Blaedergil's Host by C.M. Simpson (reading well .TXT) 📕

complete before he broke orbit. I got myself ported over to a second ship and bounced, again, erasing myself from the first ship’s system, as I went.

I didn’t erase my payment, though.

That sort of shit gets you noticed—and I was noticeable enough.

I musta got around four weeks on Hancock, before Odyssey came along.

I’d even gotten a job. It didn’t start until evening, because: restaurants—and waiting tables is just that awesome, so I’d gone out to get the groceries, so I could sleep in in the next morning.

Tyson bumped into me in the street. I had a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread, and a box of butter in the bag. I still hadn’t gotten over getting the groceries for myself. I pretty much figured that the feeling of independence that came with it weren’t never growing old. I turned to apologize for getting in the way, and recognized him.

“Hey, Ty! Fancy seeing you here.”

I would have asked if he was on a job, but that just seemed impolite. That, and I was already suspecting why he’d come, and I didn’t want to confirm it. Not even in my head.

Besides, I remembered Basics. Most of what we were trained to do wasn’t the kind of stuff you talked about on the street.

Funny thing was, though, I didn’t think there’d be a likely target for Odyssey for at least a half a mile. Wrong kind of neighborhood, ya know? Then again, I hadn’t stuck around long enough to get a broad idea; I’d gotten out just as soon as I could make the getting good... and botched it up just as fast.

It was kinda cool knowing Odyssey seemed to have washed its hands of me, and let Mack take me on, instead of spacing me, or putting a blaster through my brain. I pretty much figured they weren’t here after me, but I couldn’t work out what else they might be after.

The area was sort of all lower-middle class with no crims around. I knew. I’d double-double-triple-checked. Just cos I was seeing what life might have been without them, didn’t mean I hadn’t been pretty good at what they’d trained me to do.

The look Ty gave me was a real wake-up call. Sort of surprised at my response, followed by a tight-lipped smile that flickered over his lips and then vanished like it hadn’t ever been. It was the puzzled frown that got me. That, and the sudden grab that locked my upper arm in his hand.

We stopped, and I turned to face him in the street.

“You’re wanted in the office,” he said, grabbing me by the other arm.

“Like the stars, I am. I’ve got a shift starting in an hour and a half, and a shit ton of stuff I need to get done beforehand. Keep your hands to yourself.”

I tried to shrug him off, but he was a good bit taller than I was, and maybe a good bit stronger, and the look on his face was starting to scare me.

“You can’t quit,” he said, even though I was very much under the impression I already had.

“Sure, I can,” I said. “I quit when they decided they’d rather terminate me than my contract. I left, and now I don’t work there anymore.”

Ty tightened his grip on my arm, and gave me a little shake. One little shake for each of the next three words he spoke.

“You. Can’t. Leave,” he said, bringing his face close to mine.

I stared at him.

“Sure, I can,” I said, rolling my arm in his grip. “It’s a free world, and you can’t stop me.”

“I just did,” he replied, and held me tight, when I tried to pull away.

“I’m being retrieved?” I asked, and he looked up and over my shoulder, although the look on his face wasn’t exactly welcoming.

Warmth filled the space behind me, another someone bigger than I was.

“Yup,” sounded, low and confident in my ear.

Mack.

“You coulda just asked.”

“Would you have come?”

“Hell, no, and I’m not coming, now.”

I pulled my head back, ready to go full head butt into Ty’s face, but Mack was just as fast as I knew he could be. He dodged the backward tilt, and had my hair in his fist before I could do more than get ready to strike, had an arm around my throat before I realized he could. Was putting me under with a choke hold I just couldn’t avoid. I was out in seconds, wondering why on Earth Mack was working with Odyssey to bring me in.

Hadn’t he picked me up, when they cast me aside? And didn't we have a contract?

What in Hells...

2—Back-Coursed

I came to in a cell. You know the deal. White-walls, white ceiling, white floor—no bed. Featureless. Funny, I hadn’t come across one of these in training. I expected a door to open, someone to come and say hi, and maybe sit me down and explain what I’d be doing next, no questions asked. It didn’t, and they didn’t, so I swung my legs out of bed, and stood up. The air fizzed in an all-too-familiar way, as I turned to get a better look at the cell, and I hit the wall, face first, before I could eyeball who it was that had just ported in.

Still, it wasn’t hard to guess.

“Delight?”

She’d appeared in behind me, grabbed me, and introduced me to the wall in pretty seamless fashion. She tried to do it a second time, but I’d already driven an elbow back into her gut, and was turning along her forearm. Can’t say being head-butted was too much better.

The whole world wobbled and I felt my legs go to jelly. It was only for a moment, but it was enough.

“You done?”

Good question. Was I done? Yeah, maybe I was. At least, for now.

“Uh huh.”

I figured if they were going to walk me out an airlock, then that would follow, shortly. Of course, I also figured that, if that was all they wanted to do, then they’d have done it already. I