The Pack-Retribution (27 page)

Bandits by LM Preston (Sample)

Daniel rolled over and punched his pillow. “Ugh! I give up,” he muttered.

Sleep always eluded him and tonight was no different. Groomed as a thief and mercenary, his mind was ready to act. Most nights it was hard to shut off. He definitely wouldn’t get any sleep tonight with the distant murmur of voices that filled his head and grew louder each second.

“Gambling night,” he spat out. Daniel snatched the pillow from under his head and covered his face. It didn’t help, the angry voices filtered through anyway. He just didn’t get it. Every week it was the same thing. Fights over cheating, his father’s outright refusal to take on any snatch jobs, and then the old man getting chewed out. He was sick of his father’s screw-ups.

Daniel shook his head at the thought of another late night caused by his dad’s weekly game with his friends. He let out a deep breath, threw the pillow aside, and sat up on his bed. “Serves him right,” he sneered. “Been picking up his jobs for three years now, and I’m ready for my own territory anyway. I’m finished picking up his slack—I’m done doing it…TONIGHT.” He wiped his hand down his face then punched down on the rumpled bed.

Remorse crept up his back. He squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them. Maybe, he should’ve picked up the load his father refused to get from Haden. His father’s best friend, and leader of the EBRA, was sick of his dad’s refusal to do his job.

Daniel looked down at the snoring body of his cousin on the floor, and acknowledged that Faulk didn’t have the same dirty blond hair, dimples, or gray eyes as he. No, Faulk was different. His mother’s Asian features dominated Faulk’s face instead. He shoved Faulk’s leg out of his way so he could stand. With a crack of his neck, he stretched, and then scratched his bare chest.

“Faulk,” he smirked, “your parents would kill you if they knew you were hiding out here. Hell, my father may kill me when I tell him I let you in.” Daniel figured Faulk had the Pierce family’s adventurous spirit. Proven fact, since Faulk dropped out of flight school two days before his graduation, only to land on Daniel’s doorstep.

Faulk had showed up earlier that day with a sack of wrinkled clothes, his flight school uniform and a stupid grin. Daniel let him in, even though he hadn’t seen Faulk in years. The first and last time he’d laid eyes on Faulk was four years ago, when Uncle Kiev came to demand that his father change his criminal ways and come home to Earth. No way Uncle Kiev would get my old man to change. He’d never give up being a Zukar. His father had been with the Zukar, a faction of thieves on Merwin, ever since he was a kid. Celebrated for his undisputable snatch jobs, his father had become a legend.

The voices in the front room grew louder with angry shouts and the muted sounds of laser fire pierced the air. Daniel’s head jerked toward the door, his brow wrinkling. The tingling down his back confirmed this wasn’t the typical weekly banter. He pulled his gun from beneath his pillow. Gripping the handle of the gun, he crept to the door, and pushed it open. He leaned against the door and tilted the gun up, prepared to shoot. Ready to attack, he was stopped by a call from his ten-year-old brother.

“Psst,” Nickel whispered from his bedroom doorway across the hall.

Daniel turned his angry gaze on his younger brother, whose short, light brown hair stood on end. Nickel’s gray eyes filled with concern on his rounded face as he shook his head at his brother’s stupidity. He gestured in their coded sign language. “No, too many.”

Daniel’s mouth thinned. He raised his free hand to motion for his brother to stay put, and crept slowly along the wall leading to the front room. Whispered arguments had elevated into shouting. More laser fire went off, and a smoke bomb followed, filling the long hallway with thick smoke before Daniel could make his way down. Daniel held his breath and fought his way through. His eyes burned, and his lungs fought to breathe. He narrowed his eyes and felt around in front of him. With his gun at the ready, he frantically searched for his father in the dull, smoke-filled room.

“Humph! The bastards ran.”

Coughs sounded behind him. Daniel knew his brother and cousin were not far behind. The roar of an engine lit the night. He ran toward the front door to pursue the men who fled, but he tripped forward, stumbling over a firm body. He used his free hand to brace himself before falling face first on the floor. The smoke started to dissipate out of the opened door and Daniel didn’t have to look at the body to see whose it was. The punch of dread hit him dead in his chest when he pushed himself back off the slightly rounded stomach of his father’s large form.

