“My-god-my-god-my-god, Adan!” The scratchy, light voice was hard to hear over the roar of the water.

Vas had to go down the canyon quite far to find the owner of that voice. The river was no longer a ribbon, but a real, rushing torrent.

“Hello, Jasp. I see you still have that parasite.”

Jasp reached up with gnarled, bony fingers to scratch at the small head that was perched above his left shoulder. “Me and Mr. McMonkey-face are inseparable.”

McMonkey-face bared his tiny white fangs and hissed.

“And almost indistinguishable.”

Jasp laughed.

“You know that’s not a monkey,” Adan said. “I don’t know what planet that thing came from, but I’m sure that they someday hope to become something half as nice as monkeys.”

“Someday they’ll take over as the sentient species of this galaxy and your damn war will finally be over.”

“My war? It was going long before I joined.”

“It’ll be going long after. You can’t wage an effective war across millions of light-years of space. Ask the Romans. You get one new planet freed and look behind you to find out you’ve lost four others.”

Vas made a face, then leaned down to drop his finger on McMonkey-face’s head. It didn’t even try to bite him. The poor thing must have been tired. “You look dreadful, Jasp.”

“Don’t do drugs, Adan.”

“Actually,” Vas said, squatting down on his heels, “that’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh?”

Vas looked around before pulling out the Exaludnium.

“Ohhh-ho-ho-ho-ho!” Jasp clutched at the package. “What have you brought me?”

“Exalt.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“That’s not a little bit either, now is it? You must need money pretty bad.”

“Money and supplies,” Vas said, still looking around.

Jasp suddenly sounded suspicious. “What kind of supplies?”

“Nothing you can’t handle. I need an unbound e-pistol and a supply of Tranomine.”

“Tranomine? You’re handing me a full package of Exalt and you want Tranomine? What is wrong with you?”

“Maybe I need something to dull the pain without sending me out of my head. Now, where can I get some?”

“Any stupid corner shop. Are you serious? My grandmother has that cheap crap lying around in cupboards.”

“Good.”

“It doesn’t work, you know.”

Vas looked down at the repugnant figure sitting on the cliff bench. “What?”

“Tranomine—it works on the body. If you want real relief, you have to get the stuff that works on the brain.” He tapped his own forehead with the edge of the bag.

“You want me to take that back?” Vas held out his hand.

“No-no-no-no!” Jasp hugged the bag to himself. “It’s good enough. You know what you want. The blaster will be a bit harder.”

“Will it?”

“I’ll have to stand up and walk somewhere, for one thing.” When Jasp stood, he raised his arms and took a deep breath of damp air “Whew!” His high-pitched call echoed across the canyon. “I love this planet.”

Vas shook his head. “What are you on right now?”

“Don’t you worry about me, Adan. Mr. McMonkey-face would never let me fall.” He reached up and scratched his pet’s head. “Isn’t that right?”

The thing chattered loudly.

“Come on back to my place.” Jasp motioned with his head.

Ten minutes later, the noise from the river was cut to almost nothing when they shut the door on his small hut. Sound-proofing technology was a part of required building codes for that area.

McMonkey-face jumped from Jasp’s arm onto a gym constructed out of broken shipping material. A powerful smell was creeping up from an ancient-looking blanket that desperately needed washing years ago.

“Come in, come in, and know me better, man,” Jasp said, crossing the small room to reach the island counter in front of the grimy kitchen.

“I’d really rather not,” Vas said.

Jasp shrugged. “I don’t blame you.” He reached into one of his cupboards and pulled out some pots. From them he drew a pile of chip-cards and a bulky old account machine that looked as if a mad scientist had gotten a hold of it. He dropped them on top of his counter. “Is five thousand fair?” he asked while bending down to plug in the account machine.

“No.”

“Five thousand and an unbound pew-pew toy?”

Vas shrugged. “That’s more fair.”

Jasp ran the card and punched the numbers. He showed Vas the screen before finalizing the transaction. “Today, you are Mr. Somebody-an-something. I forget. I have so damn many of these things. Now wait here, Mr. Somebody-an-something. I’ll get your e-pistol.”

He returned from another room with the e-pistol in hand. When it was handed over, Vas quickly stripped it for inspection.

“It looks brand new,” he said, putting it back together.

“Only the best for you, Adan.”

Vas gave Jasp a look.

“You wanted it unbound, right?” Jasp said. “I found an easier way to get unbound guns than taking them off dead bodies and paying some hacker to unbind them. It works. It’s what you wanted.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The gun clattered on the counter between them.

