Lakma handed Tae a coffee, which she took without acknowledging a breathing thing gave it to her. She wouldn’t thank a counter for letting her pick it up, and Lakma was given the same privilege.

  “So… she was here?” He asked.

  “The PHD trail ends here, so yes.”

  “Why aren’t we still following her?”

  Tae rubbed her eyes “Nivas, do you ever come to your own conclusions? Or are you trying to test someone with more experience in this job than you have being an adult?”

  Lakma scoffed, “Just trying to figure out why we’re wasting our time here instead of, y’know, trying to catch up.”

  “They probably have a comfortable lead on us that this thing,” She tapped the device on her belt, “won’t be able to catch up to, especially since they’re almost certainly using the maintenance tunnels that are so choked with fumes at points, it’ll probably make it short out.”

  “So…?”

  “So, we find out who the owner of these quarters is, then we can maybe beat them to wherever they’re going to, or at least find them there.” Her explanation lacked some of the venom it usually had, likely because it was her real train of thought.

  “Well, he had access to some kind of weapon, that’ll narrow it down a little.” Lakma mused, not trying to reveal he felt a little proud of the realisation.

  Tae made a sound that could’ve been described as a laugh, if the person who heard it had never been in the presence of laughter.

  “Oh, that guy wasn’t the dude who lived here, not a chance. Even if he was able to flank us that quickly through that little hole in the wall, that thing hit your mirror with a hell of a lot of power, can’t find anything like that on this planet, unless they have a trust fund like yours.”

  “You mean the trust fund that saved our lives with said mirror?” Lakma grinned widely.

  She breathed out heavily, “Yes.”

  He would take that. Lakma didn’t enjoy flaunting his wealth often, mainly because they were the reason he had to work at all. His father had insisted that he worked in the PEA until he reached some kind of milestone of achievements he still wasn’t aware of. He didn’t know if he was any closer to it than he was when he started, and he would only contact or be contacted by his father if he wanted money, or if his dad’s money wanted him. At least the name kept people of his back for the most part, he had gotten away with far more negligence than the normal rabble that usually held his responsibilities.

  “Alright, got it all!” A voice interrupted them from outside the room, one of the backup agents that were called earlier. He walked in waggling a notepad, a big smile plastered across smooth, youthful features.

  “Took longer than usual, both from the damage and the fact this guy has had someone securing his public data. Tch tch tch.” He seemed to have a certain glee about him, it made Lakma feel drained already. The Agent had assigned himself to clearing out the resident information from the semi-intact door panel.

  “Who is he?” Tae asked, her harshness made the man falter slightly.

  “M-Mark Everhart, 37, works in machine maintenance, no infractions.”

  “Double check that, he’s not on shift right now, this building is on nights.” Tae ordered as she looked around the kitchen, her eyes caught on a knife block, Lakma tensed despite the fact she had far more dangerous things on her belt.

  “Already did, the guy’s religious, today and tomorrow are a recognised holiday for him, one of the few still left, actually, I thought they got rid of them all a while back.

  He has a room reserved as a church a few streets away. Clocked out from it a good few hours ago.”

  Tae nodded, still preoccupied with her glancing around. She had gone to peering up and down the hole in the far wall, her head stuck in and her hands keeping her balanced against it.

  “That’s our next stop then.” Lakma ordered, he didn’t like to admit it, but he was starting to get a little annoyed that this Tertiary, or whatever he was, had been addressing Tae like she was in charge.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Whatever you say, boss” Tae said dryly in response, Lakma didn’t know if she had picked up on his jealousy, it was highly likely.

  “And you,” He pointed at the other man. “See if you can track them through the maintenance tunnels.”

  He looked baffled, but nodded, “Y-yes sir!”

  As they walked out Tae raised an eyebrow at Lakma, “Was that really necessary?”

  “Of course! We should cover all our bases, right?”

  Yaram popped his earphones out; he had heard enough and had already turned the engine of his vehicle back on. PEA radios had a pretty major flaw in that they were always receiving audio, probably for some internal reasons that he didn’t care about, but it meant that once you were in their system, you could listen to anything you wanted. Granted, getting into their system was nigh impossible, even Yaram couldn’t break it, and he was even good at intercepting communications. Thankfully though, his visit to the spider like machine (or was it a creature?) earlier today had given him a backdoor into their system. He didn’t know how it had done it, and he didn’t feel like sticking around to ask, even thinking of that thing still gave him the shivers.

