Killer Be Killed Read online

  “Based on the fact that he’s helped run two large criminal organizations,” Roslyn said, the confidence that had been behind the thought failed to accompany the words.

  “Are you listening to yourself?” Talbert asked.

  “I know, but he’s part of the team. I mean…” Roslyn shrugged. “Just… It’s my call to make. So…You know, you’re one to talk. Mr. king of inner office relationships. Seriously?”

  “Are you suggesting Hattie isn’t qualified to be an agent?” Talbert asked. Hattie looked up suddenly, mouth open.

  “What?” Roslyn barked. “No. Not at all. Really?”

  “Really what?” Talbert asked.

  “Why would you try to pit Hattie and me against each other?” Roslyn tilted her head to the left and frowned.

  “I’m suggesting your boyfriend isn’t qualified to be an agent in our organization. Not the one I think you want,” Talbert said, calmly. “I’m suggesting the only reason he’s being considered is because he’s your boyfriend.”

  “Stop,” Roslyn shook her head with her eyes closed.

  “Hear me out,” Talbert continued. “By you trying to turn that same argument back on me, you’re trying to say Hattie isn’t qualified to be an agent. Because why else would you even question her being part of this team?”

  “I didn’t… I never said that. You’re trying to put words into my mouth,” Roslyn’s boiler was about to erupt. “Whatever.”

  “Guys, can we stop fighting and get off this planet,” Hattie said in her high voice.

  “Who’s fighting?” asked Talbert walking past Hattie, kissing her on the forehead. Carrying all he could of his belongings he left the tent for the last time.

  Roslyn gave the tent a last once-over and declared it clear. She left the sign and hovered to find Drago. She gave no shits as to what Talbert thought about it.

  “You go find Dogg and Grace,” Roslyn told Hattie and Talbert. “I’ll meet you at Wells’ ships at thirteen hours?”

  Puff landed on her shoulder. She petted his smooth skin between his eyes, which made him purr.

  Talbert grunted and kept walking. Hattie nodded and followed Talbert toward the casinos. She thought of Hattie’s devotion. It had once been solely on the Birds, but it had shifted now to Talbert. A dangerous swap, she thought.

  *

  Talbert tracked down Dogg around eleven and a half. He was on a role in a new casino. When Talbert recognized one of the men playing at his game, he joined. Gun ready below the table.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Roslyn approached Wyatt’s tent via hover chair. “Hello the tent,” she shouted upon arrival.

  “What?” came Drago’s voice from within.

  “You’re supposed to say, ‘Hello the street,’” she said.

  “Says who?” Drago asked, sticking his head out of the door flap. Stubble shadowed his chin and cheeks, and his hair stood on end. He was turning back into Scruffy.

  Puff, as if sensing she needed privacy, flew up into the sky and vanished beyond the camp. Perhaps, Roslyn reasoned, he was going hunting.

  “Forget it, “ Roslyn said. “I’m here for your final answer.”

  “Final answer?” Drago asked, drawing his head back and sideways.

  “Uhm, do you not recall me offering you a job?” Roslyn said, leaning left.

  “I don’t recall the exact position and salary and all that,” Drago answered. His tone bit into her and stirred something vile. Maybe it was a mistake to offer him a job.

  “Okay, then,” Roslyn said, throwing her hands down against the arms of the hover chair. She grinned, falsely, and extended her hand.

  “What’s this?” Drago smirked.

  “We’re leaving today. I offered you an opportunity to do a bigger good and serve and protect the decent people out here, but clearly you’re not interested, so…” Roslyn said, ready to glide away. She wasn’t going to beg, that was for damn sure.

  “I may have worked for some shady people over the years, but I don’t know that I can lie to people I get to know, and pretend to be friends with. Say what you want, but I have a sense of honor and loyalty. There’s a code.”

  “Fuck you, then,” she barked and drove briskly away. Had she really just made such an ass clown of herself?

  “Very professional, by the way,” Drago shouted after her. This stopped her. She kept her back to him though.

  “I won’t stick around for you to further insult me, thanks,” she said and began to fly further away.

  “You’ve been lying to me since I’ve known you,” Drago said exasperated. “What do you expect?”

