for the engine room Step turned his attention to Zialla. “Stop smirking and strap yourself in, or go back to your cabin and smirk where I can’t see you,” he told her irritably.

“Sure thing,” Zialla continued smiling as she made her way back to her cabin, where she settled herself on her bed to await take-off.

Acknowledgements

There are a few people I’d like to thank for their contributions to this novella, both in their assistance with various aspects of it, and their support in my efforts to stay focused and get it completed.

Firstly, Lorraine, a constant source of encouragement and support, though I fear she’ll be disappointed by the lack of gore in this release, I’ll try and make it up to you in the next one ;)

Carlette, thank you so much for the cover you created, it looks great, not to mention everything else you have done to help me with the promotion of my work.

Thank you also to the rest of The Writer’s Pad, always there with an answer when you have a question, and knowledgeable in so many areas.

Lastly, but by no means least, thank you Desley, for being the first to read through this novella, and for spotting the errors that escaped my notice.

About the Author

Born the year of Grease and Grange Hill Karl took up writing at an early age, to stop the voices in his head driving him crazy, filling many a page with his scribbling.

At school his writing landed him in trouble, not least because he was meant to be studying, not creating fantasy worlds.

Two and a half decades after first filling a page with his scribbled ideas, Karl is still plagued by voices in his head, and he still writes to try and keep those voices under control. Now though, he is offering the world a chance to read what keeps him awake at night.

When he isn’t in front of the computer, either writing or editing, he can be found around Dorset, horrifying groundskeepers with his efforts to play golf.

By the same author

Highly recommended! 5* by R. Lee Holz

Shattered is a thriller with elements of the classic British police procedural who-done-it mystery. Fast-paced and action packed with well-developed and engaging characters, it is a highly enjoyable page-turner.

The village of Greenville has a problem. Its daughters are being brutally murdered.

When newcomer Jason Denton is connected to the first two victims, Sergeant Underwood makes him his one and only suspect and sets out to prove the successful novelist doesn’t just write about murder, he commits it.

Unlike her superior Constable Harp isn’t convinced the village’s hunky new resident is guilty, despite the evidence, but are his good looks clouding her judgement?

Is Jason innocent of the murders, or is he playing games with the police like the characters in his books?

Contains graphic violence.

Wow, what a book for all Thriller fans 5* by Fiona Hunt.