God's Bounty Hunter (Biddy Mackay Space Detective Book 1) by T Olivant (reading in the dark .txt) 📕

just followed the money, that’s all.  The company that pays Ito has a trail that loops around the cloud systems of at least three planets, but it only come back to one place.  Tirnanog.  More specifically the headquarters of the Most Holy Knights of Dark Space.  That’s the connection, Biddy.  It’s the Knights.”

Biddy couldn’t help but let out a groan. “Thanks Geek,” she said, after she’d taken a deep breath. “It’s not your fault it’s bad news.  Will you keep working on it for me?”

“Of course.”

“Listen, everyone.  Keep this information to yourself.  I’m not sure how the Knights tie in with all this, but it doesn’t change anything.  We search for the Augment.  When we find him, we hand him over.”

“But if the Knights are involved…” Elvis interrupted.

“Then we will deal with it.  And they will have to face the wrath of Scotclan.” Biddy found the idea rather comforting.  If the Knights were involved then the Black Maria and her crew were probably too insignificant for anyone to worry about.  That suited her just fine.

“For now we will head to Pratchett Cinque and pick up our passenger.  Remember, don’t give Scotclan the rope to hang us with.  Keep it by the book, while they are onboard anyway.”

There were a few mumbled noises of assent.  Most of the crew simply looked stunned by what the Geek had uncovered.  Biddy was too, although she tried to at least appear calm.  Since they had taken Tirnanog and stolen power from the Gods, the Knights had generally kept a low profile, preferring to keep to their own little quadrant of the universe.  Something had changed, and Biddy was not best pleased to find herself in the middle of it.  Still, she couldn’t lose focus.  Find the Augment, get back her birthright, make sure her crew came out of it with all their limbs intact.  That was more than enough for one mission.

Chapter 12

The last time Lu Tang had been to this planet it had been nothing more than a lump of rock with a few mining stations clinging to it like parasites.  Now the terraforming of Eritree had started in earnest and the greys and browns of the arid surface were showing patches of verdant green.  It would be another fifty years or so before the puny humans would be able to live outside their plastic homes, but it would happen within his lifetime.

Like everything else.

Lu Tang grimaced.  One of the implants on his left side was playing up.  Pins and needles shot along the nerves that surrounded his ulna bone.  Well, he didn’t have time to fix it right now.  Instead he pumped some more endorphins around his brain until he forgot about the pain.

“Time to get up, Augment.”

He turned to stare at the little round man named Tibo who had entered his cabin.

“I’m Lu Tang now,” he said, with a note of admonishment.

The old man with thighs as thick as bulkheads shrugged. “Sure.  I’ll try and remember.”

“See that you do.” The Augment was irritated.  And he was even more irritated to discover his own irritation.  His hormones should be controlled in such a way that such emotional weakness wouldn’t bother him.  But clearly they were not working efficiently, or he wouldn’t have wanted to smack every human he met across the jaw.

He was beginning to think that meeting with Tibo was a mistake.  The ridiculous spaceship was a profound error, that was for sure.  A starglider, it was called, with great golden sails that shimmered through the sky like a golden fish.  It was showy, and unnecessary.  Tibo had always had a predilection for the flamboyant, but Lu Tang would have preferred something less conspicuous.  Like any other craft in the quadrant.

Lu Tang turned his gaze back to the planet that drifted by outside the window of the spaceship.  An illusion of course.  It was the ship that was moving, not the lump of rock.  But still, it was hard not to imagine the thing was creeping up on him.  Like it was waiting for his arrival, and not in a welcoming fashion.  Eritree.  The miner’s paradise.  And for a God?  Something more like hell, perhaps.

He sniffed and adjusted his hormone controls once more.  He was becoming sentimental.  A fatal habit in an Augment.  It had finished off more of his people than he could count.  How many of them were left now?  A handful that he knew about, but there were probably more.  Keeping out of the way, skulking about where the humans couldn’t find them.  And why?  Because they dared to become Gods?

Lu Tang’s hands balled into fists.  He relaxed them before Tibo could notice.  Best not to appear erratic in front of the staff.

“You still wish to avoid Moscov?” Tibo asked.

“Yes.  For the moment at least.  There are still those there who would be… interested in my arrival.”

“You haven’t set foot on Eritree for a decade.  I think you’re probably safe.”

“Some memories are longer than others.”

Tibo laughed. “True, Augment.”

“Do not call me that.”

“Sorry, Lu Tang.  I have set a course for a small property that I have a few hundred miles from Moscov.  A little osmium mine, nothing fancy, but it might suit your purposes.”

“It sounds adequate.  And have you begun the preparations that I asked you for?”

“Yes, yes, it is all in hand.”

Lu Tang gave Tibo a smile that was just a flash of predatory teeth. “You will, of course, be ready in time?”

“Of course.” The old man’s expression did not change. “We are just obtaining the necessary permissions.  Security on this planet is extraordinarily high.”

“It’s a pilgrim world,” Lu Tang said.

“Not anymore.  Eritree was once part of the alliance of the Faithful, but it does not align itself that way now.  According to the cloud it is open-and-eager-to-trade-with-valued-guests,” Tibo said, his voice sing-song as