Bounty Hunter

Chapter 27

Joe's comms chimed, and he looked down at his armlet to see an incoming call from Sara. He downed his drink and pushed back from the table he'd been sitting at with Rex and Reuben. He slid on his helmet and walked to an area of the room where he had more privacy.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I heard about the attack. I could see the smoke from my house. Are you okay?" Sara's panicked voice came through his helmet.

"Yeah, I'm fine. That's better than I can say for Harry Haft's. The bar got beaten up pretty bad."

"Places can be rebuilt. Not people."

He didn't mention the soldiers in his life that he'd seen be "rebuilt." One woman he'd met had over sixty percent of her body replaced by bionic parts after she'd been hit by a bomb blast.

"How about you come by for dinner? Nick would feel a lot better to see that you're okay."

He knew he'd be leaving town tomorrow, if not tonight, returning to Clearwater to wrap up the mess he'd left there. He couldn't risk waiting any longer than that, not with him being on the Sloan brothers' hit list. But he knew MRC administrators. They were politicians through and through and incapable of moving fast. Even if the Sloans were different, they'd never be able to track Joe to Sara Swinton's house within one night. He smiled. "You know me, I'm never one to turn down a warm meal or a cold drink. I'll head that way. How's Romy doing?"

"She's settling in nicely, but we'll see how her first night in a new place goes."

Joe disconnected the call, gave one final glance back at the table. Reuben and Rex were in a conversation, so he turned and headed out through the bar. Rather than using the broken door, he stepped through the hole in the wall.

Outside, scavengers were picking through the wreckage, taking anything that could be of value. Scavengers reminded Joe of insects on a dead body, eating away everything until nothing remained except bones. Except, human scavengers were even more thorough. Often, nothing remained after they were through. Already, all the steel from the tanker had been taken away, and two scrawny teenagers were using laser cutters to get through the axles. Other crews worked over the Iron Guild cutters that had been too badly destroyed for Reuben to claim. The bodies inside, even the weapons, would've been burned to ash. The scavengers were more optimistic as they rushed to complete their work before sunset when the true dregs of society came out to play.

The Haft parking lot was across the road from the bar, and Monster showed signs of char on its front grill from proximity to the explosion. Even a full block away, the heat had warped the solar array built into the cutter's front hood.

Joe didn't have the energy to stop by the butcher shop, so he drove straight to Sara's. He pulled up behind her house and stepped out of his vehicle. He took several steps, then stopped. He saw boot prints in the ground, multiple pairs, and with a different tread than his. Neither Sara nor Nick wore boots. The prints could've been from anyone, most likely from the water delivery driver, but...He didn't like it. He headed back to Monster and put it into lockdown mode before he turned and walked back to the house.

He didn't knock. Instead, he pulled out a blaster and opened the door to hear Champ barking. He scanned the room in a microsecond. Sara was standing near the edge of the domed ground-floor room, in front of her picture collage corkboard. A murc stood to her left, rifle aimed at her. Another murc stood to her right. Nick and Romy each had a soldier standing behind them, their blasters to the kids' heads. A couple more murcs stood off to the side.

Joe was outgunned, but that had never stopped him before.

Joe didn't think and took the easiest shot—the man to Sara's left. The shot went right through the center mass of the man's chest. He hadn't yet hit the floor when Joe ducked inside and spun to fire at the other five murcs in the room. Joe was about to fire again when Sara yelled, "Joe, stop!"