Hunter (3 page)

"They're
adorable," Tanguin said. "Have you seen the new range?"

"Of what?"
Aart said.

"Of fluffles.
I hear you can get spiked metal ones now," Tanguin said.

"Doesn't
sound very cuddly," Nova said. "May as well get a pet-bot for
that."

"No way. I
want one of those glow-in-the-dark, spotted fluffles," Orion
said.

"And maybe
you and it can retire to the Austral System with all the other old
people." Aart smirked.

"Aww shut up
Aart, I saw you looking at them on the Cloud," Orion replied,
sticking out his tongue.

"Oh, have you
guys seen the new poster?" Tanguin said.

"Yeah, but I
wouldn't touch it in a million years," said Aart.

"Me neither,"
Orion replied, laying out a digi-poster on the table.

"What's
this?" Nova said, pulling the message down from the communal screen
and onto her personal reader.

"Didn't you
hear about that one?" Tanguin said. "Of course no one's willing to
touch it."

"Oh that,
yeah I'm heading there after I eat," Nova said.

"Are you
serious?" Tanguin said.

"Yeah, the
man running the case called me up. Easy peasy."

"You say that
now but look; it's dealing with lecheons on Boullion
Five."

"I didn't
know they were still allowed in human colonies," said Gus, taking
another swig of his drink.

"They're
usually not. Boullion Five allows some but this one escaped from
prison," Aart said, pointing to the relevant section of
text.

"Still," Nova
said. "Three thousand credits?"

"No way Nova,
you'd have to be crazy," Tanguin said.

"Well then,
call me bonkers because I'm doing it," she replied.

"No way! I
would never be that reckless!" said Aart.

"Your loss."
Nova shrugged. "I'll see you in a few days when I'm
rich."

CHAPTER FOUR

"They broke in here," Chief Inspector Briggles
said. He pointed to a gaping hole in the side of the
prison.

"How did they
make it? I thought lecheons weren't much stronger than us?" Nova
asked.

"They're not.
It was some kind of explosive; we've cleared away most of the
debris now."

"Why did you
put the call out to the bounty hunters?"

"Our usual
methods didn't work." Briggles shrugged. "Of course the Confederacy
didn't want to hear one word about it. They don't want an
inter-species incident. We're desperate if I'm being honest with
you. It's been two weeks since he escaped."

"Okay then.
Lead on," Nova said, waving her hand.

Briggles led
her through the gaping hole and into the hallway beyond. Dim lights
flickered overhead, lighting the ancient corridor.

"They knew
where they were going, that's for sure. They could have been
watching the place for months for all we know."

"Any
casualties?" Nova asked.

"Five, all
the men we had in this wing."

"Did any
other prisoners escape?"

"No, just the
one. Corvus. He was the only lecheon we had in here."

"How long had
he been imprisoned?"

"It would
have been about five years now. I was one of the prosecutors that
originally put him away."

"How long was
his sentence?"

"It was
supposed to be fifty years. He drained seven young girls, can you
believe it? It was shocking to see, their faces were as pale as
ghosts. Double rings of teeth marks on their necks. Of course,
those seven are just the ones we know about."

"Why did his
coven wait so long to release him?" Nova asked.

"I couldn't
say, maybe they were waiting for a special occasion, or maybe it's
taken them this long to get ready, although I doubt it. It's not
hard to find explosives."

"What about
the bodies of your guards who died?" Nova said.

"We've moved
them now of course, but we've got reality projectors set up so you
can see the scene exactly as it was when we found it. The normal
recording equipment was offline for the whole incident, some
lecheon trick I assume."

"Show me the
projections," Nova said.

Inspector
Briggles clicked his fingers and the room around them changed. The
lights turned off and were replaced by projectors. They cast a grim
scene on the stone corridor, exactly recreating every inch of the
passage as it had been found by the inspectors, down to the tiniest
drop of blood.

"You can see
the first few guards went down here." Briggles gestured to three
bodies in security uniforms. They lay at disjointed angles and
their faces were deathly white.

"Why are
there so many bites?" Nova asked. She had always been taught that a
lecheon left a single set of teeth marks on a person's neck. These
bodies were covered with multiple bites.

"Our experts
say that's what happens when they hunt in a pack." Briggles looked
with sad eyes on the fallen guards.

"The whole
coven fed on these men?" Horrified, Nova imagined a horde of
lecheons feasting on the guards.

"Drained them
dry," Briggles said.

"How
many?"

"Hard to say.
More than five."

"Do you have
any idea which coven is involved?"

"Obviously I
can't make any open accusations but it has to be Corvus's coven.
Aside from logic, security footage at the local club caught his
long-time girlfriend, Laticia, in the area."

"Do they have
any known hideouts on Boullion Five?"

"We've
already checked the ones we know about, but I'll send you a list
anyway."

"Good," Nova
said.

"If you'll
follow me there's the final victim. A new guard, he only started a
week before this happened. He was fascinated by the lecheons,
wanted to fight for open communication between our species. I
wonder what he'd think of them now?" Briggles sighed.

Nova followed
Briggles further down the corridor where another body lay. Like the
others, it was drained of colour, and covered in bite
marks.

Nova stepped
forward to examine the body and noticed something by her foot. She
knelt down and lifted up a wooden pellet.

