Forsaken Realms (Bounty Hunters United Book 1) (3 page)

“This is a joke, right?”

“It’s no joke, and there’s no need to struggle with the math. By your furrowed brow, I can almost see you count backward in your mind. I was born in 1990.”

Her jaw dropped. This was creepy and ever so
off.

“Ms. Nayar, this is what the future looks like, and it's a Naveen-patented future, too.”

“I though you were primarily invested in energy and eco-engineering.”

“I am, but I also lucked into some revolutionary discoveries. Blending disciplines makes sense. Renewed bodies and renewed worlds belong together. Although I will admit there are a few bugs to work out. The process is not yet perfected.”

No shit. The dude looked strange. The skeptic in her was looking for the flawed comment and the whisper-soft manipulation of the big con. She didn’t know much about Jason Naveen before she arrived, and she had to assume she still didn’t. It was entirely possible Jason Naveen was a bag of hot air, planting a wild fairytale for her to gossip about once she returned to society. The thought crossed her mind that perhaps the real purpose of her visit was to have someone outside Naveen’s business interests come to the surface of the new miracle planetoid so few had been privileged to see and witness the renewed and improved Jason Naveen. It was her understanding Jason Naveen never showed himself to anyone outside his chosen circle. Her best guess was that she was meant to be a reliable source and ‘leak’ Jason’s secret to the world. No doubt market shares of Naveen Corp would soar.

“Am I boring you, Ms. Nayar?”

“What?”

Gemmina’s attention returned to the odd Adonis standing in front of her. Jason looked as if he were itching to launch into the next topic and what she really wanted was permission to hunt.

“Mr. Naveen, this might be a good time to bring me up to speed on the retrieval I’ll be hunting. So far, no information has been shared with me. I need to know a few basics. Physically, I have to know who I am dealing with, his height, weight, and age. I need image scans, surveillance holographs, even a witness sketch will do if that’s all you’ve got. Anything would be helpful. I also need to know what the target is accused of to merit a forced retrieval. And, finally, is the retrieval human, or humanoid with any special abilities or skills I might have to take countermeasures against?”

Jason fluttered his thick lashes. “Sharing that information won’t be necessary.”

“How can I do my job without that information? You can’t expect me to walk into dense jungle without knowing who or what my target is. That would be a sure-fire way to get your guys hurt.”

Jason grazed his fingertips against his lips in a childlike and irritating manner. “There’s been a change of plans. You won’t be heading into the jungle to hunt a fugitive after all. We captured the retrieval while you were in transit, and now all I really need from you is to bring this man to justice. Of course, your fees will remain the same. Lucky you, no getting dirty, and you can turn right around and go home.”

Her jaw dropped. No jungle. No hunt. No fun at all in this tropical playpen. Damn. Hello, stale cabin air and protein paste from a tube. That was all she could look forward to after a cramped flight here. “Sir—

A bellowing roar loud as a lion’s echoed through the open door of the cavernous building. The palm fronds trembled.

“What was that?” A shiver raced up her spine.

Jason blanched and turned on his heel. “Goddamnit! Why can’t you people keep that man sedated? This is unacceptable. Do something about it. Get a silence collar on him now!”

The guards surrounding the skimmer darted inside the building with weapons raised. Several deafening roars shook the trees, followed by utter silence.

Gemmina waited for Jason to explain or say something. Though his face was ashen, he remained quiet.

Finally, Jason made eye contact. “Excuse me. This has been a very stressful series of events. For the past few days, the compound has been a war zone. We’ve been under attack by a ruthless assailant day and night. Several of my guards were strangled and their limp bodies left hanging in the treetops. We even had a man impaled when he fell into a covered pit lined with poisoned spears. It’s been a nightmare.”

“Who did these things? Mr. Naveen, tell me what I’m dealing with. I’m the one who’s going to have a bellowing monster in the passenger seat all the way to X57. I deserve some answers.”

“Your retrieval’s name is ‘Syan.’ He was some sort of government employee turned rogue.”

“Whose government? I’ve never seen that name on any of my bounty rolls.”

“Syan is a Kironian.”

