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

managed to make a sound. “You have doomed your own people.  Someone get me a gun!”

Before any of the head Augment’s minions could accede to this request, Kepler raised his own weapon.

“Yes, it’s just a stungun,” he said evenly, watching the others to make sure no one dared move. “But it will still put you down on your ass faster than you can run.”

“Why?” Bela asked.  Kepler noticed that she had folded her arms and didn’t seem in any rush to help out Augustus.  Interesting.

“Why have I threatened to pull the plug on our sleeping friends?  Well, there’s something I want.”

“The portal drive,” Augustus said through gritted teeth.

Kepler grinned again.  In fact, the way his mind was fizzing behind his eyes, he wasn’t sure he would be able to stop.

“That’ll do for starters,” he replied.

Chapter 49

“You really are just as stupid as the Clan thought,” Macleod hissed at Biddy before collapsing into a coughing fit.

Biddy took a threatening step towards the woman, but paused when Francesca shook her head.

“She’s still recovering.  She shouldn’t be awake at all.  So please don’t punch her.”

“Thanks,” Macleod said to the Navigator.

Francesca bristled. “Don’t thank me.  If it weren’t for the medic’s oath I’d be thumping you myself.”

“Let’s make this quick,” Biddy said as she massaged her temple.  A crushing headache had set up residence and didn’t seem to be going anywhere soon. “I need you tell me all about what you did to the guy who’s not Kepler.”

Macleod raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, not Kepler.  That’s who your precious Lu Tang is, or haven’t you worked that out yet?”

For a moment Biddy was lost for words.  Then she started to laugh. “I can’t believe it.  The great Macleod was fooled just like the rest of us.  That guy that beat you up wasn’t an Augment at all.  He was some poor soul created to look like Kepler then stuck in your prison for a decade.”

The detective thought Macleod couldn’t get any paler, but the blood had drained from her face.

“What do you mean?  He must be Kepler?  That old bastard killed my men!”

Mackay checked her datapad.  No word on the Augments yet.  She didn’t have time for this and her headache was getting worse.  She had thought that Macleod would be the best source of information to work out what the hell was going on.  But she was as much of a pawn as Lu Tang.

“Okay, I’ll explain it for you really quick.” Biddy Mackay sat down next to the old woman and told her all about the so-called-Kepler and the Augment army that was being awakened just below them.  Then she mentioned the portal drive.

“That’s it!” Macleod groaned, trying to get up from her medibed. “I can’t believe that the Clan would do this over a weapon.  Well, actually, I can.  They’ve been looking for something like this for years.  Something that would give them the edge over the Knights.  Either they use the portal drive as an engine, and they have the best ships in the galaxy, putting the Knights out of business, or they use it as a weapon and threaten the Knights with being blown to hell.  It’s perfect.  But I can’t believe they would stick me in the middle of it.”

“Only problem with the Clan’s plan is that the Augments have the portal drive, and they don’t want to give it up,” Biddy said.

“Well, that’s always been Scotclan’s weakness.  They’ve always believed in their Gods.” Macleod stopped once more to cough wretchedly into her elbow.

“Biddy, she needs rest,” Francesca said, her arms folded.

“Don’t we all?” Biddy held up her hands. “All right, not much longer, I promise.” She waited for Macleod to get her breath back.  The woman looked elderly and frail in a way that she hadn’t when she had turned up on the Black Maria.

“All right, Macleod.  So you didn’t know about Kepler.  But you knew something.  Why the hell did you shoot Tibo?”

“That cretin, did he die?”

“No,” Francesca answered. “He’s being treated in the miner’s hospital.”

“Shame.” Macleod said, her eyes flashing with some of her old defiance.

“Why did you shoot him,” Biddy repeated.

“Petrichor.  He was part of the trade team involved in the negotiations.  He sold us out to the Knights for his own little profit margin.”

Biddy shrugged. “Okay, but that’s ancient history, right?”

“For you, maybe, not for me.”

Biddy’s datapad started buzzing, but she ignored it.  She knew Francesca would only give her a few more minutes.

“Tell me about the portal drive,” Biddy said.  There was no point pushing Macleod on the attempted murder of Tibo when the woman was clearly deranged enough to believe she had been in the right.

“Well, I had heard rumors, of course.  And I knew that Campbell had to have a reason for all of this.  None of us actually believed that Kepler had brought down the Westward Ho!.”

Biddy leaned forward, ignoring Francesca’s intake of breath.

“What happened to the Westward Ho!?”

“Oh, it was just a simple screw up.  Scotclan were chasing after Kepler, probably because they thought he already had the portal drive.  They didn’t realize that he hadn’t collected it yet.  Campbell sent a team onto the ship to take it over.  Only they messed up, tried to be clever and change the navigational route and smash brought the whole ship right into an asteroid belt.  Killed themselves and everyone on board.”

“God’s above us,” Francesca whispered.  Biddy couldn’t make a sound.

“What?” Macleod glared at them. “You don’t think stuff like that happens when you’re waging a war?  If Scotclan don’t manage to keep the Knights away from the portal drive it’ll be a lot worse than one little ship going down.”

Biddy leaned forward. “Children died on that spaceship, Macleod.  Innocent people all of them, just to