The client paid us after they confirmed that the briefcase was delivered. Our first job back had gone relatively smoothly. The tiny hitch with the rival gang didn’t count. We should’ve expected something like that, after all.
Also, nobody had recognized Noah as the wanted human, either. The job went as well as it could’ve, honestly. No bounty hunters got randomly involved. Once we got our new suits, Noah and I were probably home free.
Since the first job went so well, Noah and I decided to double dip and take on another job at this station before leaving. This one was also simple, as jobs went. The client wanted us to steal someone’s car. It apparently had important information stored inside of it, so the client wanted the whole thing. Noah and I took our rented motorcycle, followed the target’s car, and waited until they parked somewhere and left the car. We then broke into the car and used some sort of carjacking device the client gave us to start it up. Noah drove the car while I escorted him with the motorcycle. We dropped it off at some car mechanic’s shop where it would be dismantled and searched for whatever was inside. Soon after, more credits flooded into our bank accounts.
Noah and I were riding down the streets after we completed our job, making our way back to our ship.
“Hey, Noah, want to find something to eat?” I asked. “We’ve completed two jobs today. I’m starving.”
“Hmm, yeah, probably. We’re leaving this station tonight anyways, right?” Noah replied.
“That’s right. We don’t want to stay here for that long.”
“Okay, let’s find a place where we can eat. We deserve a break.”
We zipped between cars as Noah fumbled with his tablet and looked for some decent place to eat. He quickly found a promising restaurant, and started directing me over my shoulder.
This motorcycle was pretty nice. I would have to get one someday. It was perfect transportation for two people, it was fast, and it was small. I could store it in my ship if I wanted to, as well. Once we’d saved up some money I planned on getting one. We wouldn’t have to walk around unfamiliar stations anymore.
After several minutes of swerving in and out of traffic and getting honked at later, Noah and I arrived at the restaurant that Noah chose. It was a busy, normal looking diner. I could tell it was one of those diners that had food that felt homemade and genuine. Noah had picked a good spot.
Fumes from the diner emanated through the open windows. My mouth started to water. Yep, it definitely had amazing food. I couldn’t wait.
“Noah, does this place have private booths?” I asked.
“Yep, that’s one of the first things I put on the filters when I was searching.” Noah replied.
“Perfect. This place looks great, let’s go inside and order already. I’m hungry.”
Noah and I walked inside, requested a private booth, and sat down across from each other. We took a look at the menu.
“Let’s see…” I murmured. “The synthmeath sliders look alright, I’m not ordering the bug bowl since we had that yesterday, and I’m not getting any of the soups. I need something filling. I think I’ll go with the synthmeat sliders.”
“Hmm, I think I’ll go with the bug bowl. I liked the bug kabobs from the other day, so I’d like to try out something else like it.” Noah said.
“I didn’t know you liked bugs that much. Some people can’t handle them at all.”
“Normally I wouldn’t but the bugs are so big that the chunks of meat are just like normal meat anyways. There’s not too much of a difference except it's more real than synthmeat.” Noah explained.
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that’s fair. I do eat synthmeat a lot, but when I get tired of it I swap to bugs. They’re pretty similar, but it's nice to swap out to change things up.”
We placed our orders on a little tablet on the wall, and waited for our food. The diner was pretty busy, so it took a while, but eventually, our booth was flooded with the aroma of spices and flavoring. The synthmeat sliders were exactly as advertised and were perfectly bite sized burgers arranged into rows. It came with a side of fries, and some dipping sauces were available for me to try out. Noah’s bug bowl was exactly what I expected. It was simply a bowl filled with chunks of bug meat, random vegetables, and a side of soup I didn’t recognize.
We both dug into our meals with gusto after a long day of work. After a few minutes of chomping and smacking our lips, Noah raised his head.
“Hey, can I try out one of those sliders? They look pretty good.” Noah asked.
“Sure.” I said, sliding my plate over so he could grab one. “But only if you give me some of that bug.”