  How could she have been so stupid? Talbert had been right. She hated to admit that one. What did she think was going to happen? She had dreamed up some fantasy in her head. That’s all it had been. It wasn’t real. Wasn’t it? Hadn’t he been chasing her the whole time? The sudden memory of him sitting there when she woke up, of the concern on his face, all came rushing back to her. Had she misread that constant look in his eye? He’d come to save her, hadn’t he?

  She wouldn’t let him see her cry. Don’t you cry, you stupid shit!

  She rounded the corner before she allowed herself to cross her arms. Two blocks further, she felt a hot droplet slink down her cheek. She sniffed. It wasn’t for another block and a half before she fell into a full mournful sob. She stopped and sat in her chair in front of the hardware store, putting her face into her cupped hands. Puff appeared on the back of the chair and Roslyn felt him nuzzle her until she petted him.

  *

  Dogg raised the pot by another fifty bytes. The thin cigarette bent forward as he leaned to slide the stack of yellow and pink chips to the center of the velvet table.

  Talbert had just cashed in and settled. He placed his hat on his bony knee. The brim obscured his holster from view. This illusion was applied to the man to his left solely. A dandy man-child in a silky black and grey striped jacket and matching top hot. Smart goggles hung around the brim. He wore black leather gloves and a white kerchief in his breast pocket. His round eyes, darkened with liner, were cold and knowing. Talbert had seen them before. He looked like he was in on some grand joke that no one else could or would ever get. His lips seemed always ready to purse any instant into a smug grin.

  “We just keep running into each other, don’t we?” Talbert asked as he discarded a two of hearts and asked for a new card. He received in exchange a four of diamonds. It did him no favors.

  “Mr. Brown, have you met…” Dogg stalled and grinned. “I’m apologize, sir, I have simply forgotten your name.”

  Dandy MC tried to smile, but his eyes betrayed him. “Rex… Rex Omnious.”

  “Right,” Dogg said. “How ever could I have forgotten?”

  “You’ll know it soon enough,” Rex mumbled.

  “What’s that?” Talbert asked.

  “Forget it,” Rex replied with a smile.

  “You know, it’s funny. I don’t normally believe in all that Bird shit, but call it karma or fate, but someone wants to pit us together,” Talbert said.

  “Together or against each other? Which is it?” Rex said and sort of chuckled. “I believe you insulted me quite a bit last time, about my religion.”

  “I suppose you have some beef against me because of it?” Talbert said, arm falling free to draw.

  “Mister, you joined my game. I’d just like to play a bit of poker,” Rex said, holding up his hands in defense.

  “Good, because I call,” Dogg said, throwing down his cards. Another winning hand. Talbert wanted to call him out but decided to wait. Big picture.

  “My old man, Jesse, he always said, abide by the principles of learn, live and hope,” Talbert said, toying with his chips. “Keeps things real simple.”

  “Is that right?” asked Dogg with a slight cough.

  “Learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow,” Talbert said, counting them off by pressing his thumb against each finger.

  “Wise man, your father
,” Rex said. “He was a farmer, wasn’t he?”

  Talbert’s blood froze.

  “What do you about my father?” Talbert asked.

  The dealer distributed the next round.

  “Is that true?” Rex said, with a slight laugh. “I was just guessing based on your accent and that hat.”

  Grunting, Talbert stared at two kings, an ace and a queen. He then stared at Rex, who was busy sorting his cards. The man-child glanced up briefly and then back to his cards.

  “Let me guess,” Rex said, turning his head toward Dogg. “Another winning hand?”

  “Why, Lex, whatever do you mean?” Dogg asked, taking a puff from his cigarette.

  “It’s Rex. Rex Omnious,” he said, lifting his shoulders as punctuation.

  “My apologies, Rex,” Dogg said. “But about that accusation…”

  “I suppose it’s coincidence also that’s allowed you to win three hands in a row?” Rex said, nodding rapidly with his eyes closed. “And pretty much every other hand before that.”

  “Serendipity seems to permeate the air tonight, does it not?” Dogg said with a flourish of his hand.

