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

and sleep.  He was so dreadfully tired.  He should probably have mentioned his current hormonal malfunctions to the other Augments, but the last thing he wanted was their pity.

His datapad buzzed.

You must give them the portal drive.

Lu Tang stared at the text.  The Voice was on the side of Augustus and the other Augments.  It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but he still felt a stab of betrayal.  Still, what else could he do?  His every step so far had been guided by this unknown voice.  Without it he would still be stuck on Widdershins 3.  It was time to make a choice.

He opened the door to the command room.

“Here is the portal drive,” he said, handing the box to Augustus. “You may use it however you wish.  I am Kepler, and I am one of you.”

Chapter 43

A plan was coming together.  A pretty terrible plan, but a plan nonetheless.

“I have one issue with the plan,” Biddy said as she shifted in her plastic seat.  The atmosphere in the tiny waste disposal vehicle was hot and pungent.  At least if I get killed trying to regain the Black Maria I won’t have to spend another minute in this sweathole, she thought.

“Let me guess,” Hastings said, his face red from the heat. “The part where we go to Scotclan with our tail between our legs and ask them to help?”

“Actually no.  Don’t get me wrong, that part is going to suck.  It’s more the part where Phil and Ali spacewalk over to the hull of the Black Maria while it’s in orbit.  That’s the bit I don’t like.”

“Sounds cool,” Ali shrugged.

“Sounds foolhardy and dangerous,” the Detective added. “And I’m sorry but I’m not going to let you guys do that.  Maybe we could…”

Kenzie cleared her throat.  Biddy turned to the girl, surprised.  She had barely spoken since they had been evicted from the spaceship.

“I have completed the research you asked me to do on the Augment called Kepler.” The girl held up the datapad she had been tapping away on for the last few minutes.

Biddy fought to keep her temper. “Well, that’s good I guess, but do I really need to see it now?”

The pale girl bit her lip. “Yes, you do.”

Biddy paused for a second, then considered the trembling youngster.  When had she ever interrupted anyone, or shown this much self-assertion? “All right.  I can give you a couple of minutes.”

Kenzie looked around the crowded craft, dropping her eyes when she realized that every other person was waiting for her to speak.

“I’m not really sure where to start.”

“Just take your time.”

Kenzie took a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry.  I’m getting all mixed up.  It’s just with everything that’s happened… I haven’t slept in days.”

“Me neither,” Biddy said with an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry.  Just tell me what’s bothering you.”

Kenzie nodded. “Okay, so you know you told me to look into any of the Augment stuff that seemed a little… I don’t know, unusual?”

How long ago had she asked the girl to do some research?  Was it really just a day or two?  How things had changed since then.

“It’s all right Kenzie, I know you’ve been busy.  You don’t need an excuse for not doing the research.”

The girl’s shoulder’s twitched. “Actually, I have done it.  I stayed up all night last night looking into the Knights’ files and cross-referencing them with any news sources I could find.”

And slowly, hesitatingly, the girl told the crew what she had found.  Afterwards there was a shocked silence.

“Can it be true?” Francesca asked once Kenzie had stopped talking.

“You’re sure about this?” Biddy asked her.  The girl’s chin trembled but she nodded firmly.

“All right,” the Detective said.  She felt like a cool breeze had come through the aircon and woken her up. “This changes everything.  New plan, get me to Lu Tang.  Or Kepler.  Or whatever we’re going to call him.  Nothing else matters now.”

“We might just be able to do that,” Hastings said, his eyes on the viewscreen.  Biddy stared.  A familiar ship was trying to land not a hundred meters away.

“Are they really just going to land the Black Maria right in the middle of the compound?  The Council of Eritree will pick them up in minutes.  If Scotclan doesn’t get there first.”

“And they better not scratch her hull while they do it,” Hastings grumbled.

Biddy had bigger worries. “Francesca, get me into that spacesuit.  I need to get to Lu Tang before the miners do!”

Chapter 44

Kepler sipped his tea.  It wasn’t half bad.  The girl detective had decent taste, in this regard at least.  He looked around the dingy little office.  Messy and disorganized, which was no surprise.  It embarrassed him to think that he had been so subservient to the wench when he had been Lu Tang.  Well, those days were over now.

He felt the engines roar as Augustus fought to land the ship in the small maintenance compound.  The man was doing it manually by the sound of things.  He was an Augment, but Kepler was quickly realizing that Augustus was also a category A idiot.  Truly, even the Gods were not infallible.  He took another sip of tea.  Finally there was a jarring thump as the Black Maria touched the ground.  Well, at least it didn’t sound like anything important had broken.

Two hundred Augments, just waiting to be reborn.  Kepler ran a hand over his forehead.  He just had to hope they weren’t all like Augustus.

Thankfully, his unelected leader had already positioned himself next to the airlock, waiting to hurry outside and begin saving lives.  Kepler had been happy to let Augustus lead the rescue team into the compound.  He had spent long enough in the freezer that contained his family.

Once he was sure that Augustus had departed the Black Maria,