Page 34 of Abducting Sarah

She huffed and put the gun back in its holster. “You’re lucky you got that good dick of yours.”

I turned to her and smiled. Boundless was a former pirate-turned-garbage dump owner. It was an easy line of work for someone trying to go legit, but less so for a woman with her looks. She kept her hair dyed bright pink and had skin like onyx. No one understood why she didn’t try to marry someone classed or do something else to lift herself from such a life, but it seemed to suit her.

I kept my smile on and said, “Could be luck, could be skill. Have you seen Curse or Patch?”

“Not for a week. Why?”

“We’re meeting here tonight—”

She drew her gun up again. “I told you last time, I don’t want you meeting your mates here. I run a clean business—”

“You run the city dump,” Tiger pointed out.

“Yeah, and I keep my nose clean by stopping the criminals from meeting here. I don’t want no trouble from the Bateens.”

Slowly, I tapped the gauntlet driver on my arm. I didn’t want to spook Boundless. Getting shot by her twice had been twice too many, and I didn’t want to add a third. My gauntlet driver lit the one on her arm and she watched as the money dropped into her account.

Her smile increased by half. “That all?”

I added another thousand credits.

Her smile filled out, and she re-holstered her gun. “Strange, isn’t it, officers? I heard a ship, but I didn’t see no one by the time I got out of my house.” She turned around and headed back to her home inside the rubble.

Kapok asked after Boundless, “Ain’t you gonna take this out on his ass?”

I shot him an angry glare and muttered, “What the fuck?”

But as she walked on, she said, “The game is on. Eriffs versus Drecks. Wouldn’t miss it, not even for that dick.” She vanished between the garbage heaps.

“Come on,” I said, shaking my head as I led my men to the dock.

Traversing the garbage of Ladrille was always a sticky prospect, but this time, it was particularly ripe. Aliubock season was always that way. It was a common food for the unclassed, so it was trendy for the classed to try to make it themselves, which meant loads of half-fermented cabbage hybrids filled the dump.

Once we reached the dock, I used my gauntlet driver to signal Curse and Patch’s ship,Regal. “Should be any minute now.”

Tiger complained, “This was the only place to meet them?”

“The only place safe enough and close enough to the prison, yes.”

He huffed and stared into the sky, then jumped when he heard the large bubbles beneath the dock.

Kapok laughed at his cousin. “Trouble?”

“What is that?” Tiger asked.

“Regal,” I answered.

The ship rose from the sewage-filled depths of the Emerald Sea and sat next to the dock. When the door opened, Curse sprang out. He was bald, with rich bronzed skin and a set of blue fatigues that had seen better days.

“Jac! Kapok! New Guy!” he greeted jovially. “Come on in!”

“It has been a while, hasn’t it?” I asked. “That’s Tiger, Kapok’s cousin.”

“The more the merrier, that’s what they say, right?”

“You got my message?”

“We’re rescuing Silence Bateen for way more money than she’s worth—that kind of message does not get lost. The usual play?”

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