  “You still preaching that Bird shit?” Talbert asked.

  “Are you talking to me?” Dogg asked, almost amused.

  “No,” grunted Talbert. “I’m talking to Boy Wonder over there.”

  “I’m sorry? What?” Rex grinned and leaned forward.

  “Reincarnation and cultures coming back together, again and again,” Talbert said. “Back on Shiva. You kept gnawing my ear off with that shit. I told you to shut the hell up. Don’t you remember?”

  “Don’t start in again, insulting my religion, friend,” Rex said with a snarl.

  “No? Does that make you mad? Makes you want to kill us infidels who don’t believe in your horse shit?” Talbert felt like Dogg must have always felt in baiting someone to fight. A rush welled beneath his ribs. “You call it a coincidence that after I insult your religion, then you happen to find me in this camp on an entirely different planet?”

  “Well, yeah, I’d say it is one hells of a coincidence,” Rex said, tossing three cards into the deadwood pile. “But then again, perhaps fate has pitted us against one another? Who knows what the big mind sees? Trust it’s more than us.”

  Talbert discarded a five of clubs. He held his breath as the new card slid his way. Taking it, he hesitated before looking. When he flipped, the ace of spades winked at him. He contemplated the proper posture to avoid suspicion. What were his tells? Keep them in check.

  “One night, I was inspecting a bug juice factory on Lynceus. I was thinking of buying it. Anyway, I was visited by a Lycan and he whispered sweetly to me,” Rex said, sounding like a poet reciting his latest opus.

  “So they can talk?” asked a large headed man with red hair. His mouth bent in a permanent scowl. Talbert knew his first name was Rusty but that’s the extent.

  “Evidently, yes,” Rex said. “But only in whispers. You got to get your ear right up to their mouths.”

  This caused Rusty to laugh. “That’s a good one.”

  “No, it’s true,” Rex said with clear round eyes; his long lashes made him look almost feminine, the eyeliner didn’t help.

  Rex raised the pot. “On Lynceus they are like humans on Earth. Normal. But on earthlikes they are supernatural. It’s a reaction to the yellow suns, the weaker gravity and the extra oxygen. It’s an enhancement drug to them. So, I brought him with me when I left.”

  “It used to be against the law to take pre-advanced entities off of their home-worlds,” Rusty said with a scoff.

  “Time to suck it up,” Rex said. “The war’s been over for a decade now. Ain’t no law out here. That is to say, the only law is the law of karma. That slice of truth comes from Mookab, my Lycan friend. I told him to stop telling windies, but I liked him so damned much I’ve kept him around.”

  “He talks?” Dogg asked, and coughed. “I’m sorry, but I thought that was the punch line of your joke. You’re being serious?”

  “Sort of,” Rex grinned.

  “I’m just confused,” said Rusty.

  “I brought him back to Athena with me. To him it was like being in low gravity. You should have watched him bound across the meadows,” Rex laughed, but it felt disingenuous and practiced.

  “Where abouts on Athena?” Talbert asked.

  “Oh, you know,” Rex said with an oddly placed wink. “All around.”

  “Yeah?” Talbert asked, not certain why, but not trusting a word out of Rex’s mouth. “But why did you go to Athena first?”

  “Can we please get back to playing poker?” asked the dealer.

  “I have a farm there,” Rex said with a smile. “Lovely property. A thousand head of cattle on it.”

  “Where abouts? More specificly,” Talbert said.

  “Oh, about a hundred miles south of Grandby,” Rex said, a tiny smile wanting to crack the corner of his lips. It felt like he was the only one in on the joke.

  “Is that right?” Talbert asked, feeling his neck tense. Once more his hand moved toward his gun.

  “The cattle industry is a lucrative business now that those Amazons cleared out the riff-raff,” Rex said, raising the pot. He looked at Talbert for his move. “One hint of my Annabellus accent and they know who’s side I was on.”

  Talbert raised the pot for the second time. He went half in. The odds gods favored him.

  Grace emerged through the gathering group of gawkers. She threw her arms over Dogg’s shoulders and nibbled his ear.

  “My goodness, darling,” Dogg said. “Where’ve you been all day?”

