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  "My usual muscle went and got himself shot. I've got some deadbeats that didn't pay what was owed, and I need examples made of those who don't settle their debts. I've also got a fella that beat one of my girls half to death and needs the favor repaid. And I've got a shipment of luxuries—perfumes, silks, and the like—that got heisted and I need them back," Alexa said.

  That was a lot and almost all of it demanded violence. Van wasn't necessarily opposed to that—he'd gotten in a lot of fights growing up and knew how to throw a punch. However, it wasn't his preferred way of making a living despite telling Alexa that he was a mercenary.

  "That last sounds more like a job for a thief," Van said. "Steal it back."

  "I'm willing to buy it back, but I'm not going to a deal like that without a gunslinger at my back in case things go bad."

  That was better. Looking intimidating he could manage.

  "And what are you offering in turn? That's a lot of responsibility just so you can point a finger in someone's direction," Van said.

  "What are you looking for? Coin? Companionship? Connections?" Alexa asked.

  It was a good question, what did Van need? Whatever the local currency, it wouldn't do him much good if he was going off-world. Companionship was tempting, but the idea of paying for it didn't appeal. Connections were even more useless than coin.

  "Honestly? I'm new here. I need room and board. Some people might come looking for me, and if they do I either need warning or need them off my trail," Van said.

  "Who is looking for you and why?" She frowned. "You bring trouble to my door, this deal goes away."

  "I'm a clone. I don't know much more than that, but I'm told that people here sometimes hear that and see a payday."

  Alexa gave Van a hard look. "Right then. You're now my cousin, visiting. We'll get the rest figured out."

  4

  "The strong make the rules. All other laws are but extensions of this first, primal rule." Madison Cartwright, Sheriff

  Alexa arranged a room for Van. It was cramped and simple, but it was private with an entrance from the alley behind the saloon. It shared a bath with the girls. He could deal with that if they could. Of course, as soon as Alexa was done with settling Van, she expected him to start earning his keep.

  "You want me to beat up him?" Van asked.

  From playing guard to collecting debts, Alexa thought it would help Van's case if he quickly established something of a reputation for violence. Floyd Thompkins was the man who had punched and abused one of her girls. Van didn't know quite what he'd imagined was in store first up, but it was certainly more of a threat than this—Floyd was a wiry-looking man with deep circles under his eyes and a good bit of gray in his hair.

  "What were you expecting? A man doesn't have to be a giant to be an ass. Usually the big ones are gentler, they have to be," Alexa said.

  It was an interesting view and one that Van would have loved to put more thought into except Alexa was already leaving his side. Floyd was drinking at one of the tables and was alone.

  Alexa sauntered up to Floyd and tapped him on the shoulder. "Floyd, you're a right bastard. You know my girls love them a good pounding, but when that dick of yours ain't up to the job, you've no right to switch to your fists."

  Right, she was going for the diplomatic approach.

  "What the hell did you say to me?" Floyd asked, pushing himself back from the table, his chair falling behind him. "Now I was drunk, but that don't give no whore the right to be talking to me that way."

  Floyd took a swing at Alexa who side-stepped it nimbly. A bit too nimbly, Van thought.

  "Got him ready for you," Alexa said cheerfully.

  "Who the hell are you?" Floyd asked, staring belligerently up at Van.

  Van had at least a foot on the man, which didn't seem to be giving him pause at all.

  "I'm her cousin," Van said.

  "Then I guess I got to go through you to get to her," Floyd said, and he flung himself forward, throwing fists towards Van's stomach.

  There was a dull thud as the blows landed and Van didn't feel them. The armor really must be doing its job well.

  Van threw a punch that caught Floyd on his forehead. It didn't even slow the smaller man down. It was a bit like finding yourself in a fight with a particularly furious small dog. Floyd might not be doing much damage, but if there was one thing he didn't lack for it was effort. Punch after punch was delivered and the sheer intensity of the blows sent Van stumbling back for a moment.

  Floyd drew a fist back and this time went for the groin. There was a ceramic plate there as well and it absorbed much of the force. Enough got through that Van felt it. It was literally a low blow and if Van's heart wasn't much in the fight until now, it was a good motivator.

  "Behind you," Alexa said, ducking, and Van was shoved forward as a chair smashed across his back.

  Van turned to see a bearded, blond man behind him. Floyd picked that moment to charge and send Van staggering back against a table.

  Alexa jumped onto a chair and called out, "This isn't a free-for-all. Man that lays a hand on my cousin better have a wife at home."

  The threat worked and a few people that were half out of their chairs sat back down.

  It didn't change the dynamics of the fight, it still being two on one. While Floyd didn't seem a huge problem in his own right, two people made things a lot more dangerous.

  Van had to take one of them out as quick as possible.

  Van rolled back onto the table and kicked at Floyd with both boots, sending the man sprawling backwards. Van jumped back to his feet just in time to take a second chair, this one to the chest.

  It broke into pieces and Van delivered a series of punches to the blond man, one crushing his nose with an audible squish. Clutching his face the man retreated—over Alexa's carefully extended leg which sent him crashing to the floor.

  "You seem pretty good at this," Van said.

