They made it back to the house about an hour later. By then, Becca had already done some last-minute shopping, and greeted them at the door with a pink apron over her dress. She had a present for Thatch, which turned out to be a tie with Einstein’s face on it, that famous picture of him sticking his tongue out. Both Jacob and Becca insisted that he put it on immediately, and he was only too happy to comply.

“My wife is gonna like this one,” he said, adjusting the tie in the hallway mirror.

“Wait, you’re married?” Jacob asked.

Thatch frowned over at him. “I mean, yeah. You think an old coot like me would be single, did you?”

“Did she get out on the Intrepid, then?”

“She did, she did. Already moved her back to Earth, though.”

“This is outrageous, old man. How come you never introduced us?”

“Oh, we have this thing where I don’t bring work home with me. Although at this point I’d like to consider you a personal friend, so maybe she’d accept that.”

“She’d better,” Becca said, pointing an accusing finger. “When we come to Earth, you’ll need to have us over.”

Thatch laughed. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll talk her into it.”

Becca had cooked up a mysterious cheesy casserole made from Martian vegetables and meat products. It was a little burnt and too hot, but Thatch ate bravely despite that.

“You mind if we talk shop at the table?” the director asked.

“Knock yourselves out, gentlemen,” Becca replied with a smile. “Just make sure to pace yourselves with dinner. There’ll be cake later.”

“Princess cake?” Thatch sounded hopeful.

“Princess cake, as ordered. I would have made one myself, but Jacob forbade me.”

“You’re welcome,” Jacob mouthed, nodding emphatically.

Thatch sent over some files along with a bloated list of assignments. “You’ll all be working together for the initial push to establish a beachhead on Rust. That’ll let KATLA put down an instance on the planet to expand the System network. After that, you’ll be free to complete any assignments as you see fit, alone or with other members of your company.”

“We expecting a lot of resistance for this first push, then?” Jacob asked, idly scrolling through the assignments.

“Undoubtedly. They’re going to throw everything they have at you to keep you from getting a foothold on the planet. Once you do, it’ll be a lot harder for them to kick you off again.”

“But projections are good, or?”

“They’re decent. The urgeks were weakened with the death of Akor-Goram. Their System—or more like the opposite of a System, since it runs off Chaos—is the Great Pact. The demon thanes grant power to their servants for kills made in battle and ritual sacrifices. With one of four thanes out of the picture, that power is significantly impacted, as you might imagine. If they try the same trick as before to summon a thane directly into the material plane, it’s unlikely that any of them would respond, given the fate of their brother.”

“Good.”

“They also have several large-scale revolts on their hands, both due to the culling they enacted on that one slave world to summon Akor-Goram in the first place, and the fact that they have been forced to divert their already weakened resources towards defending their other worlds.”

“I like it.”

“Of course, if we wait, another thane will eventually rise up to take Akor-Goram’s place, and their influence will be restored. That’s why it has to be now.”

“I see. Now it makes sense why the Martian barons would suddenly be compelled by an overwhelming empathy for Earth and her people.”

Thatch chuckled. “Yes, they certainly are compassionate that way, aren’t they? Moving along, you’ll be getting paid three million for taking part in the initial assault, win or lose.”

“I’ll take it.”

“The coalition has pooled a lot of money into the Guild for this, so take on as many assignments as you like. We’ll be happy to pay out.”

“I imagine you’ll be taxing me twenty percent, like before?”

“That’s right. Have you gotten spoiled, not having to pay your civic duty?”

“I honestly don’t mind, if it’ll go towards rebuilding Earth.”

“There’s a good lad.”

Jacob saw that most of the other assignments paid between one and two million. Some even paid out with Relics of one kind or another. They ranged from assassinating urgek commanders and other high-value targets to disabling fortifications and sites of ritual significance.

There was one assignment that stood out among the rest.

[ASSIGNMENT: DECAPITATION]

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

[OBJECTIVE 1: ELIMINATE WARLORD DEKROM, URGEK PLANETARY COMMANDER, DEAD PREFERABLE]

[REWARDS:]

100 000 000fl

2 Relics of any rarity from reward pool

“They sure like putting ‘war’ in their titles, don’t they?” Jacob mused. “This Dekrom guy is the big-shot on Rust, I’m guessing.”

Thatch ladled himself another serving of casserole. “Well, yeah. There are warleaders, warchiefs, warlords, and the warmaster at the very top, who is kind of like their emperor. There’s one warlord for each urgek world, so Dekrom is heading up their forces on Rust.”

“What happens if we kill him?”

“It’s not like it would win us the whole planet in one go, but it would definitely give us a lot of momentum before they get another one out there and re-establish their command structure.”

Jacob nodded. Despite 100 000 000 flora being on the line, he probably wouldn’t go for Dekrom. He imagined there was a good chance he would just die over and over without accomplishing anything. He’d spring for more modest assignments instead. After the coalition had claimed Rust, maybe he would withdraw from the crusade altogether. He had no great desire to inflict vengeance on the urgeks. They were just faceless enemies. And once he’d had his fill of killing, it would be nice to enjoy peace for a while.

