Eirik had barely left the bar before he heard its door open behind him. Deciding not to look, he continued on his merry way while he used his datapad to message Jesper and ask where he and David were. He got a message back with coordinates for the part of the market where exotic animals and items were for sale. So, Eirik set his eyes on reaching that area. He could hear the footsteps of the heavy boots behind him, but they kept their distance so he assumed there were just attempting to tail him.

He tried losing them by taking extra turns, going through alleys, and every other trick he knew. Little good it did, as the sound of the heavy boots never stopped following him. When he reached the part of the market Jesper had mentioned, he started scanning the crowd for them. They saw him first and started walking toward him, but the tiniest shake of his head told them something was wrong and they moved past him as if they didn't know him, to study the stall selling rare gems.

Eirik started moving again and soon heard the boots again, but he also received a message on his datapad.

We see them. 3 men, concealed weapons. pick a place and confront them. We are ready.

Eirik felt more at ease, but the mention of concealed weapons worried him. You never knew what kind of weapon a Terran might be hiding. It could be a blade, it could be a gun, and anything in between the 2. Even if Eirik had a gun on him and he had already used it, his previous use could be excused on account of being where he was. Another incident would be extremely difficult to talk his way out of.

2 corners later he found himself in a long alley and halfway down he turned around to face the pursuers. As Jesper had told him in the message, there were indeed 3 of them, all of them had a hand inside their dirty and worn jackets, suggesting they had guns and were ready to draw them. Eirik doubted though. Silencers were an extreme expense out here, so that was out of the question, considering their impoverished looks. Gunshots would alert any nearby officers. They most likely had knives or tasers.

"You have been following me since the bar. Can I help you?" Eirik said aggressively as he reached for the seax on his leg.

"We just want that package you are carrying. Give it to us and we will not hurt you!" The leader of the 3 stepped forward and said

"Oh?? And I'm supposed to just believe that?" Eirik retorted. He had seen the blades the 3 men had drawn, despite their attempts at hiding it.

"We are going to get that package. With or without your consent. The easiest thing to do is accept your fate and just give it to us." The leader said and stepped toward Eirik with the knife held at the ready. Eirik responded by drawing his seax that was noticeably longer than the 3 robbers' knives and the look in their eyes lost some of the confidence they had a moment ago.

"That's a nice knife but it won't help you against the 3 of us!" The leader said, trying to boost the morale of his 2 partners.

"You are completely right. But they will." Eirik said and pointed behind the leader.

"Do you think this is my first time?" The leader replied in a mocking tone but whirled around when he heard a gurgling behind him. When he turned around one of his men was laying on the ground, the blood flowing freely from his throat, which was cut open deep enough to see the blood bubble around the white bone of the spine. Jesper was standing over the still-living corpse with a maniacal grin on his face and David had a gun at the temple of the other one.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"Now, put down the knife like a good little boy and I promise that he," Eirik pointed to the man who was gurgling as his lungs filled with his own blood. If he was lucky, the blood loss would knock him out before he drowned in his own blood. "He will be the only one to die here"

Frozen with fear, the leader of the robbers just stood there, wide-eyed and scared stiff. "PUT THE KNIFE DOWN. NOW!!!" Eirik roared and the sudden noise scared the leader bad enough that he dropped the knife.

Eirik pulled his gun and ordered the man down on the ground.

________________

20 minutes later the local police had taken the 2 survivors into custody and the older officer from the docks was speaking with Eirik in a heated tone.

"Not even 24 hours of you being here and I'm already dealing with 2 dead people!! If you did not have diplomatic immunity I would have locked you up and welded the bars shut!! I know who you are, Eirik, and I am not a fan of what you have done. You betrayed your people to go play warlord!"

"You know nothing of me or my reasons for doing what I did!" Eirik spat back, "If anyone betrayed anyone, Terra betrayed me! The things I have done in service to Terra are feats that very few people could have done the same way! I even went so far as to partially excommunicate myself from the Terran Empire before the war started, in an attempt to avoid dragging Terra's Empire into a war that was not of their own making! So don't you stand there and judge me for things you have no idea about, you lazy, complacent, incompetent, insignificant little CUNT!"

Eirik's voice had grown steadily as he responded and he was yelling the last insult at the top of his lungs. The older officer turned white, then beet red, and the officers behind him all looked like Eirik had made the last mistake of his life. Eirik could see the older officer opening and closing his hands, no doubt itching to throw a punch.

"Go ahead, do it! Rank is not an issue at this moment!" Eirik presented his chin to the officer. "Come on! Do it!"

When nothing happened Eirik straightened up and looked the older officer in the eyes. "Guess you have learned a few things in your line of duty. I'm impressed."

"Terra does not train idiots!" The older officer said through clenched jaws and with eyes that shot lightning.

"I guess not," Eirik said and turned his back to the officer. "Let's go!" He said to Jesper and David and the 3 of them started walking away.

"Hey! We are not finished here!" The older officer yelled after him but Eirik just waved a hand in the air and called back "You are more than welcome to try and stop me!"

He didn't.

________________

Walking back to the ship, Eirik looked at Jesper. "So, what did you find out?" He asked.

"Dalle supposedly recruited more than 100 men from this station, all of them known killers. I suspect he is trying to surround himself with a small army, in anticipation of you finding him, Eirik." Jesper answered.

"I'm not surprised. He was always a crafty bastard, even when he was on our team." Eirik recalled the memories as he spoke. Dalle had indeed been resourceful. Always a great idea when they ran their heads against the wall. But Eirik had been young back then. Many years had passed and the patience and insight he had been granted by the passing of time helped him greatly. "What about you, David?"

"I managed a rough estimate of the weapons he ordered and a full schematic over his personal ship," David said with a satisfied smile.

"How on earth did you manage that?" Eirik said in disbelief.

"Would you believe me if I told you that the lady in the records department used to be an old flame of mine?" David was now grinning ear to ear.

Both Jesper and Eirik were looking at him in disbelief. "You didn't..." Jesper said hesitantly.

"Right there in the records room. A most satisfying way to get information, if you ask me" David said, that stupid smile still plastered to his face.

The laughter of the 3 friends filled the marketplace as they walked back to the ship.