"Ah yes.
Wooden bullets. All the guards in this wing were armed with them.
It looks like Felix here was the only one who managed to shoot any
off though."

Nova cast her
eyes around the dim room. Felix's back had been against the wall.
The lecheon's had come at him down the hallway. In her mind's eye
Nova could see the events playing out. She saw Felix pulling his
trigger and spraying the bullets at his attackers.

"They would
have gone in an arc from his position," Nova muttered to herself,
striding to the nearest wall. She ran her hand along its length
until she found what she was looking for; a chip in the rocks and a
wooden bullet lying some distance down the hall.

She stepped
away from the wall and cast her eyes around for the next bullet.
Her eyebrows drew together when she couldn't see it.

"It should be
right here," Nova said, tapping her foot on the ground.

She knelt
down and pattered her hand on the cement floor.

"Look at
this," she said, pointing to a slightly darker patch.

"You don't
think?" Briggles said, his voice trailing off.

"Lecheon
blood, I'd put money on it. Felix managed to take one of the
blood-suckers down."

"A wooden
bullet would have killed it," Briggles said.

Nova
shrugged. "Obviously they didn't want to leave us with a body. Is
the blood any good to us?"

"No. The
Confederacy doesn't let us keep files on the lecheons. Even if we
could sample the blood, we wouldn't be able to match
it."

"Bloody
Confederacy."

"Poor Felix,"
Briggles muttered, shuffling down the corridor. "Corvus's cell is
here. You can see they basically hacked it to pieces, probably with
axes."

"Made a mess
of it too," Nova said as she looked at the splintered wooden
box.

"So what's
the next step?" Briggles asked.

"Keep me
posted. I want to know as soon as you have any more
information."

"Of course,"
Briggles said. "What will you be doing?"

Nova shrugged
and trudged backwards away from the cell. "Searching. They're a
coven of vengeful blood-suckers. They're bound to show up again
soon enough."

***

"You know you
really should be focusing on the lecheons, not on your space
racer," Cal said as he watched Nova tinkering with the
engine.

"I can do
both."

"Yes, but can
you do both well?" Cal asked.

"It's fine,"
Nova replied. "Besides, I've got to get this thing up to scratch;
the race is only one week away."

"Are you
hoping to have the lecheons in prison by then, or are you just
going to dash off for a quick illegal space race?"

"Whichever.
And you know as well as I do that they shouldn't be illegal. The
only reason they are is because the Confederacy wants to run them
so they can tax the entrants and take tolls on all the
spectators."

"Yes, yes, I
know the economic reasons."

"Good. I
think this is nearly finished, at least for now. I still need you
to chisel down the steering socket."

"It's at the
top of my to-do list," Cal said dryly.

"I thought
one of the benefits of having a robot was that they don't have
attitudes?"

"I'm afraid
you were mistaken."

Nova rolled
her eyes and tucked her tools back into place in their box. Her
hands were covered in grease that refused to come off even when she
wiped them on a piece of cloth.

"Crusader,
can you patch me through to Tanguin?"

"Affirmative."

A few moments
later the intercom crackled into life.

"Hey, what's
up? Have you been sucked dry by lecheons yet?" Tanguin's voiced
floated down out of Crusader's speakers.

"Hey," Nova
said, walking through Crusader to the pilot's chair where she took
a seat in front of Tanguin's face. "No. Although that is what I
wanted to talk to you about."

"I don't see
what good I can be, but okay. What do you want?"

"There's a
whole coven here," Nova said. "At least six lecheons, probably
more."

"What? On
Boullion Five?"

"Yeah I know,
that was my response too. Something about releasing their coven
leader, I don't know. He's been in there five years. Who can
understand lecheons? Anyway, my point is, things could get
ugly."

"Then back
out now," Tanguin said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the
world.

"You know I'm
not going to do that. Besides, I'm not really scared. I just wanted
someone else to know."

"Thanks. I'll
be having nightmares for weeks now."

"Not so,"
Nova chuckled.

"You really
should ask for backup. I'm sure Aart would lend a hand, even if he
was scared stiff at the first mention of lecheons."

"No." Nova's
voice was firm. "Tanguin, if you so much as breathe a word to Aart
that I even called you, then I will hunt you down and feed you to
the coven myself."

"Chill your
wires girl," Tanguin said, holding up her hands in surrender. "Even
though you know I'm right. If a few of you field hunters worked the
case together it wouldn't even be a problem."

"No way, then
I'd have to share the bounty," Nova said, grinning.

Her stomach
clenched, but she kept her smile in place. Lecheons were dangerous
at the best of times. Even with a group of hunters, this was a
dangerous mission.

Tanguin
rolled her eyes. "Fine. But if you don't check in with me every
twenty-four hours, then I'm allowed to tell someone."

"Tanguin—"

"Nova. If
there's nothing to be scared of then it won't matter, it just means
I get to talk to you every day. But if something does happen, at
least I'll know and can do something."

"Just not
Aart," Nova said.

"It will be
whoever is around."

"Fine,"
grumbled Nova. "Not that it will do any good. It's not like any of
them would risk an entire coven just to save my sorry
arse."

"I think
you'd be surprised," Tanguin said. "But all the same, I'm taking
that as a yes."

"Alright, if
that's your condition. I'll call you every evening. Just don't go
mental if I'm a few minutes late, okay?"