Bounty Hunter

Chapter 11

Rex Orlov remained on his stomach as he watched the Iron Guild from the camouflage of a shrub with surprisingly sharp thorns. It'd been five minutes since anyone had entered or exited the building, and ten minutes since the sun had set behind the horizon. He pulled the dark cloak over his head, grabbed the bag at his side, and strolled toward the domed building that sat isolated in the white Salt Flats desert.

He knew Cat would have video cameras posted, if not drones monitoring the area, but his cloak reflected electronic signals, helping him appear nearly invisible on any feed. If someone was monitoring the feeds and knew what to look for, they'd spot him, but he assumed Cat paid her staff as poorly as Reuben paid his, which meant they weren't paid enough to care.

Since he made it to the dirt parking lot and Cat's cutter without being shot, Rex knew his assumption was a fact. He knelt by the front fender, careful not to touch anything while he ran a scan over the body. A tight grid of invisible red lasers flashed across his visor. Sure enough, the vehicle's security system was active, and it was top of the line.

Not a problem.

Sleek and black, with a blaster cannon for a hood ornament, even her cutter was sexy. It was almost a shame what he was about to do to it.

Almost.

He opened the bag, pulled out a black cylinder, crawled under the body, and found the battery packs for the solar arrays. He ran a surface scan again. The vehicle's security system covered the belly as well. Ever so carefully, he slid the cylinder through a square in the sensory grid. If he touched any of the invisible lasers, the cutter's defense system would activate, and Cat would be notified. Neither outcome would be good for Rex's health or his all-around outlook for living beyond more than a few minutes.

The magnetic cylinder clicked onto a battery, and Rex carefully brought his hand down. He started to crawl, but froze when he heard the hum of a cutter approaching. He waited and watched. A single vehicle, armored like a bounty hunter's rig, entered the Iron Guild's parking lot.

Rex frowned.

He recognized the vehicle. It'd been sitting in the Haft Agency's lot earlier that day. Had Reuben sent a second team? He scowled. He would have to have a chat with that whelp about having some trust in his hunters—or at least in Rex—to get a job done.

Two pairs of boots hopped down from the cutter and strolled toward the building. Rex didn't move, relying on the cover of the rig to conceal him. The two newcomers strolled straight through the front door. When no sounds of gunfire came from the building, Rex's brow rose. "Now that's interesting," he whispered.

He shimmied out from under Cat's cutter and headed back to the knoll of scattered shrubs. He went down on a knee, tapped a command on his armlet, and said, "Boom."

He looked up in time to see a vibrant explosion. Cat's cutter shot vertically in the air a hundred feet before falling, landing on a nearby cutter.

Rex grinned. "What goes up must come down."

His grin quickly faded when he noticed a bounty hunter peering through a night vision scope...directly at him.