  "It is that kind of place," Alexa said.

  Floyd charged at Van again and this time Van drew his arm back to deliver a savage uppercut. Van had always been strong—working the fields did that to you. Still, he really did seem stronger than he remembered. The force of the blow snapped Floyd's teeth together and caused his eyes to roll back in his head as he dropped.

  Alexa nudged him with a foot, frowning. "Disappointing. I'd hoped there would be a little more blood."

  "You can keep kicking him, if you want. I don't think anybody is going to stop you," Van said.

  Alexa peered downward and shrugged. "Tempting. Not very decent to go kicking a man who's down though." She paused for a moment and then delivered a savage kick into his ribs. "Guess I'm not very decent. That is for the whore line." She drove in another three. "And those are for Ellie."

  The blond man was showing signs of getting back up. Alex stomped him in the face.

  "That's for not staying out of it," Van said.

  "This kicking people while they're down thing is pretty fun," Alexa said, letting out a low breath. She raised her voice. "But enough is enough. Next time someone lays a hand on one of mine, we put them in the ground."

  It was loud enough to carry the room. Nobody changed what they were doing, but Van could tell the message had gotten through.

  5

  Sheriffs are agents of the Brontin Empire, there to keep order on their colony worlds. Their lifespans are sharply correlated with their strength, a weak Sheriff usually doesn't last out a week.

  Again, Alexa wasn't wasting any time at getting some use out of Van. After the bar fight she explained that a meeting was set up for that night to get her supplies back. Alexa suggested he explore the town and gave him a small pouch of money.

  It was more than Van had asked for. Alexa was something of a mystery. Van was pretty sure that Alexa wasn't what she seemed, and yet he had no idea what she was. There was one thing without doubt—Alexa was the most beautiful woman he'd seen in town and the competition wasn't even close. It wasn't just that, though. A
lexa was a little too confident and somehow the whole saloon madam thing felt more like a role she was playing with relish.

  Van stopped by the general store. Before doing anything else he wanted to get himself a hat. The coins Alexa had given him weren't enough for some of the more expensive ones. He finally walked away with a brown hat that at least served to keep the sun out of his eyes and made him look a bit more like he belonged.

  Van had hoped to find an office of the Bounty Hunters Guild, or if it was even in the city. Just after leaving the general store he was approached by a man with a silver star on his jacket.

  The man looked to be in his thirties, and a good half of his body was metallic. The eye on that side was a sort of purple gemstone. The man—or cyborg as the case clearly was—stood directly in Van's way and looked him up and down.

  "Huh," the cyborg said.

  Van had learned the local customs well enough. He could play this out. His hand went up to tip the brim of his newly acquired hat. "Howdy."

  "Don't howdy me, boy. The armor looks like something you might pick up from any military surplus store on a central world, but I can see spirit-weave in it. Your pistols are the same. Who are you and what are you doing in my town?"

  The cyborg apparently wasn't interested in being very polite.

  "I'm Alexa's cousin, you know, from the saloon? In town on family business. Don't mean to cause any trouble that don't come looking for me or her," Van said.

  Even though the cyborg looked formidable, Van was still going to lie to him. In fact, that seemed all the more reason to make that lie good and convincing.

  The cyborg studied him a moment more. "That works. A lie, of course, but it makes sense that you're connected with her."

  The cyborg extended a hand. "Deputy Kanin."

  Van reached out and shook the deputy's hand—the metallic one. The grip was strong, and as far as he could tell it functioned as well as any natural one.

  "What makes you think it is a lie?" Van asked.

  "That you even have to ask proves that. I see a lot with this eye of mine, and you and Miss Alexa aren't kin. What or who you are I don't know. If you don't cause trouble for my town I don't care," Kanin said.

  "So you're the deputy. Is there a sheriff here as well?"

  "Last sheriff died about a year back. Previous one a few weeks before that, and so on. Guess they got tired of replacing them," Kanin said dryly.

  And, Van thought, Kanin hadn't tried to take the title for himself.

  "How long have you been here?" Van asked.

  "Ten years or so."

  There were a lot of reasons he might not have taken the job of Sheriff. If he had lasted ten years, lack of strength wasn't one of them.

  "Think you could point me towards the Bounty Hunters Guild? I was hoping to have a word," Van said.

  Kanin shook his head. "Not here. It's back out near the port."

  The starport, Van assumed. It made sense, since it was one of the few organizations that could allow transit off-world. Van didn't know much about bounty hunters, but they must travel a great deal.

  Van expected that his question would earn more from Kanin. The deputy just gave a nod and continued on his way.

  Outside of the main street there wasn't much to see. Most of the town was dilapidated housing and, in sharp contrast, a few truly luxurious-looking mansions.

  That was similar to Naxon, and Van wondered if it was the same on every world. When the sun started to go down he headed back to the saloon. It was time for the meeting.

  6

  The Post — Your mail delivered anywhere, to all worlds civilized and otherwise. There is nowhere our team of elite couriers can't reach, for the right price.

  Alexa had procured a wagon. The meeting spot was outside of town and the supplies they planned to recover were more than could be loaded on horseback.

