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

a human.  He had placed his faith in a Voice.  Now he had to choose whether to trust Mackay or Macleod.  One of them had shot Tibo.  One was almost certainly out to destroy him.

“I’m waiting.”

And Mackay was incredibly annoying.  But yet…

He came to a decision. “I need you to help me complete my mission.”

“Mission?  What mission?”

Lu Tang rubbed at his jittering calf.  There was pain there now, but it was almost absent from his body, like it was floating above him.  Probably not a good sign.

“I did not leave Widdershins 3 because I tired of being imprisoned.  Well, that was part of it.  But I am a God.  I do not make decisions like that for no reason.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“I left Widdershins 3 because I received some news.  Terrible news.  I was told that my friends, fellow Augments had been imprisoned.”

“On Widdershins 3?”

“No.  In a hidden location.  They had been systematically removed from the galaxy over several decades.  Kidnapped and placed in suspended animation.”

“How many?”

“I’m not sure.” Lu Tang looked at the floor. “Half a dozen, maybe?  When you live for such a very long time you lose track of people.  I assumed they’d died or just… faded away.  That happens to Gods, you know, when those of the Faith forget about you.”

“Uhuh.”

“I’m still not sure who sent me to Widdershins 3.  But after I’d been locked in that cell for a decade, I received a message.  A Voice.  Someone was going to help me escape, but they wanted me to help them rescue the others.  Well, I was hardly going to refuse.  The other Gods are the only family that I have left.  I have to help them.  And I need you to help me.”

The young woman’s mouth was a thin line. “Impossible.”

“Hardly.  It is very possible.  You just need to agree to my requests.”

“Why on the galaxy would I do that?”

Lu Tang felt his irritation rise.  It was so demeaning, having to explain himself to a mere chit of a human girl.  And yet without her he would fail.

“Because this is not about your silly little ship or the planet or anything else around here.  It’s about the future of the galaxy.”

“The future of the Augments, you mean?”

“They are one and the same.  Consider the portal drive.  A terrible weapon, and the most sophisticated energy source there has ever been.  This is just one of the many inventions of the Gods.  Fast light, medi-pods, synth-metal, even delorium.  Without them humanity would barely have left the solar system, let alone colonized other worlds.”

“And we have the Gods to thank for this, right?”

“Of course.  Doesn’t your Faith tell you that?”

The Detective chewed her lip. “You really think I’m going to trust you?”

“Would you trust your God?”

The Detective flinched, but he couldn’t have resisted even if he wanted to.  It was just too easy to annoy the human.

“All right,” Lu Tang continued in what he hoped was a conciliatory tone. “Would you trust someone with the experience of multiple centuries?  Because that’s all we are, after all.  The sum of our experiences.  And I have a hell of a lot more of them than anyone you have ever met.”

“That doesn’t mean that you’re a good guy.”

“A good guy?  I certainly never claimed to be one of them.  But you serve justice, do you not Detective?  A long time ago something very unjust occurred.  You have the chance to help me to make it right.  And, I would argue, you owe it to me to do so.”

Mackay massaged her temples. “And if I got in touch with Scotclan and told them everything that you just told me?  Would they allow this to happen?”

“No.  Because, like all large organizations, they fear change.  But that is not a reason to let bad things happen.”

Mackay stared at him.  Her large eyes trying to look into his soul.  Well, they wouldn’t have much luck there.  If he’d ever had one it had long since shriveled and died.  Still, he met her gaze.  He had nothing to fear from the truth, and that was what he had told her.  Most of it, anyway.

“You’ve got five minutes to tell me your plan,” the detective said. “And if you can’t convince me you’re on the next shuttle to Scotclan.”

“It’s a deal.”

Chapter 31

Biddy watched the Augment carefully for any sign of deception.  He was the most difficult suspect to read that she had ever met.  Possibly because he wasn’t completely human.  Possibly just because he was very, very weird.  He seemed to be developing a new twitch every ten minutes.  Along with his hand continually rubbing his calf, the muscle under his eye was vibrating at an alarming rate.

“My plan is very simple,” the Augment explained. “I intend to free my people.  I know that the Gods are imprisoned on Eritree, that is the reason I ended up here.”

“How do you know that?”

“The Voice told me.”

Biddy could hear the implied capital letter in his tone. “The Voice?”

“The one that released me from Widdershins 3.”

“And how can you trust this Voice?  I’m guessing you don’t know who they are?”

“An Augment.  A very old one.  I have my suspicions, but… No, I can’t be sure.  But they know things about me that no one else in the system could know.”

Biddy glanced at the door.  She knew Elvis would be pacing outside, worrying about her.  But there was something about the Augment’s story.  She could usually tell when someone was lying to her, and the Augment seemed to be telling the truth.  He, at least, believed his own story.  Was she starting to believe it too?

“One thing I want to know before you tell me any more about this plan.  Who are you?  No false identities, no