Justice (22 page)

Through the
scene, Rosemary’s face had gone from cool calm, to shock, to
despair. She made choking noises in the back of her throat. There
wasn’t much of her face visible, but her eyes shone with tears.

The Cypris
plant took one look at her and scurried across the metal floor, its
legs tapping. It got to within one metre of the woman and then
stopped, leaned back, and prepared for another deadly attack.

Rosemary shook
herself out of her daze and thrust her hand into a deep pocket. She
withdrew her fist and tossed a handful of shiny specks. The specks
floated through the air and landed on the Cypris plant.

At the first
contact the plant stopped moving. It relaxed. The legs collapsed
underneath it and it lay still. Even the bulb lowered to rest on
the floor.

Rosemary
withdrew a new jar and scooped the Cypris plant up inside it,
before tucking the jar into her pocket. Using her sleeve she swept
the broken glass into a bag, and returned her attention to Geron.
She rushed to his side and clutched his still hand. She choked back
sobs of grief and looked around the corridor. The sound of
approaching voices filled the security feed.

She sucked in
a deep breath and grabbed hold of Geron’s wrists. She backed away
from the corner and dragged him up the corridor, disappearing out
of sight of the camera and leaving behind just a few drops of
blood.

“
I’m sure if we had the other videos, we would see Rosemary in
the shipping bay with Geron’s body,” Nova said. “Of course, your
experience working in your parent’s robotics shop meant you knew
what to do with the labourbot, so it would carry Geron deep into
the forest. You probably know how to engineer an explosion to
create a power-outage as well. Of course, you probably hoped that a
plant would devour his body before anyone found him; then there’d
be no evidence. You were nearly right too, there wouldn’t have been
much left of him, if I’d left it another day to go out and
look.”

Fresh tears
poured down Rosemary’s face. She sobbed and buried her hands deep
into the folds of her dress.

“
The one thing I don’t know,” Nova said over the sudden
uproar, “is why?”

Voices shouted
across the room but most of all the room rang with the sounds of
curses pouring out of Meaghan’s mouth. Nova suspected she wasn’t
upset so much at Geron’s death, but at the loss of income which his
death presented.

“
Was it because he still hadn’t left his wife?” Nova asked.
The whole situation puzzled her. Why would Rosemary, who seemed to
love Geron so much, want to kill him? Was it simply out of
jealousy?

“
I-I- I thought it was you!” Rosemary yelled, springing to her
feet and pointing a shaky finger at Meaghan.

The yelling in
the room became even louder and a red rage descended over Meaghan’s
expression. Nova watched as the woman’s face reddened. She wrenched
herself free of Bruce’s grip and lunged across the room towards
Rosemary. Just as her hands were about to close over the woman’s
throat, Rosemary collapsed to the ground.

Nova rushed to
her side and spread her arms wide to prevent anyone from
approaching the still body. Sure enough, a few moments later a
green plant squirmed its way out from under Rosemary’s corpse.

Nova lifted
her foot and stomped down on the creature with her thick boots.
There was an audible splat and when she lifted her foot the green
leaves were smeared across the floor in a pool of sap.

“
Don’t get any closer,” Nova warned as she wiped her boot on a
section of carpet. “The sap is deadly.”

Silence
descended over the room. It was clear from the squished plant that
Rosemary had poisoned herself just as she had Geron.

Nova shook her
head at the loss of life she’d witnessed in her time on
Drigoon.

Those gathered
resumed their muttering and cries of indignation, but Nova took a
step back from Rosemary’s body and set her mouth in a firm line. If
she never saw another plant it would be too soon. What a damned
waste. Rosemary had seemed nice enough, just misguided in her
affections. It was an ugly mess and Nova couldn’t wait to be free
of it.

“
There’s your mystery solved,” Nova said.

“
That little bitch has ruined me!” Meaghan said. “What am I
supposed to do now? Geron removed me from his will! I have
nothing!”

“
Rosemary had nothing to do with that,” Nova said. “Geron
changed it after finding out about your little lie. You know the
saddest part is, I think he really cared about you, in his own
way.”

Dustin and
Piero nodded to each other and walked out of the room.

“
I’ve done my job. I’m not hanging around to do clean-up as
well,” Nova said.

Without
waiting for a reply she turned and strode from the room. Cal
floated along right behind her.

“
Jack, mystery solved. We can release the lock-down. I assume
I can leave it to you to do an official hand-over to the
Confederacy forces when they arrive? I really don’t want to see
them right now.”

“
No problem,” Jack said. “It’s been good to see
you.”

“
Yeah, you too. Stop by the Maw if you get sick of the cushy
jobs.”

“
I might just do that,” Jack said with a chuckle.

“
Listen Tim, I know he’s green, but I’ve seen him in action.
When it actually counts, he’s got it covered,” Nova
said.

She sat on one
of the long benches in The Jagged Maw. The cafeteria was empty for
the moment. It was late at night and the Hunters had better things
to do than sit around here. Nova had a picture of Jimmy on the
table in front of her.