“Jasp, are you dealing with the Supremacy?”

“Only the worst lowlifes in the Supremacy.” Jasp noted the expression on the captain’s face. “Chill, Adan. Not all of us can afford to take the moral high ground. The high ground always costs more. You know that.”

“Yeah, but I’ll bet that you still have more money than I do.” Vas slowly reached out to pick up the chip-card and e-pistol.

“That’s because I sell everything I possibly can. That’s why you can come and buy from me.”

“A holster?”

Jasp left and came out again with the requested holster. “You know I’d sell you out too, right, Adan?”

Vas went toward the door. “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.” The captain paused with his hand on the knob. “Tell me you didn’t sell me out to get an in with them?”

Jasp laughed. “Nope. I have no problem getting stuff to sell. Rest assured, I would save up your name to buy something really rare, really important—like my life, maybe.”

“Thanks, Jasp. You sure know how to make a guy feel secure. I don’t know if naming a nobody like me will save you, but I can’t blame you for trying.” He opened the door.

Jasp yelled over the sound of the river. “Are you making a stop below middle strata?”

Vas froze.

“There’s a woman there that’s been looking for you.”

“I know.” The door slammed behind the captain, shutting away most of the sound.

[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]

When Reyer emerged from the back office, Joseph Tate grunted with satisfaction.

“Now, that looks a lot better, Sar—Bella.”

“That’s Miss Thorne to you, Tate.” She moved over to the table where the kit bag was and started to fold her old clothes to pack them away. “You got a wrap?”

Tate held it out. “Daphne wanted to get my sister a bright orange one, but I told her navy blue, dusty green, brown, or gray—”

“And never black,” Reyer finished for him. “Black stands out.”

“You’re still paranoid.”

“I’m still alive.” She inspected the long cloth with obvious admiration. Wraps were universal and unisex. It only took one or two planets before travelers appreciated their variety of uses. “This is amazingly fine,” she said with wonder.

“It was the least I could do. It turns out someone I owe a lot to claims she’s still alive.”

Alix finished packing, then turned to Tate. “How long have I been dead?”

“Since Geonon One,” he whispered.

Reyer nodded. “That makes sense. It would have been easier that way.” She zipped up the bag with more energy than was called for.

“I wondered though,” Tate went on. “I heard Hugo talking sometimes. Every Riser I knew was convinced that you were dead—even me—but every once in a while, your name would pop up. Usually in intercepted Supremacy communications.”

“You mean they were talking about me?”

Tate nodded. “What have you gotten yourself into, Sarge?”

“I don’t know, Howell.” Reyer shook her head to bring herself back to reality—or to the false reality constructed around her. “Tate. You’re Tate.” She took a deep breath and looked up at him. “What are you doing here, Tate?”

“Learning to like books.”

Reyer smiled.

“They’re hiding me,” he said. “My name and face were blown open about four months after you died. I had the best chance of hiding here since they’d never seen a whiff of me on this planet and the Supremacy’s grip is lighter here.”

“You could have gone to a free-plane.”

Tate shook his head. “Sorry, but no. You might not know, being dead and all, but the free-planes aren’t as safe as you’d think. The Rising’s spread pretty thin, and they had to relocate every major base they had. Some of the free-planes have been falling again, one by one. And when they fall, everyone and everything gets searched thoroughly. Sometimes brutally. I was better off here.”

The look on his old sergeant’s face made the icy pit in Tate’s stomach sink even more.

“Hey. No. You can’t walk around with that expression,” he said. “Old Supreme will know you don’t approve of them and haul you in. Besides, they don’t match the clothes. You should be happy to have a kit like that.”

“I am happy,” Reyer forced a smile. She threw the bag over her shoulder. “Your girl, Daphne, has excellent taste. How do you like her, by the way?”

Tate raised his hands. “I’m only trying to fit in!”

“Is she so bad you have to make excuses for her?”

“She’s a little whiny. It can get kinda old, but it makes me feel all manly when I come to save the day.”

Reyer groaned in sympathy.

Tate ran a finger over his bottom lip. “What about Rurik? Have you heard from him?”

Everything went out of focus. Reyer’s whole body felt cold. Numbly, her hands sought somewhere to hang off the bag’s strap so they wouldn’t start shaking. “He’s dead.”

Tate grimaced. “Your kind of dead…or dead-dead?”

The two former soldiers stared at each other, then looked restlessly around the crowded office.

“Do you know what happened at Geonon One?” Reyer asked.

“Only what’s in the official report.”