Daniel held back a sob and swallowed. “Keep Nickel back! Keep ‘em back,” he yelled. He sat back on his knees and forced his angry eyes to land on his father.

“No! Damn! Who-did-this?” His lips formed a scowl. Tears from the smoke and his grief fell slowly. Balling his fist, he punched down on his bent knees as grief and desolation caved in on him. Anger at his father—even dislike—didn’t take away the fact that he loved the old man and wanted him there with them. “Arghhhhhh!” His fist tightened, “I never wanted this. I’ll kill them. Why didn’t you just yell for help? I would’ve saved you,” his voice cracked. He raised his fists and pushed them against his eyes to stop his tears.

Daniel heard his brother cry behind him. “No, no...Dad! Please don’t be dead. NO!” Nickel tried furiously to fight his way out of Faulk’s firm grip.

Daniel’s muscles tightened, and years of training as a thief reminded him to shove those sappy feelings of regret down. “Don’t let him go Faulk. Not yet.” He quickly pulled himself together. His expression grave while he examined his father to see if he was breathing. Nothing, he’s gone. The old man’s…gone.

With a grunt, he tilted his father’s body for a better look, just to be sure. His eyes traveled over his dead father, up and down his back. The finality of his father’s fate sat heavy in his gut. The laser left a hole clean through his father’s leg, but it was the knife to his heart that ultimately caused his death. His father’s body landed with an eerie, lifeless thump when Daniel released him. Daniel looked at his father’s grayish-blond hair and the shocked expression of his death in his eyes, and sceamed out. Anger at his father’s killers—even at his father’s carelessness choked up within him.

Nickel broke free of Faulk and ran into Daniel’s back. He collapsed to his knees, laid his head on his father’s stomach, and cried in loud, choking sobs.

Putting his sorrow aside, Daniel reached back to console his little brother.

“Daddy, no...no.” Nickel cried and kneed the floor in anger. “Why, Daniel? WHY him? Our Dad?”

Faulk came and put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “Daniel, I’m sorry man. I’m so sorry. Maybe…maybe I should call my parents.”

Daniel stood up with a glare. “Don’t,” he forced out the words through gritted teeth. “Your parents don’t know this place. They’d make things worse. Trust me-much worse.” His mouth thinned as he watched his brother cry.

“You gotta be kidding me! Your father was murdered, right here,” Faulk pointed to the floor. “Here, while we were in our beds, dude. Cold blooded with us in the house. Who’s to say our asses aren’t next?” Faulk yelled, and then pushed Daniel’s chest.

Daniel grabbed Faulk’s shirt, balled it up in his hand and slammed him against the wall. “You came here uninvited. You wanted to live here, but you don’t…Look, you-don’t-know-the- Zukar. Outsiders stay the hell out of our business. Don’t try your Earth logic on this planet. I’ll handle it.” He jammed his index finger into Faulk’s chest. “And by the way, the next time you push me, you best be ready for a beat down. Now go to my room and pack up my weapons—all of ‘em. I’ll take care of Nickel,” Daniel forced out, trying to hold onto his anger at Faulk’s misplaced judgment. He pushed Faulk into the wall in disgust, and then let him go with a jerk, releasing his wrinkled shirt.

Daniel turned away from Faulk, and then bent down to touch his brother’s trembling shoulder. “He’s gone, Nick, but don’t worry. I’ll take care of you. You know I will.”

Nickel turned to Daniel and hugged him. He sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes. “I know you will. I’ll take care of you too. Dad wanted me to.”

Nickel gathered his composure and forced a determined expression on his face. “Are we going to the trove? We gotta get to Dad’s stuff before they do. Someone wanted to know where his trove was, but he wouldn’t tell them.” Nickel pulled on Daniel’s arm and whispered. “He told me a secret. Said if anything hap-pened to him, I had to get his journal.”

Daniel’s eyebrow arched up. “His journal? Dad kept a diary, like a girl?” He groaned. “I knew the old man was turning soft.”