“
But he’s got no experience. We don’t even know where he comes
from,” said Tom.

“
And we’ve got a reputation to keep,” said Tim. “If we started
taking on every wandering newbie then we’d be the laughing stock of
the Hunter guilds.”

“
This one is different,” Nova said. “And besides, you took me
on when I had no experience.”

“
You were different,” said Tom. “You took on a Confederacy
warship. If that doesn’t prove someone’s worthy then I don’t know
what does.”

“
I’ll vouch for him,” Nova said. She gazed at the two men with
a serious expression. They looked so similar, they could have been
brothers, if they weren’t lovers.

“
You’d do that for this kid?” Tim asked, his eyebrow
arched.

“
I think he’s got what it takes,” Nova said with a shrug. It
was true, there was almost no one she would put her arse on the
line for, but she owed Jimmy. If she did this, then they would be
even.

“
You’ll take him under your wing, show him the ropes? And if
he cracks you’ll take him out?”

“
He won’t crack,” Nova said.

“
And if he does something bad,” Tim said, ignoring Nova’s
words. “You’ll cover for him? You know that could mean getting
tossed out?”

“
I know.”

“
We’d be sad to see you go,” said Tom. “Especially after you
brought in the space-race trophy for us.”

“
Just look at this as you guys paying me back for winning the
race,” Nova said. “He’s good. You’ll thank me in a few
years.”

“
I’ll tell you what. He does something good and we’ll let him
in. We’re lowering the bar for him. This is a one-time thing, just
for you.”

“
Mediocre it is,” Nova said with a smile.

“
Alright, you’ve got yourself a deal. But remember, it comes
down on you.”

“
Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it.” Nova got to her feet. She grinned
at the two men and sauntered out of the hall.

Now all she
had to do was get Jimmy into order. She suspected it would still be
some time before he made the cut, but at least this way he had a
chance. It was a chance many other newbie Hunters would give their
right arms for. He would be happy and she was glad to be free of
the debt she felt she owed him. Giving a newbie like him a shot at
The Jagged Maw was well worth saving her life.

She walked to
her room and called Jimmy. He almost burst into tears. She
explained it wasn’t a guarantee and that he still had a lot of work
to do, but when he was ready they’d take him on.

“
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“
Yeah, yeah, we’re even now,” said Nova, cancelling the
connection.

No sooner had
Jimmy’s face disappeared from the screen, than someone was knocking
furiously at her door.

“
Nova, it’s me,” Tanguin’s voice filtered through the thick
door.

“
Come in,” Nova called.

The door slid
open and Tanguin almost fell through it.

“
We’ve got a problem,” Tanguin said.

Nova groaned
and fell back onto her bed. Her body and brain were crying out for
rest. What now?

“
Aart’s gone again,” Tanguin said.

“
You can’t be serious.”

“
Yep. At least this time he had the courtesy to tell
me.”

“
Where’s he gone this time?”

“
Same as before; he’s off to find recruits.”

Nova’s eyes
widened. She waved Tanguin into silence. She looked around her room
for the spies she was sure lurked around every corner after
speaking with Jack.

“
It’s okay,” Tanguin said. “I swept both of our rooms. They’re
clean now.”

“
Now?” Nova asked.

Tanguin
shrugged. “Who would have thought the Confederacy powers could
reach all the way inside The Jagged Maw?”

“
Grishnak,” Nova said.

“
Yep. Anyway, he’s gone to Glod to hunt down some more
support. I think he’s really serious. He’s planning a
revolution.”

“
He’s mad,” said Nova.

“
That’s what I told him.”

“
I needed to talk to him, tell him some things,” Nova said.
She’d only just got back to The Jagged Maw, hadn’t even had a
chance to see Aart and now he was off again. He needed to know what
Jack had told her. “I have to go after him.”

“
Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Tanguin asked. “If the
Confederacy managed to bug our rooms here then they almost
definitely know what Aart’s up to. He’ll be a target.”

“
Even more reason for me to go after him. He has no idea what
kind of trouble he’s in.”

“
I’ll come with you.”

“
What?”

“
I’ll come with you. We’ll make an outing of it. The
Confederacy will be watching all of Aart’s friends. You’ll be a
suspect and we don’t want to give them any more reason to haul you
in. We’ll make a holiday of it, make a real show and then look for
Aart and talk to him when we can.”

“
You’re right,” said Nova.

“
Good. Glod, here we come!” Tanguin said, with feigned
excitement.

Nova’s Journey Continues…

Guns blaze and people die in a covert battle for survival
when unknown assassins attack The Jagged Maw

.

Nova clings to life, drugged and alone on an outer planet,
while the hidden enemy will stop at nothing. They strike like
wolves in the dark, picking off bounty hunters until everything
comes to a head in a chilling confrontation.

Her friends are dying and she doesn’t know why.

Find out in Book Six: Junkie

Find out
more at:

www.saffronbryant.com/books/junkie