Trapped: Chaos Core Book 1 (17 page)

“No, we used to
bounty hunt before the ‘bots went crazy and cut up their humans.
You know, tracking murderers, big ticket thieves, no slaves though.
That’s shit-heel work, thug bullshit.”

“So, we’re all
right here, and he’s your kin,” Spin said. “So, who’s this
helmet whose pointing her weapon at you?”

Lin glanced at her,
then back to Spin, his eyes widening. “Fuck.”

“Do you remember
Marli Owen’s daughter, Terry?” a garbled female voice asked from
the black helmet.

“Oh, shit, he took a
hit out on me for that?”

“No, you idiot, I’m
her, I’m Terry. You didn’t even leave a note. I’ve been
tracking you for three weeks.”

“Didn’t recognize
you in the combat armour, how ya been?” Lin asked, trying to sound
casual.

Spin lowered her
sidearm and dropped it into her thigh holster.

“You gave me the
grish. It’s in stage two.”

Spin’s jaw dropped.
“Oooooh,” Sun and Nigel said over their channel, she could
practically hear the pair of them cringing. Of all the sexually
transmitted diseases to catch, the grish was the worst. It remained
dormant in its first stage, spreading to partners with little trace.
Stage two resulted in painful internal and external sores that
dripped pus. It took months to treat in that stage, and if you didn’t
catch it in time, it would move on to phase three, the flesh eating
phase.

Lin’s nephew looked
shocked, glancing from Lin to the helmeted woman over and over again.

“Oh my God,” Sun
said over the communicator. “I almost slept with him last year.
Bullet dodged. But, hey, we could make a friend here.”

“A friend who will
have us cleaning chairs and toilet seats every time he visits,”
Nigel said. “What did I just start hearing? I just got back into
range.”

“Never mind, we’ll
catch you up later,” Sun said.

“At least you’re
not pregnant?” Lin told Terry with a shrug.

The sound of a loose
panel somewhere down the dark corridor made everyone flinch. The
corridor intersection was flooded with bright light as the helmeted
former lover fired. Spin understood what Sun was getting to, they
could make an ally – if a sleazy one – out of Lin. Even though
Spin thought he deserved what he had coming, at least a little, she
leapt at the armoured woman, tackling her to the ground.

To her surprise, the
Terry batted her hard enough to knock the wind out of her and send
her sliding more than a dozen metres down the hallway. As soon as she
started to slow down, Spin rolled into a side corridor, a short range
plasma bolt narrowly missing her.

The nephew took the
opportunity and opened fire on the helmeted woman, peppering her with
blazing energy shots until she was a heap on the floor. “Everything
okay, Spin?” Sun asked.

“I got clear, and
Terry the dark helmet girl is a hot pile. Don’t know about Lin, I’m
going to check now,” Spin said as she rushed back to the hall
intersection.

“Good, I’m one
hatch away, but have to cut through.”

“I’ll be here.”
Spin was already reaching into her jacket for her emergency patch
kit.

“Fuck, that was my
good arm,” Lin groaned as he laid on his intact side. The stump of
his right arm was a burnt mess, and there wasn’t enough of the arm
left to reattach. “Thanks for slagging that bitch, Jon.”

“You kinda had it
coming,” Spin said as she knelt down with a tension patch. “This
is going to hurt like crazy before the medication kicks in.” Lin
screamed as she stretched it over his stump and it conformed to the
end, wrapping the wound up to his shoulder and affixing itself
tightly.

Jon, who was carefully
prying the helmet off Terry’s head, only spared his screaming uncle
a short glance.

“Okay, the meds are
kicking in,” Lin said, panting. “You didn’t have anything that
you could have given me first?”

“Sure I did, but I
thought you deserved some misery for passing the grish around, I
mean, seriously, who doesn’t use protection these days? It’s not
like there’s a clinic on every corner.”

“I lost a fucking arm
and you’re giving me shit about not sealing up before getting it
up?” Lin asked.

Jon laughed, it was a
low, breathy sound. “This might fit you,” he said as he offered
the helmet to Spin.

Spin looked at it and
at the woman on the deck. The only thing not reduced to a burnt pile
of human remains was her face, which was twisted in an expression of
fury and pain. “Thank you, Jon,” she said. “I think I’ll
clean it before trying it on though.”

“We’ll be going
back to the ship,” Lin groaned. “Jon, pick up my quad blaster.”

Jon did so, then pried
Lin’s disembodied hand off the handle and offered it to him.

“Don’t think
there’s enough arm to put that back on, buddy,” Lin said.

“Wait, you’re not
going to wait for your scavenging ship? Maybe they could take care of
you.”

“No, I’ll fess up.
We’re scouting for Kiren Arms. I was just taking a run through the
ship here to see if there were any high end trinkets we could grab
before we reported this gold mine. I thought we’d have a good
payday coming, but it looks like I’ll be spending it all on a new
arm.”

“And some serious
anti-fungal treatments,” Sun said as she emerged from a side
passage. Like Spin, she was in a thick, form-fitted containment suit,
only hers was dark red. Her white jacket was armoured, but not quite
as well made as Spin’s, which was black and had a refractive
coating on top that made it seem darkly multi-coloured.

“What? Is the Cool
Angel right behind?” Lin said.

“No, we broke away
from that crew a while ago,” Sun replied. “You’ve seen better
days.”

“You’re not here
because of some unrequited thing, are you? Already had one former
sex-type-thing track me down today.”

“Absolutely not,”
Sun said emphatically. “We just bumped into you by luck. We had no
idea there was anyone else aboard.”

“Speaking of which,
there are pickers aboard, I’ve been avoiding them for hours, and my
knees are getting a little wobbly. The meds are doing me a lot of
good, so I should get back to the ship. Take whatever you can carry,
it’ll be two days before we report this thing as abandoned and a
salvage crew dig in.”

“We’ll help you to
your ship if you or your nephew tell us all about the places a few
people who want to avoid the law may do business. We’re looking for
a safe harbour to operate out of, and someone who will trade with
people trying to avoid the law. Someone who won’t turn an escaped
slave in.”

“Sure thing,” Lin
said. Jon picked his uncle up, a feat that seemed easy even though he
was only slightly larger than him. “I’ll even set you up with our
ident, so you can call us up later. You know, in case you need
anything, or want to get together.”

“Thanks,” Sun said.
“But just business.”

“Sure, just don’t
share what happened here, I have a reputation.”

“No problem, the more
you share, the less we’ll share,” Spin said.

“Deal.”

* * *

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