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

“Do you know who it is?” Lu Tang asked, his voice seething with anger.

Mackay was rubbing her eyes.  He thought she looked terrible, but he didn’t have much sympathy to spare.  He was keeping it all for himself right now.

“What?”

“I want you to tell me who it is.”

“Who are you talking about?” The detective asked again with her usual baffled expression.

“The Voice?” Lu Tang said, his ears ringing with rage or pain, he wasn’t sure which. “Who is the one that has been feeding me these lies?”

Mackay bit her lip. “You know we sent you a signal claiming to be from the Voice?”

Lu Tang nodded.  It still smarted that he was tricked so easily.

“Well, we did it by tracing the messages backwards.  We knew that you had received something when you were on the ship, so we just took a look at the communication logs.  It was hidden, but the Geek found it.  He made it look like we were sending our signal from the same source.”

“And what was that source?”

“I’m not sure what it means, but we’re pretty sure the signal came from the Scotclan ship.”

Mackay’s cheeks had two red spots of color, but Lu Tang was already shaking his head.

“That’s not possible.  You saw the black ship before, the Voice was definitely on it.”

“The Geek checked that ship out too.  A drone, nothing more.  Looked intimidating, but entirely remote controlled.  By Scotclan.”

Lu Tang’s back spasmed, but he ignored the arch of pain. “You mean to say that the messages were coming from your bosses?  All this time, pretending to be an Augment, pretending to help me…”

Lu Tang’s head was throbbing and he was starting to see stars.  He tried to get up and lunge at the girl, but he didn’t have the strength.

The detective held up a hand to stop him. “Please, I don’t understand it either.  I promise you I will investigate it later, but right now we have no time!  We need to get the portal drive back and keep it safe.”

Lu Tang thought of Augustus’s smug face.  Perhaps he could live just long enough to see the Gods taken down off their pedestal.  That might just make it all worthwhile. “All right.  I’ll help.  What do you need me to do?”

The detective’s face muscles relaxed a little. “I need you to be your old self, one last time.  Do you think you can do that?”

“Yes,” said Kepler.

Chapter 47

Biddy left Lu Tang – or Kepler or whatever the hell he was now called – in her office.  Whether it was because she knew about his limited lifespan, or simply because he looked utterly wretched, she didn’t like leaving him alone.  But the Augments in the maintenance compound still had the portal drive and sooner or later they were going to realize that Biddy had taken back control of the Black Maria.  Time was limited and Lu Tang’s troubles would have to wait for another day.

“Did he agree to help us?” Phil asked as she sat down.

“I think so.”

“We still can’t trust him.  No matter who he really is.  He’s already betrayed us once,” Hastings said, his fingers gripping the arms of his chair.

“I know that.” Biddy didn’t add that the Augment wasn’t the only one who had betrayed her.  Hasting’s attempted murder of a God was another thing that would have to wait its turn for her attention. “But I’m hoping he can give us the edge over the Augments.”

“I think we’ve got a problem, ‘tec,” Francesca called out from the navigator’s station. “I’ll put it on the big screen.”

Biddy’s watched as the map of the surrounding area filled the screen.

“Shit,” Hastings said quietly.

“What am I looking at?” Biddy asked him, although she had a horrible feeling she already knew.

“It’s the Council of Eritree.” Hastings said, his eyes wide as he stared at the map. “Every single bloody one of them, by the looks of it.  Seven ships… no, eight.  All different classes, but the smallest one is twice the size of the Black Maria.”

Biddy resisted the urge to put her head in her hands. “What are they doing?”

“They seem to be creating a barrier around a mile away from us.  We’re surrounded, but they’re not coming any closer.”

“All right.  Let’s see what –”

Francesca interrupted with a yell. “We’ve got a call coming through from the Scotclan ship.”

“For the Gods’ sakes, ignore it!  We have enough problems right now.”

The Navigator shook her head. “I don’t think we should, ‘tec.  It’s not coming from the command room, but from the Engineering section.  And it’s sending on a secure line so the rest of the ship won’t know anything about it.”

Biddy’s eyebrows rose so high they threatened to leave her face. “All right.  If it’s who we think it is, let’s hear what he’s got to say.”

The Black Maria’s command room was absolutely silent when a face appeared on the viewscreen.

“Biddy?”

“Hello Elvis.”

Biddy was determined to give nothing away so she made sure that her face was a blank.  Elvis looked handsome as ever, and nowhere near as ashamed as he should.

“I need to be quick before someone works out I’m sending this.”

Biddy raised an eyebrow.

“Look, you didn’t think I was really going over to Scotclan, did you?” Elvis said.  He was keeping his voice low and he seemed to be in some sort of dark cupboard. “I thought you might appreciate having an inside man.  I’ve always been on your side, Biddy.”

“Just the sort of thing a treacherous snake would say,” Hastings muttered.

“Really?” Elvis snarled. “Threaten to kill anyone since I’ve been gone?”

“Time is ticking,” Biddy interrupted, glaring at both men.

“Right.  Sorry.  Anyway, you’ve got them scratching their heads over here.  They don’t understand why