Nickel frowned, working up a fierce appearance on his face. “No he wasn’t! Dad wasn’t soft. He was fierce and strong. He could still kick your butt, and you know it.” He glared at Daniel angrily, still upset by the loss of his father, but he didn’t hold the glare long. “Anyways, Dad never got a chance to tell me where he put the journal. Some bastard killed him tonight, before he could.”

“We gotta get out of here. You search for the journal if it’s so important, and I’ll get my gear.” Daniel grabbed Nickel by the arm to force him down the hallway so he couldn’t go back over to where their father had fallen.

Nickel pulled away. “Okay. I’ll look in the lower rooms. That’s where he was when I last saw him. He might have had it there,” Nickel said before running off.

“Faulk!” Daniel called while he ran down the hall to his room.

His cousin was fervently packing various weapons into their packs. “Yeah? This stuff is ready to go. Anything else?” Faulk took a quick glance around the room.

Daniel pointed to his closet. “Go into the safe in the floor of my closet. Put in 56-23-82-34 and take out all the money there. Hell if I know where we’re going, but if things don’t turn out well we may have to leave Merwin.” He grabbed a green shirt off the floor and pulled it over his head.

Faulk angrily threw down the sack he’d filled. “Leave the planet? What the hell for? We didn’t kill your dad. Why do we have to be the ones on the lam?”

“Look, let me make this quick for you goody do-right types. Merwin is populated by Zukar from all different galaxies. Any cut-throat or snatcher that wants a safe haven from the law settles here if they can pass the Zukar’s members test. It’s a planet full of—well, criminals, hit men, and murderers—people who’ll do anything for the right price, get my drift?”

Faulk rolled his eyes. “Uh, well I still don’t get the danger here.”

Daniel shrugged as he looked under strewn clothes for his vest. “Our new King wants us out, off his planet, and many of the Zukar here won’t go without a fight. If we don’t find my father’s killers before they find us, we’ll all be dead or sent to a penal colony on the Planet Uukin. Damned if I know who killed ‘im. I just know I don’t want us to be next.”

“So, we’re running from the King and maybe a Zukar?” Faulk asked, raising an eyebrow as he stuffed a knife in his belt.

Daniel put on his vest over his shirt. “My father had a lot of people who hated him—first for his skills and later for his failures. It could’ve been a Zukar or the King’s men. There are different people here every week to gamble. Far as I know, it wasn’t even the usual crew, since most of them are out on snatch jobs this time of year. I just thought he was doing his usual weekly gamble bit.”

“My parents could help us. They’re ambassadors of the Ga-lactic Peace Council.”

Daniel pointed at Faulk. “Your parents’ power as diplomats for Earth won’t help when we get sent to Uukin. Cuz, you came here for an adventure, right? Well it’s about time you man up and stop running to your daddy at the first sign of trouble.” He grabbed his gun belt and quickly left the room.

He headed to the lower rooms, and climbed down the steep ladder leading downward from the secret door in the floor. “Nick-el? Nickel? You find it?”

Nickel was looking under the couch. “No. Freak! I looked everywhere. We can’t leave without it. We gotta find it. Dad made me promise.”

Daniel started looking around the room and hastily turned over anything that stood in his way. “I remember walking in on Dad when he was down here. He jumped when I came down, like he was hiding something. He was over there by the mirror.”

Daniel bumped into Nickel and then tripped over Nickel’s foot. He broke his fall by landing in the middle of the mirror. While he righted himself, he saw the mirror under his fingers glow with a strange blue light.

Nickel pointed. “Look! There, on the opposite wall...the picture moved.”

Daniel watched with quiet interest when the picture split in half to reveal a built in shelf. It held a small black book, which pushed forward. He took the book out. It felt heavy and thick as the worn pages pushed the black cover up slightly. He flipped it back and forth in his hand for a second and then opened up the first page.

For Daniel and Nick
.

Daniel shut the book and put it in his back pocket. He turned to see Nickel staring at him. “Let’s go. We’ve got to get out of here before it’s too late.” Nickel didn’t argue but ran past him to climb up the ladder.

Faulk was waiting at the top of the stairs, and gave Nickel a hand to get up.

Daniel followed Nickel up but purposely ignored his cousin’s outstretched arm. “Let’s go. Now! Get everything to the door,” he ordered, leaping up out of the hole.