“I haven’t seen it.”

“I guess they forgot to put a copy in your coffin.” Tate went over to the window and looked down at the rest of the store. “Stay here, Bella Thorne. Vas and Hugo are still talking, and I might have something you’d be interested in reading.”

[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]

Hugo and Vas were, indeed, still talking, in spite of the fact that Hugo thought the conversation should have ended a while ago.

“I don’t know what more you want from me, Captain. You have all the information at my disposal. If you don’t, then someone much higher up than you or I decided you didn’t need it.”

“Hugo, would you tell me if there was something about—”

“Don’t. Don’t you dare say her name.” Hugo’s eyes darted around the empty shop. “She was good and dead and buried. If anyone deserved that happy fate, it was her. She’s been through enough. I don’t know why you and the generals decided to dig her up again—”

“They found her, Hugo. Six men and three bots were at her door when I came to get her.”

There was a significant pause where Hugo’s jowls wobbled. “I didn’t know that. What can you tell me?”

“Shouldn’t I wait until I get approval from the higher-ups to tell you?”

Hugo was good at scowling. His face was made for it. As Tate passed by, Hugo called out to his clerk, “Please go get our guest.”

Tate waved the reader he was holding. “Sir.”

“Is that for Miss…Miss—”

“Thorne,” Vas supplied.

“Yes. Is that for Miss Thorne?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Old Earth literature?”

“Yes, sir.”

Hugo grumbled to himself, then raised his head to shout, “It should be a Slate. One of the newest generation. With a case.”

Tate nodded and started up the stairs.

Vas watched the clerk. “You’re going all out for her, Hugo.”

“No, you’re going all out for her.” Hugo snatched the chip-card from Vas’s hand and ran it through his account machine. “There won’t be much left on this if you don’t rein it in.”

“Take it all. Give yourself a tip.”

“Maybe I will.” Hugo handed back the chip-card. “Now tell me what happened.”

Vas shrugged. “Old base got the message. It was her number, the fact they’d found her, and a goodbye. General Ito sent me out after her. When I got there, they were already there.”

“They were on planet?”

“Apparently. Or they rode like hell to reach her.”

“No, the Supremacy will always be synonymous with bureaucracy. They never hurry to anything.” Hugo put his face in his hand and rubbed his jowls with two fat fingers. “Not unless she’s still considered a military priority.”

“Even then—”

“Even then it should have taken a few days for the message to be passed to the right squad. She couldn’t be special orders…could she?”

Vas and Hugo looked at each other, but this time neither knew the answer.

Hugo cleared his throat. “Did any of the generals vote against her retrieval?”

Vas straightened up, easing away from the counter.

“Dear god.” The two words dropped as heavy as stones. “She didn’t.”

Vas strained to keep the half smile off his face.

“She did,” Hugo intoned. He shook a finger at the captain. “You presume too much sometimes.”

“I was only obeying orders!”

“Ha! I know you, Adan Vas.” There was a pause. “You can’t tell me anything else?”

Adan shook his head.

Hugo stared out the window of his shop at the opposite wall of the canyon. “I would tell you—if I thought it wouldn’t put you or me in danger. I would. But honestly, boy, there’s nothing more I can tell you. There’s only bits and pieces and a lot we don’t know.”

“I guessed that might be the case.” Vas turned around and leaned back on the counter.

“Then why did you come here? This planet is dangerous—particularly for you.”

Both men watched as Reyer came down the stairs, the kit bag slung over her shoulder. Tate followed behind.

“We needed supplies,” Vas said.

Hugo snorted. “If she knew that this was a shopping trip for some clothes, I think she’d be a slightly disappointed in your priorities.”

Vas looked over his shoulder at Hugo. “You think we could travel halfway across the galaxy with no books? That’s intolerable. You of all people should appreciate that.”

When Vas stepped away from the counter, Hugo could see that he was concealing more than one e-pistol. And she’ll appreciate that.

From the corner of his eye, Hugo saw a glimpse of color and a figure hesitating in front of his shop. “Vas.”

When the captain turned, Hugo motioned for him to come back.

“Vas, you have a visitor.”

Vas looked up. His eyes met the woman’s through the glass. They both quickly looked away from each other.

“Hugo, was this your doing?” the captain hissed as the woman came in the shop.

“She’s an old friend, Adan. I promised her I would call.” Hugo stepped around the counter. “I had hoped she would be waiting for you when you got back from your errands.” He walked toward the back of the shop. “I’ll look after Miss Thorne until you’re ready to get her.”