She gasped. “No. We can’t get involved with a Kironian. Absolutely not. I’ll lose my bounty-hunting license or worse—I could end up an inmate of X57 myself. You do get news out here, don’t you? Are you aware the entire Kironian sector, the central planet and all its moons, are under political sequester? It’s a hands-off zone until the final intergalactic court ruling on Kiron’s status. I’m sorry, sir. I cannot accept this bounty, and I certainly can’t legally transport a Kironian to a penal colony. No way. Escort him home to Kiron.”

“Syan won’t be accepted there. Not after what he’s done.”

“Too bad. They’ll have to. This is way beyond my jurisdiction. Shouldn’t the people of Kiron be allowed to deal with one of their own?”

“If they could deal with him in an efficient and safe manner, I’m sure they would have destroyed him years ago. The Kironians are an extremely passive, peace-loving people. Syan is something of an anomaly within their population. He’s demonstrated ruthless aggression and an almost diabolical taste for violence. On Kiron, he’s a wolf among lap dogs”

“Every group has a troublemaker.”

“You haven’t even heard what’s he’s accused of! He’s an abomination.”

“What did he do that’s so unforgivable?”

“He went to a class-4 moon, a watery planetoid named Sarna sparsely populated by Stone Age people, and nuked vast sections of it into a lifeless lump of charcoal.”

“Holy crap! That’s awful. I haven’t heard anything about this. When did it happen?”

“Several weeks ago. No one’s talking about it. Sarna is extremely remote. Even the Kironians visit only on ceremonial occasions every five years. Sarna was considered a nature reserve and cultural deep freeze that the Kironians were doing absolutely nothing with.”

“Were there any survivors? Is there anything left? How did he get his hands on an energy weapon powerful enough to take out a moon?”

“That remains unclear. Syan is not going to talk. Our only hope, and it’s in the best interest of Kiron as well, is to ignore the political sequester and send him to X57 for professional interrogation.”

“You mean torture? That’s not legal anymore.”

“No I mean systematic brain scanning, so focused and precise it amounts to mind reading. Experts in this technique can pinpoint the defective impulses, thoughts, and destructive ideas that have made Syan a danger to his own people and render him harmless, without loss of life. It’s a completely humane and, if I say so myself, politically adroit way of dealing with a very nasty problem.”

“What is this technique called? I’ve never heard of such a thing at any of the penal colonies I’ve ever come across. How do you know it will work?”

“This is something new, a Naveen-patented process called ‘cryptoerasing.’”

That was a little too convenient. “You invented cryptoerasing, and this felon needs to be cryptoerased?”

“I didn’t actually ‘invent’ it. I encouraged and funded research on the development of cryptoerasing. So the prize belongs to me.”

“Apparently, everything belongs to you,” she mumbled.

“What was that last comment, Ms. Nayar? I didn’t quite hear it.”

“I said ‘good for you.'”

“Thank you.”

Jason rubbed his fingertips against his lips again and licked them as if he sensed chapping or some imaginary residue. The lip rubbing continued unabated. His full perfect lips looked fine, and he seemed oblivious to his actions. The odd mannerism was irritating and slightly disgusting to watch.

“Currently, cryptoerasing is only available on penal colony X57. My dream is that, in the near future, the patented equipment and technique will be everywhere. Soon, there will be no need to segregate violent criminals from the rest of the population. Think of it. With the ability to deactivate deviant minds, we will become a harmonious culture of peace.”

Jason’s mouth began to pucker and draw inward. Within moments, his eyes and cheeks sunk as if all his teeth had dissolved. Deep wrinkles carved into his face, making him almost unrecognizable as Jason Naveen. To hide the implosion, he clamped a trembling hand over his blanched face.

“Someone help me!” His voice was a husky rattle. “Medic!”

Naveen toppled.

A guard carrying a satchel ran to Jason’s side, pulled a pneumatic syringe from the satchel, shoved it against his throat, and hit the plunger with a loud
hiss
. A few moments passed. Jason Naveen remained still and unresponsive.

Gemmina crept closer, glanced over the guard’s shoulder, and saw that Jason Naveen looked like an extremely old man with all the color drained from his skin.

“Is he all right?”

The guard looked at her, and she saw her own startled reflection in his mirrored face shield.

“Mr. Naveen will be fine. All he needs is a fresh DNA transfusion and a few hours of recovery.”

The man motioned for a cadre of guards to come forward and claim Jason. Four men approached in silence, bodily picked up Jason Naveen, and carried him inside the building.