Maybe they could go back to Earth, if the rebuilding efforts went smoothly. Jacob didn’t harbor much love towards Mars. He doubted he could ever see it as a home.

They went back to eating. Becca offered Thatch to go shopping with him for his wife, and he gratefully accepted.

After dinner they had coffee while they let the food settle and went over some of the finer points of the crusade. Then Thatch got his precious cake, and both he and Becca ate several pieces each.

Jacob only managed to eat a few bites for dinner and a spoonful or two of cake. It all tasted sour on his tongue, and settled badly in him. He’d been holding it back as much as possible, but the Nethersight was starting to mingle with his perception regardless. He had to exert a constant conscious effort to not think about it.

With the Nethersight creeping into him, Becca’s kisses had started to taste like old dish water. He had already brushed his teeth four times that day to get rid of it, but it didn’t help much.

Just a few more days.

Thatch licked the cream off his spoon and cleared his throat. “So, about the boy. I haven’t heard anything about him, but I’ll have my people keep an eye out. If anyone comes across him, they’ll bring him in. If he doesn’t want to come back here, there’s not much we can do, but we can at least make sure he gets somewhere safe.”

With another family, were the words he didn’t say.

“Thank you,” Jacob said with a nod. “We’d appreciate that.”

*****

Everything was squared away. They were ready to leave. Danger was booting up the ship with Vivi, engines roaring over the landing pad that extended out beneath the bluish Martian dusk.

Jacob would be going with Bob, Fenris, Anton, and this Aribellian hero named Longshot who had recently joined Hero for Hire. Becca, Thatch, and Johnny were there to see them off.

Johnny was making out with Anton by the lowered ramp. The two of them had been seeing each other for some time. The baron was probably well-pleased to have an in with the new S+ phenomenon.

Jacob had been wondering for some time about the moral implications of whether Johnny’s luck also helped him get ‘lucky’, but he didn’t see any reason to bring it up to anyone and open that whole can of worms.

“I’ll join you on Rust once you’ve got a forward base established!” Thatch shouted over the engines, his watermelon tie flying about his neck. “Good luck!”

Jacob gave a thumbs up.

Becca joined him halfway up the ramp, her white dress fluttering and her hair whipping about. She took hold of Jacob by his jacket and pulled him close.

“Come back to me,” she murmured, barely audible through the din.

But in his mind, she said: Kill them all.

Kill the women. Kill the children.

Don’t spare a single soul.

Jacob swallowed hard. He threw one arm around her neck. “I’ll be back,” he promised.

“Pinky promise.”

They pinky promised.

She looked up at him, her blue eyes big and pleading. “When you get back, let’s get married.”

Jacob wasn’t sure what to say to that. He wished she hadn’t asked.

“I’ll need to think about it,” he said. “Right now I’m not sure what I want.”

She bit down hard on her lip. “Okay.” Then she went up on her tiptoes to give him a deep kiss.

Her tongue tasted like sour, rotten flesh.

Then she backed away and retreated to where Thatch was standing, trying in vain to keep her hair from going all over the place. Johnny was just about wrapping up too, letting the knight go with a final slap on the ass.

“You guys just call if you run into trouble!” he called over his shoulder with a big grin as he walked over to the others. “I’ll come runnin’.”

They were just about to start going inside the Quickdraw when another figure emerged onto the landing pad, weaving around criss-crossing flight staff. It was Grim, hands in his pockets. He flicked his cigarette over the edge of the platform as he wandered over. He said hello to Becca in passing and was up the ramp in a few long steps.

“Have you been practicing?” he asked in his same dry tone and with his same deadpan glare.

“Sure,” Jacob replied. “Not much progress, though. I’m still struggling with the visual.”

“You’ll get it eventually.” He took a small object out of his pocket and handed it over. “This’ll be useful when you do.”

It was a figurine of white stone, depicting a naked woman with her arms entwined over her head. The craftsmanship was impressively delicate, with even the curls of her flowing hair rendered out in detail.

“Uh, what is it?”

“A focus. When you first learn to channel nim, you won’t be able to bring much out at one time. With a focus, you can pour your nim into the object a bit at a time and draw it back out when you need it. It’ll let you cast spells more consistently until you learn to channel larger amounts.”

“So it’s like training wheels.”

“Exactly.”

“Normally I’d be offended, but I get the feeling I’m going to need it.”

Next, Grim held out a pack of cigarettes. “For the road.”

Jacob patted the one already in his pocket. “I’ve got my own, thanks.”

For the first time, Grim cracked a shadow of a smile. “Good.”

He’d hated them at first, but these days they were the only thing that didn’t taste like shit. Maybe because they’d tasted like shit to begin with.

“Things are becoming more dangerous around you all the time,” Grim said in parting as he began to back away. “Don’t blow up.”

Jacob spared a last glance at Becca, who waved meekly at him, before the ramp closed up and sealed with a sharp hiss.

The Quickdraw left Mars and linked up with the coalition fleet, hundreds of ships in all sizes and makes, even alien ones. A few hours later, the fleet began to move towards Rust and performed their first synchronized wayline skip.