“That I believe he would.” Hauk sat back as he started the airbee. “I’m headed up to bust ass. You joining or staying?”
Bastien grinned as he slung his leg over the airbee beside Hauk’s. “Always ready for a good fight. Especially when a mighty War Hauk’s involved.” He powered on the engine. “And I’m harboring a serious hard-on for anyone who hunts others for a living. I’d much rather be the predator than the prey.”
“Then welcome, brother.” Hauk inclined his head to him before he gunned the accelerator. Though the signal from the radios was faint, he was able to trace it to the small skimmer shuttle they had docked a few ticks away.
Hauk landed the bike and turned it off.
Bastien pulled in beside him. Hauk removed the safeties and locks from his weapons while his new friend swung his dirty poncho over his shoulder and secured it so that the material wouldn’t get in his way during the fight. Next, Bastien took inventory of his own weapons. Hauk secured his braids back from his face. He unwound his long brown scarf from around his neck so that he could cover his head and the lower part of his face. Then he pulled out a pair of opaque eyeshields he normally used for climbing.
Now concealed, he took the container he’d scavenged from the assassins and waited for Bastien.
Once his new friend was ready, they crept toward the shuttle where four men waited for their comrades to return with Hauk’s head.
“So what are you spending your money on?” a large, grimy man asked.
“Women,” his muscular companion said with a snort. “Lots of women.”
“Always looking for the next ex, eh?”
“Always.”
Hauk met Bastien’s gaze. “Cover me.”
He scowled at him. “Want to fill me in on your plan?”
“Told you already. Bust ass.” Hauk rose to his feet and walked calmly toward the group. A breeze stirred, whipping the end of his scarf out while he entered their camp.
Two of them rose with their hands on their blasters.
“Can we help you?” the largest one asked. From the way the others deferred to him, Hauk assumed he must be their leader. His was also the voice he’d heard on the link, asking for a status update.
Without a word, he tossed the container in his hand at the man. It landed at his feet, on its side.
“What’s this?”
Hauk slid his gaze to each target in turn, noting where the men stood in relation to one another, and how best to take them down. “A gift.”
Curious, he knelt and opened the bag, then cursed as he saw the assassin’s head it contained. He scrambled for his blaster.
Hauk shot his three companions before closing the distance between them. He snatched the blaster from the man’s hand and pulled it back as if he was going to hit him with the stock. “Who sent you,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
“W-w-what?”
Dropping the blaster, Hauk grabbed his shirt and shook him hard. “Who. Sent. You?”
Bastien came in, weapon drawn to make sure there was no one else in hiding. “Damn, Hauk. You’re a selfish bastard. I thought you were going to leave some for me.”
Hauk ignored Bastien as he lowered the scarf to expose his face. With one hand, he dragged the assassin, who was now kicking and screaming, toward the skimmer.
“I’m a Boldorian! My guild brothers will swarm all over you for this!”
Hauk snorted in contempt of the threat. “Let ’em take a fucking number. Now answer my question or I’m going to start eating pieces off your body, human.” He pulled the knife from his belt and isolated the assassin’s thumb, but not before his gaze fell to the man’s forearm and a series of self-imposed marks that nauseated him even more than the man’s stench. “We’ll start with this, I think.”
He screamed like a girl.
Grimacing, Bastien sucked his breath in audibly. “You know, friend, I’d tell the Andarion what he wants to know. They’re not a patient race… and they’re always, always hungry.”
Sweat poured down the assassin’s face as he gulped. “I-I-I don’t know. I just have the ID code. That’s all. I swear. You can see for yourself.”
While Bastien kept the man covered, Hauk yanked the assassin’s PD off his belt and turned it on. He cursed as he realized he didn’t know the language it was written in.
“Cabarro? Can you read this?” He tossed it over.
Bastien took a second to look at it. “Yeah. It’s the contract for your ass. Spill-kill. Bonus for your head. Damn, Hauk. If I could spend money, I’d be tempted to end you for this amount. Fain or no Fain.”
Hauk shook his head, knowing Bastien wouldn’t dare. “Does it say who wants me dead?”
“Nah. He’s right. Just lists an anonymous ID for payment. If this armpit of the Nine Worlds had any reception, you might be able to backtrace it. But as it is…”
“See! I —” His words ended with a sharp blast to his chest.
Hauk stepped over his body.
Bastien handed him the PD. “You’re one cold son of a bitch.”
Hauk jerked the assassin’s sleeve back to show the catalogue of kills he’d carved into his flesh as proud tribute for all the victims he’d made.
Half of them were for women and children.
“He deserved worse.”
Bastien shot the body three more times.
Hauk arched a brow at his actions.
Shrugging, Bastien holstered his weapon. “He deserved worse.”
“Spend a lot of time in the sun, do you?”
Bastien laughed as Hauk went inside the skimmer to see if there was anything he could use to get away from any others who might come for him.
Or better yet, if they could fly it out themselves. Unfortunately, it was low on fuel. And as he’d suspected, it was a preprogrammed skimmer used to take the assassins to and from their outer atmosphere spaceship. Which meant there were more of them waiting for this group to return. With time, he might be able to reprogram the skimmer for manual flight.
An alarm sounded.
Or not.
“What’d you do?” Bastien asked sardonically.
Sighing, Hauk shot the control panel that housed the signal. It went instantly silent. “Must have been wired to the mission leader’s vitals. It’s an alarm to the mothership notifying the others that they’re dead.”
Bastien glared at the sky. “How many you think are up there?”
“Don’t know. But they’re down twenty-nine men.”
“Survivors will be glad they don’t have to split that wide a cut.”
Hauk grunted. “Boldorians won’t care about that. It’s now an honor quest for them to come get me. With reinforcements.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “You scared yet?”
Bastien let out a false laugh. “I’m hunted by League assassins for fun and promotion, and you think these backwater pussies scare me? Really?”
Hauk clapped him on the back as a sign of brotherhood. “When we get that chip out of you, if you need a place, The Sentella’s always looking for good people.”
“I have some long overdue payback to shove up someone’s ass first. After that? I just might accept your offer.”
Hauk confiscated arms, ammunition, and a radio before pulling back. He paused long enough to check the tracking device’s broadcast frequency.
“What are you doing?” Bastien asked with a frown.
“Reprogramming this to their frequency. They land, talk to each other, and I can peg them as fast as they peg me.”
“You are Fain’s brother.”
“Taught him everything he knows.”
Bastien arched a disbelieving brow.
Hauk grinned. “About electronics. He taught me fighting… usually by sitting on my ass until I got big enough to make it hurt when he tried.”