“A fair trade.” Noah replied, dumping a small heap of bug and vegetables on my plate. He grabbed a slider and tossed it into his mouth.
“It’s pretty good. I think I’ll order something like this the next time we eat somewhere.”
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I sampled the bug that Noah put on my plate. “Yeah, this is pretty good too, but we just ate bug a few days ago. I don’t like eating the same things within a few days of each other.”
We finished our meals ten minutes later and paid using the tablet that was in the booth. It was pretty cheap, thankfully. These diners were always great. Street stall food was nice, but being able to sit down and relax while eating was something else.
Noah and I left the diner to head back to our ship. We climbed back onto our rented motorcycle and were on our way back to the docking bay. The rental company would pick up the motorcycle where we left it. Since it was late evening, the lights on the station had dimmed to give the impression that it was nighttime, even though no stars were visible from here.
Noah tapped my shoulder. “For the second time today, I think we’re getting followed. Don’t look, I don’t want them to catch on that we know.”
I sighed. “It’s probably a bounty hunter. They probably saw us leave the diner by chance or something, and decided to investigate.”
“What’s the plan?” Noah asked. “We can’t lead them back to the ship.”
“Let’s try to get them somewhere without any people so we can deal with them. I’d like to ask them something, too.” I replied.
“Alright, let’s do it.” Noah said.
I peeled off from the main roads and started driving on the smaller, less populated streets. There I looked around for a suitable place to stop and confront the bounty hunter. Noah kept track of our tail. Indeed, the same car had been trailing us for a while.
I pulled into a multi story parking garage that appeared to be relatively empty, and went up a few floors to avoid any bystanders. We broke line of sight from our pursuer, so Noah and I hopped off the bike and laid in wait a small distance away. The plan was to catch the bounty hunter off guard when they investigated the motorcycle.
A few moments after we hid ourselves, the car that had been following us pulled up and parked near our motorcycle. A suited figure carefully stepped out of the car and peered around. They didn’t see us, so they carefully drew their submachine gun and made their way to the motorcycle.
They inspected the motorcycle for a bit, until probably coming to the conclusion that we had temporarily left it behind and were going to come back. They walked back to their car, turning away from us. They were probably going to stake us out from their car, and probably shoot us from there. Or shoot me from there. Noah’s bounty had specified that they wanted him alive.
“Noah, can you hit them from here?” I whispered. “In the leg, preferably. I want to gather some information.”
“I can try.” Noah grunted, raising his rifle. He took aim, and held his breath for a few moments.
A single shot echoed throughout the parking garage. The suit clad figure walking back to their car stumbled, but didn’t go down.
“Shit!” Noah hissed. “Their suit’s shield is pretty good.”
The bounty hunter reacted immediately after stumbling, throwing themself behind the safety of their car. Noah and I pushed our advantage and closed the gap while the bounty hunter situated themself.
The bounty hunter wrapped their submachine gun around the corner of the car and blind fired at us. A spray of bullets came at us, and Noah and I had to dive to opposite sides to avoid the gunfire. The gun withdrew, the bounty hunter was probably reloading. Noah and I split up, using our momentum from diving into different sides to pincer attack the bounty hunter hiding behind the car. We quickly made it to the car, and were approaching it from two sides.
Noah turned the corner at the bounty hunter first. The bounty hunter turned and raised their submachine gun, but froze. They didn’t fire because the bounty wanted Noah alive. I took that moment of hesitation to tackle the bounty hunter from behind, pinning them to the ground. Their gun clattered to the floor.
“Gotchu!” I shouted.
Noah aimed his rifle carefully at the bounty hunter’s head while he kicked away the submachine gun. I had the bounty hunter pinned using all four of my arms and my legs.
“Alright, you’re going to answer a few things for us.”
“Fuck you!” said the bounty hunter.