  Now though, he had a name of someone his target would be with, and a location he could track the guy from. And he was closer to it than the PEAs were. Probably not close enough to wipe whatever he found but enough to get a head start. And after listening in, he had another man to research, Nivas. He had been the one with the mirror according to what he heard, which meant he was one to really look out for. Thankfully his incompetence had been audible, even through the tinny radio mics. He had the bumbling and unconfident tone of a man with too much authority and too little experience, probably got his position through family. He hadn’t heard of the name Nivas before though, but he would bet Standard on it being an important family on Garant, he’d find out as soon as he had a free moment. Still, he was glad he was becoming more familiar with the planet, if jobs paid as much as this one did regularly, he might do one more before he retired.

  Now that was greed talking, a few days ago he would’ve never even considered retirement, but the prospect excited him greatly now. Not every bounty hunter lived as long as he did, and for good reason, so the possibility of leaving it behind and being comfortable for the rest of his life was tough to pass up. His last job had put his future in a bit more perspective. Yaram had never decided to become a bounty hunter, it just sort of happened. He had done odd jobs on a planet with a flawed justice system; he had done well at a few hits and somehow got a reputation for it, which got him more hit jobs. 30 years later, and now he was one of the more well-known hunters in URO sectors. Being well known got him more work, but it also got him more enemies, more competition. He wouldn’t push it, this would be the last job he did, he would make sure of that.

  Thinking back to where he had came from, Yaram looked to the night sky. He was aware of what the constellation should look like from this direction, but it still took him a second to spot it, mostly because it was missing a star.

  Had it really been that long already?

  “Where are we even going?”

  “There’s a woman I know; Inim. She’ll shelter us for a few days at least.” Mark smiled, he had relaxed a little in the frankly overlong period we had spent in the tunnels.

  I was reminded at their size as I heard our voices echo back for the next minute, losing any kind of coherency but still continuing to reverberate across the damp, unfamiliar walls.

  After the silence had settled back on top of us, I pressed again, “How do you know she won’t just, y’know, sell us out?” I hadn’t totally overlooked the possibility he would. He may have denied the opportunity to stab me in the back already, but I didn’t discount the idea that he was waiting for a better moment, or a better price. I clutched the handle of the knife against my palm, the flat of the blade pushing into the back my arm. I didn’t know if Mark knew I still had it, I would have still tried to conceal it from him even if he did. Even if you know that someone is armed, and where that weapon is, if you can’t see it, that’s a microsecond of advantage that could make a difference.

  “I didn’t sell her out when she was in a similar position. Plus, she is a nice woman, a rarity around here unfortunately.” He spoke sincerely

  We walked for another annoying long time. The air was getting warmer and warmer as we went, alongside an uncomfortably familiar smell of fuel and oil. Then there was…

  I stopped.

  Mark quickly stopped too, a step ahead of me.

  “Cerim?”

  “Shht!” I hissed, both at him to stay quiet, and to try and get him to stop calling me that.

  It was in the distance, but getting closer. A noise, rumbling of some kind like the stampede of a boarding party.

  “We’re being followed, it’s far away but they’re making pace.” I whispered, careful not to let it echo as much as our previous conversation.

  Mark narrowed his eyes, then perked his head up to try and hear it too. I watched his eyes squint as he concentrated much harder on the sound than I had to, it took excruciatingly long.

  “Well? Come on!” I beckoned him, sick of his shit.

  Then he smiled widely, uncomfortably, “Those aren’t footsteps. Looks like Garant is starting to go back to its normal forecast. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.”

  The rumbling got louder, and then I noticed it too. The sounds were far too rapid for pursuing footsteps, unless they had sent a full armada after us. Soon it was loud and close enough for me to feel it through the floor, it sounded like the shrapnel of an old battlefield being deflected off a hull.

  “What is that?” I demanded, annoyed at Mark’s knowing grin.

  “Rain” he said.

  Rain.

  I felt like I should’ve known what it was, the word was familiar, but its definition was lost in a sea of unclaimed or misunderstood memories. A sea I almost found myself drowning in the moment I noticed it. I took a deep breath. I am aware of my volatile temper, but this kind of spacey, zoning out shit would put me in the mood to hit something, and as much as I fucking hated Mark, we didn’t have the luxury of wasted time.

  “Let’s move.” I grunted through clenched teeth.