  “I was outside, making spirit walk,” she said. “Shall I fetch more whiskey, love?”

  “Of course, dear. I say, there’s no need to ask, when one’s empty, bring another.”

  “And who is this enchanted creature?” Rex asked, smiling at Grace.

  “Rex, this is my darling Grace,” Dogg said as she nodded and then headed to the bar to fetch a fresh bottle for her lover and his new friends.

  “Isn’t she exotic?” said Rex following her rear to the bar. “Damn. How much for one of those?” Rex laughed and when his eyes returned to Dogg’s his laughed fizzled.

  Dogg’s dead eyes fixed him. There was no mirth about his face.

  “Have I offended thee?” asked Rex, pretending to clutch a necklace of pearls that weren’t really there.

  “How long the doctor give you to live?” asked Dogg finally breaking a long cold stare.

  “Beg your pardon?” Rex asked with a nervous snort.

  “They first gave me a year at most,” Dogg said, finishing his cigarette on his boot. “That was five years ago.”

  “Yeah?” Rex said.

  “How long for you?” asked Dogg.

  “Oh, I’m not sick. Well, not physically,” Rex laughed. It was over the top and louder than necessary. This caused Talbert and Dogg to exchange side eyes.

  “What do you want?” Talbert asked.

  “I was there,” Rex said, turning back to Dogg. “When you fought Krave Allison.”

  “A lot of people were,” Dogg said as Grace returned with the bottle.

  “What is going on here?” Grace asked refilling Dogg’s glass.

  “You might want to stand clear, dear,” Dogg whispered to Grace as she leaned down to kiss him.

  “You were even faster than I’d thought,” Rex said. “Krave Allison is considered the fastest or at least second fastest gun in Orion’s Arm. Impressive that you were nearly on par with him.”

  “Are we done playing poker?” Dogg asked, brushing back his jacket.

  “You know, I don’t think I’m ready to face Krave Allison just yet. I am self aware enough to admit that,” Rex said. “But I’m working on it.”

  “You fancy yourself a gunfighter then?” Dogg said, with a pale grin.

  “They’ll know me, one day,” Rex said. Talbert actually felt sorry for the kid. Stupid boy was about to get his head blown off. Th
is was one of the reasons Talbert preferred to be undercover. When you’re a famous gunman, people want to test themselves against you. When you’re just Mr. Brown the prospector with a missing sister, then nobody feels the need to prove anything.

  “I’m going to give you a pass today, son,” Dogg said, obviously feeling the same way Talbert did about the kid.

  “Stop calling me son!” Rex said, slamming his fist into the green velvet table, rattling the chips and drinks.

  “Calm down… son,” Dogg said followed by a slight cough.

  “All right,” Talbert intervened. “Let’s at least finish out this hand.”

  “I believe I’ll fold,” Dogg said.

  “Shit,” Talbert whispered.

  “Let me walk you out, Mr. Holly,” Rex said, leaning toward Dogg.

  Dogg sighed through his nose. This wasn’t the kind of killing he enjoyed. Talbert wondered how many Rexes there’d been over the years; stupid upstarts trying to make an instant name for themselves.

  “Son, if you don’t kindly leave this place right now,” Dogg warned. “You will be just another senseless notch on my nickels.”

  “Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Rex said, standing.

  “Oh, god,” Talbert sighed.

  “What the hells, man,” Rusty added. “Sit down. Do you understand who you’re talking to, boy?”

  “I’m not a boy,” roared Rex. “And yes I do. I got a Lycan who’d love some fresh meat.”

  “Where is this Lycan?” asked Talbert, pretending to look around for him.

  “He’s here,” Rex said. “Shall I go out into the street and allow you to gather your courage?”

  “Yeah, you do that,” Dogg said, glancing at Talbert.

  “After today, they’ll sell tickets to all my fights. Just like they did between you and Krave Allison,” Rex said, excitedly. “But this time, no meddling bitch has had a chance to switch my gun to stun.”

  “Sometimes, I suppose you have to give people what they want,” Dogg shrugged and stood. He straightened his jacket and adjusted his kerchief in his breast pocket.

  CHAPTER TEN