Chapter 1
Evers had decided to remain in the base that day. Feet kicked up on his desk, bottle of some always-popular liquor in hand, he stared at the holographic screen of his computer. It had all the information he could ever want about targets—which was why the bounty hunter was constantly thanking fortune for giving someone the idea, hundreds of years ago, for making computers.
They had come in handy on so many of the bounties he’d undertaken.
He took another sip of the drink in his hand; it sent a warm tingle down his spine, even after all these years. He could vaguely remember a time when the alcohol permit was at age twenty-one—what an extreme!—before it had come down to eighteen. Of course, he had begun drinking a second after his eighteenth birthday.
He sighed; that was back when he’d been a normal young man, and not a bounty hunter. Back when he’d had a family who loved him…
“And…anything on Family Harvin?” he queried, not out of expecting to see his family information, but just out of curiosity.
The computer’s monotonic voice replied: “Why, certainly, master. The Family Harvin has just become established as one of the leading families on Metropolita.”
Evers leaned forward in surprise. “Really?”
“Sir, my data files are complete and accurate. I am programmed not to bring information to your hearing if it is any less than 75% probable. It is real.”
The man smiled. “Sometimes I wish you computers had sarcasm. Do you know what that is?”
“Of course I know what that is. I am programmed to—”
“—to know everything this world has to offer,” Evers finished. “You said that a million times. Bring up the information on Family Harvin. I want to see how the family’s getting on.”
“As you wish, master.”
Evers took another drink of his liquor. His own brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, perhaps even his mother, as part of the leading families on Metro-polita? Part of the most esteemed group of people on the largest island city in the world? It was so hard to believe that such a small-time farming family could grow to such high esteem…
The holoscreen flickered and went out; instants later, a new file came up in front of him, titled FAMILY HARVIN. Evers pulled his legs off the desk, set his drink down beside the holoprojector, and leaned forward to stare into the screen’s holographic depths.
Pictures of his family in high-class clothing, with bright clean smiles on their faces, stared out at him.
“If…if I hadn’t left them to become what I am,” Evers whispered, eyes taking in the information, “I could have become part of the leading families. I could have been part of the wealth, if it hadn’t been for him driving me off the Harvin estate—”
Thinking of the one who had sent him away made him clench one fist. “Is my father—I, I mean, is there a ‘Rikkum Harvin’ in that group?”
“Beginning search………No, master. No files entitled Rikkum Harvin can be found.”
The bounty hunter ran his fingers through his hair. “That’s good. If he was ever in one of the leading families, the world wouldn’t be the same. The world wouldn’t have any peace at all.”
A small jingling noise made him whirl around in his chair to face the excessively padlocked entrance. The small red light above the door bleeped on and off, which meant that someone was approaching. Here in the bounty hunter base, one of the most secret locations in the world, that meant it could only be another bounty hunter.
That wasn’t entirely comforting; Evers was the most mild-tempered of his profession, or so the boss had said.
“Camera on,” he said. The holoscreen swiftly changed to a view of the hallway just outside the door, a hallway lined with other, identical, doors that also housed a dangerous bounty hunter. Names were inscribed above those doors to indicate whose room someone would be forced to intrude upon if the need arose.
Evers breathed out in relief. He knew this bounty hunter.
“Unlock the door,” he ordered, and the small yellow light beside the metal door switched to blue.
The bounty hunter stood and moved over to the door. He tapped one small button to slide the thick metal plate aside, and was instantly confronted with a familiar face.
“Ferus,” Evers greeted with false delight. “How absolutely wonderful to see you again!”
The massive bounty hunter shrugged muscular shoulders. “Yeah, and after such a long time—like, last week.” His thick baritone voice wasn’t very friendly, and his craggy face promised death to anyone he didn’t like, but he had worked with Evers for nine months now, and Evers feared nothing but his drunken rage.
Evers punched him in the arm in a friendly manner. “You’ve finally caught on.”
Evers swept a hand inside his apartment, but the bigger man remained outside, folding his arms across his broad chest. “The boss wants to see us,” Ferus informed him. “In his office.”
Evers’ friendly smile faded. “That means it’s top secret…which means it’s a big assignment.”
“Which means it’ll be a load of fun!” Ferus predicted with a broad grin. “Come on—you know how much we enjoyed that mission to Thornail. The snipers on every rooftop…”
The younger bounty hunter rubbed his fingers together. “Ferus, that was six months ago. Since then we’ve been getting all the nasty jobs—going through a cramped sewer pipe twice, just to steal some stupid info tablet isn’t exactly my idea of fun.”
“Sewer missions are a necessity,” the bigger man joked. “Ever play a shooter game without one?”
Evers consulted his childhood memories for an answer. They were a poor family, working hard to gain money for food and clothing, so he hadn’t played very many of those ever-popular shooter games. “I…I only had two, and both of them had sewer levels.”
“You see?” Ferus chuckled. “They’re a necessity! I had eight of those, and every single one of them had a sewer level.”
“Well, just because little kids like to play through the sewers does not mean I like to actually crawl through them,” Evers groaned. “I mean, who’d want to be down there with all that sewage…”
Ferus suddenly looked grim. “We don’t pick the jobs, Evers. We just carry them out.”
Evers tried to pull out a smile, but it was a weak one. “That’s what we live by. And…I can really see why that client didn’t want to go through the sewer pipes. Even I didn’t want to go through them, even if the bounty was so high.”
Ferus grinned again. “Yeah. Demen even lost his pocket hologame in a sewage tank. He didn’t get it out again.”
Evers waved a hand at the door. “Well, let’s go…the boss never likes to be kept waiting.”
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