“Look, you tried your luck, and you failed. It’s your fault, bounty hunter. You are a bounty hunter, right?” I asked.
“I should’ve never tried to go after a target that was to be kept alive. Those are always the worst.” The bounty hunter moaned.
“I’m going to take that as a yes. Anyways, do you know who put the bounty on this guy over here?” I asked.
The bounty hunter was silent for a few moments. “I’ll only answer if you’ll let me go afterwards.”
I looked up at Noah. He shrugged, so I assumed it was okay.
“Alright, fine. We’ll let you go. Just don’t come back.” I said firmly.
“Yeah, I won’t. Fucking keep alive bounties, they’re the worst.” The bounty hunter whined.
“Okay, if you’re done complaining, can you tell me who put the hit on the human?” I asked.
“It was done through a proxy, so I don’t know for sure.” The bounty hunter said. I increased my grip. “But! There were a few hints. I have a few tricks to narrow down who it is. And my guess is that it’s from someone who owns some sort of company. A stinking rich individual. Definitely a corpo. I don’t know if they’re doing this by themselves or there’s like a group of people doing it, but there’s definitely a higher up at some capital company who ordered this. I know this because they wanted us bounty hunters to deliver the human to the capital planet.”
“Hmm. Pretty vague, but it checks out.” I said. I released my grip. “Okay, now get out of here. And leave your gun here.”
Noah whipped his head towards me in shock.
“What, you’re letting the bounty hunter go? They could leak information! You shot the other guy!”
“Yeah, but I didn’t promise the other guy that he could leave. I did make a promise to this one, though.” I explained.
Noah slapped his forehead. “Sometimes, I don’t understand your logic.”
The bounty hunter got up and dusted themself off.
“Well, I definitely appreciate your mercy. And since you’re so kind, Togumo, I’ll avoid telling anyone about this. It looks bad on me too. I got caught in the worst ambush ever.”
The bounty hunter ran back to their car and took off, wheels screeching as they hauled ass out of the parking garage.
“See!” I told Noah. “We all got what we wanted. I got information, and the bounty hunter got to keep their life. It’s a win-win!”
“Saka, you’re inconsistent when it comes to being ruthless. You killed the other guy even though this was the same situation.” Noah complained.
“I just don’t like to lie.” I replied. “I promised that bounty hunter, so I fulfilled it.”
Noah shrugged and didn’t press the matter further.
I picked up the submachine gun that the bounty hunter had dropped and tucked it away inside my jacket. We hopped back onto our rented motorcycle and headed back to our ship. We made sure no other bounty hunters decided to try their luck and follow us. Apparently, the one we encountered earlier was just lucky, or ahead of the information game. I should’ve asked how they found us.
Once we were back at our ship’s docking bay, I left the rented electric motorcycle in an easy to see spot so that the rental company could easily find it again. I left a tip in the storage cabin on the electric motorcycle, since it served us so well. There may have been a few scrapes on the motorcycle remaining from our mad dash throughout the neighborhood earlier that day, but the tip should cover that and more just fine.
We climbed the ramp back onto the ship, where I tossed the stolen submachine gun into a random storage locker. It might be useful later, but I wasn’t probably going to use it. I was too in love with my shotgun and hand cannon. And Noah refused to use anything other than his rifle and handgun.
Noah and I climbed into our seats at the cockpit, and got ready to initiate takeoff. We sat back in our seats as the autopilot did everything for us. I loved this ship.
----------------------------------------
Thirty minutes later, we were about to enter a tunnel to travel a hundred lightyears away, since we’d been spotted at the station we were just at. However, just before entering, I got a transmission on my tablet. There was no name for the contact, and it only said “Unknown.” Great. That meant that it was someone who wasn’t on my contact list but managed to get a hold of my tablet’s personal contact. They wanted to do a video call. I switched it to a sound call instead.
“Who is this?” I asked. “What do you want?”
A familiar voice emanated from the tablet’s speakers.
“Hello, daughter.”