Bounty Hunter

Chapter 52

Kit tugged the weapon crate with him to the entrance of the MRC administration building. This time, the guards wouldn't let him through without verifying the contents of the crate.

"I'm bringing proof of two knockout tickets to Cat of the Iron Guild."

"We still need to verify the contents," one of the murcs said.

"Suit yourself." Kit opened the crate. The odors surrounding death had a pungent tang that was easily recognizable: blood, urine, and the sickly-sweet smell of rotting meat. He'd skipped the old meat part, but he'd made up for it with the other two smells. Rex and Reuben would wake from their medically-induced comas in a stuffy crate that stank like a corpse. He hoped neither was too squeamish, but he had his suspicions about the scrawnier of the pair.

The two murcs stepped back, and the one who'd spoken earlier waved him on. "Move along."

He tugged the crate through the entrance, though it took only the strength of his pinky finger to pull it along. The crate hovered above the ground, using reverse magnetism against small metal balls that rolled along the ground behind Kit. The balls rolled wherever Kit pulled the crate. It was an ingenious invention, created by someone at some time in one of the silos for moving things easily up and down many levels. The same technology worked for transporting two "corpses."

Kit walked the crate a few hundred feet before he reached the office number Cat had provided. He knew his blasters were fully charged, his sword was always ready, and his fingers twitched to have something in his hand. If Cat was onto him, he could be walking into a trap. Being the one person in a room without a blaster in hand made that person as good as dead.

He breathed deeply and then pressed the doorbell. He stood in front of the small panel on the screen, knowing it included a camera. The door opened, and he stepped inside to find a small office, smaller than he'd expected for the owner of a guild, though a second door on the far wall likely led underground to more spacious surroundings.

Cat, alone, stood as soon as he entered. "I've always known you were good, Turbo, but completing two knockout tickets in less than four hours is a new record."

Kit shrugged. "They were easy enough to find. They were hiding in Far Town, and there are no secrets in Far Town for those willing to pay. Besides, half of the job had been done already for me. You never told me you gave Bolt and Tumbler the same tickets."

She frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Bolt and Tumbler were already there." He pulled up images on his armlet and displayed the holograms. "This is what I found." He scrolled around the image of the wrecked room, and the bodies strewn throughout. He scrolled around the image, displaying each body as he spoke of it.

"T-Rex was the only person in the room still alive, but he'd been shot up pretty bad. I put him out of his misery. As you can see, Bolt and Tumbler were dead, along with Reuben Tally and this other hunter. I ran a search that pulled up the name Joe Ballast, who went by the call sign Havoc, but he didn't have any open tickets on his head."

Cat pointed. "Hold the image there."

He froze the image.

Her jaw slackened. "He's wearing the banner."

"The banner?" Kit asked.

She nodded. "He's a Raven. Each of them carries a red banner."

"I don't know what that is," he said.

"It doesn't matter." She scowled. "I wish I'd been there to kill him myself." She leaned back. "If Bolt and Tumbler were there, it wasn't under my orders. I already told you, they've been working for Sloan. He probably sent them after that Havoc on his own."