“Ms. Nayar, I will be releasing prisoner Syan into your custody and you will be leaving for penal colony X57 immediately.”

“Wait a moment. Are you even authorized to do that? I’m not sure I want to take the risk. Jason Naveen can pull strings and afford to be unorthodox but not the rest of us. I’m not rich enough to get around a political sequester. Either I wait for Jason Naveen to recover and sign off on this extradition or I leave now—alone. I’m sorry, but I don’t recognize your authority.”

The guard lifted the reflective visor to reveal a face not as waxen, but otherwise identical to Jason Naveen's. “Pardon me, but I am authorized to sign for Jason Naveen. We all are.”

All the guards lifted their mirrored visors to reveal identical faces.

The guard removed his helmet and smoothed his wavy, blond hair into place before setting the visor aside. “We’re clones of Jason Naveen. Younger, somewhat more stable versions of his ultimate vision of himself, but clones nonetheless. I think this is the right time for you to be paid and take custody of your ‘retrieval.’ I know Mr. Naveen is quite anxious to be rid of Syan, and I look forward to giving him the good news once he is awake.”

Holy crap! What was she looking at? Cloning body parts and manipulating genes had been commonplace for ages but not full-blown clones that functioned and shared all the personality traits of the original. To add to the balancing act, she strongly suspected this wasn’t even Jason Naveen's original genetic blueprint. No one came into the world in 1990 that perfect. No doubt Jason Naveen’s DNA had been tweaked and extensively tampered with for decades before this current cloning marathon had begun.

“Don’t you have an identity of your own, even a number or anything to set you apart?”

The clone’s brilliant blue eyes didn’t even blink. “It is not necessary. I don’t suffer from identity issues. I have my place and know where I’m needed. I’m Jason Naveen’s head security officer, and I am also Jason Naveen.”

Okay. Gemmina looked the guard over. The gentleman seemed to be telling the truth, and she wondered if this was a glimpse into Jason Naveen’s vision of a harmonious and peaceful future where agreement came easily because there was only one opinion.

“What happened to Mr. Naveen?”

“Our Alpha suffered a reversion.”

“What does that mean?”

“In Mr. Naveen’s quest to be better and become more than the paltry creature nature originally offered, he—we discovered that we could bind our failing DNA with something greater and achieve superior results. Mr. Naveen and I are not ashamed to say that what you see now, that is to say what you see in me, is a far cry from what we were born with. This body and face are the culmination of much trial and error and a bit of good, old-fashioned pioneer spirit.”

“Pioneer spirit? I asked you what a reversion was.”

“Mr. Naveen has engineered a new human sub-species, one that can heal any injury by re-growing and replacing cells at what used to be considered a fantastic rate. The new DNA is malleable as well. If your parents had brown eyes and you always wished for blue, it’s easily done. Eye color can be changed within hours, along with height and change in build. Sadly, the very forces that make those changes possible also create vulnerabilities. Cells can implode and bone structure degrade as quickly as they appear.”

“The new body can simply fall apart in minutes or hours? What triggers it?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“It doesn’t sound worth the risk.”

“Crossing every new frontier demands risk.”

“You’re a copy of a copy of ‘A’. Doesn’t that bother you? Aren’t you afraid that what happened to Mr. Naveen will happen to you?”

“So far, my problems have been minor and easily resolved, but Mr. Naveen is much older and therefore less stable. I’m only two. The other clones and I will face those issues together as we come to them. Meanwhile, this controlled environment of our own making is the ideal place to iron out the wrinkles, so to speak.”

“It sounds like a struggle.”

“So far we’ve conquered every challenge. We’re still alive, and we plan to go on living indefinitely.”

Uh-oh.
Sounded like mass delusion in a fool’s paradise.

The guard typed a swift command into his wrist communicator. “Prepare Syan for transport.”

“Wait a minute. This retrieval seems like a really bad idea. I’m not sure I want to be involved with the political fallout.”

“Ms. Nayar, I must assure you that you are absolutely doing the right thing. The prisoner is a violent criminal, responsible for the deaths of uncounted innocents on Sarna. On top of that, he’s a trespasser, and he committed murder here. If we were forced to kill him, it could trigger a political disaster. It’s in everyone’s best interests to take reasonable steps and get this monster under control on an authorized penal colony.”