  Alexa had changed into breeches and a shirt. When Van settled into the seat beside her, he noticed what appeared to be a sword in a sheath behind him.

  Van hadn't seen many swords in his life. They were an unusual choice of weapon. He understood they were popular in the Dynasty. Otherwise the Empire had no use for them outside of the nobility.

  "Mind telling me exactly what we're going into?" Van asked.

  "Wish I knew. I know this rock, and I know the scum that clings to it, and they know me. None of them with a lick of sense should be stealing from me, and if they do I should know who they are," Alexa said.

  "You're worried."

  "Not bringing you along because I'm not. I don't know what this is and I don't like that. They're wanting to meet at an abandoned mine in the mountains to the west of town."

  "Isn't there a whole lot of sand between us and there?"

  Alexa shook her head. "That's south. Most of the land isn't desert like that. It's still a desert, but not like that. When the Shaw crashed it caused some changes."

  That must be the starship that Van climbed.

  Heading west out of town there was a proper trail, and a bit beyond the outskirts parched reddish dirt and sparse grass dominated the landscape.

  "We're not headed right to the meeting point. I want to see if we can get a look at who we're dealing with first," Alexa said.

  That made sense to Van.

  After about ten minutes Alexa turned them off a trail onto a side path littered with stones. This took them up a climbing, increasingly uneven trail. Finally Alexa brought the wagon to a stop.

  Van hopped off and Alexa did the same, grabbing the sword and belting it on her waist.

  "That isn't going to be much use in a gunfight," Van said.

  "If I wind up needing it, you'll find it's those pistols of yours that aren't much use. Let's hope I don't need it," Alexa said.

  Alexa headed up the slope of a hill and Van followed. The sun had set and it was tough going in the darkness, this side of the hill shadowed from the moonlight. Van almost lost his step a few times. Alexa seemed to be having a far easier time of it.

  When they neared the crest Alexa dropped to her stomach and crawled forward. Van did the same.

  While there still wasn't much light, things were improved by the fact that this world had three moons low on the horizon. None of them were huge, but enough to reveal some details of the world.

  The mine entrance was dimly visible below. Several horses were tethered outside. There was no sign of the riders.

  If they were planning an ambush of some kind, this hilltop would have made the logical place to position themselves with rifles. They could be hiding within the mine itself, but that didn't make much sense without a spotter.

  "We need to go," Alexa said, quickly scurrying back from the edge before rising to her feet.

  Van pulled himself away too. "You saw something?"

  "No, nothing—and I should. Someone is cloaking themselves well enough I can't sense them, and that means they're too powerful or too well-equipped to bother stealing anything from me."

  A woman seemed to step out of the darkness before them. "You're right, of course. Stand down and come back with us of your own volition." The woman looked to be somewhere in her twenties, dark-haired, and wearing armor of a greenish hue with a sword at her waist.

  Van had his pistols out even as Alexa drew her sword.

  Alexa said, "I don't think so. Don't waste your bullets on her, Van. If there are others you might have better luck."

  "Force it is, then," the green-armored woman said and gestured. A dozen serpents made of greenish light seemed to spring from her palm, streaking towards Alexa. Alexa raised her sword, the blade glinting with a bluish light as it sliced through the serpents dissipating them.

  Alexa had said not to waste his bullets. Perhaps the woman's armor was bullet proof, but her head wouldn't be. Van fired off several shots.

  Van could tell that one of them connected, the bullet sparking as it hit flesh. The only mark was a faint welt along one cheek as if she'd been scratched.

  Van didn't even k
now how to parse that. Were the bullets in his guns even real? Or was this what Alexa had warned him about?

  Other figures were materializing. These all wore robes, black and loose-fitting.

  Van put two bullets into the chest of the closest and the man fell backward gasping for breath as if he'd been punched, not shot.

  A woman that was a good foot shorter than Van closed the distance to him and thrust a punch to his chest. Van had just been in a bar fight—he knew how well this armor handled punches. This one sent him soaring through the air, over the hillside, and tumbling down it with his entire world spinning.

  Somewhere along the way he lost consciousness.

  When he came to one sun was just peeking over the horizon. The mine entrance was down the slope from him. The horses were gone.

  So was Alexa.

  7

  "The technology of the Empire is nothing like essence. A tool built by a master can give even a child great power, and those tools can be replicated almost endlessly. While this can make them seem weak individually, in war they become mighty." Travels in the Empire

  Van took awhile to get his bearings. There were some tracks of the horses leading away, but those became obscured once they hit the main trail. There was simply too much traffic there.

  The wagon was still where they had left it.

  Van needed to figure out his next move. He still had his own dire situation. If danger really was coming for him, any further delays in putting off his hunt for Migo made it more likely that it might catch up to him.

  Van had known Alexa less than a day, and that had been an employer and employee relationship. It could be argued that he owed Alexa something for letting her get kidnapped on his watch. On the other hand, she hadn't exactly warned Van that she was being hunted by bullet-proof, super-punching people who stepped out of shadows.

  Still, the thought of just abandoning Alexa to whatever fate had befallen her didn't sit easily. He'd met one person that seemed like they might be able to help—really, it was their job. Van needed to find Deputy Kanin.