30. AHANE

Her toes dug into his calf. One dig, two digs, three digs.

Their agreed-upon signal that he was to throw the next round, which would see some of the pot be awarded to the 4875C—the third warm body to their right—sitting across from him.

So the 4875C was the one she’d chosen this time. He sorted his pieces and watched the board, planning how he would set up the 4875C for success without becoming prey for other players.

It did not always work out that he lost to the intended player, or that the target saw the play.

Not getting caught was also important.

All added layers of difficulty to the game that Taidc would have admired.

He did not take his eyes off the game table or the other players, but he sensed Thalia’s attention was on the Floor Boss watching from the corner to their left. They had swiftly had to become very careful in their communication as the Floor Boss had become extremely suspicious. Thalia always sat on his lap, allowing her to nudge him and shift to communicate intention, and her hood hid where her focus was—but not entirely.

Human attention was still Human attention, and the subject of her attention normally could detect it.

She’d figured this out (apparently Humans “got a sense” for when someone was staring at them, so for her, it was normal. She brushed off his attempt to explain it was, in fact, not normal. Thalia might have been the smallest, most uninteresting person in this place, but everyone noticed her.) and adjusted so she focused on the game. It had not thrown the Floor Bosses completely off their trail. Despite carefully mixing wins and losses, and sometimes not even playing with a table where Thalia selected a target, the Floor Bosses seemed to have honed in on their Robin Hood-ing.

Nothing had been said… yet.

The three players she had chosen so far had immediately exited the table upon winning the pot, and he had not seen them again. The debts must have been paid and the departure swift.

Thalia shifted in a way to indicate they were being watched. It was a peculiar roll of her hips that never failed to excite the nerves of his inner thigh and send a twinge of torment through his balls. It also refocused his attention instantly on her and the game itself.

He moved his pieces. Now it would be on the target to recognize the play. He adjusted his grip on Thalia just for an excuse to touch her and draw her close. She obliged by sinking into his chest and shifting her weight towards him, her entire body relaxing with a contented sigh.

The player before the 4875C made a clicking noise of frustration—he saw the available win and was not in position. The 4875’s belly scales illuminated with glee as they took the pieces and the prize from the pot. They scooped up their pieces, chirped a goodbye to the table, and slithered off to cash out.

The FloorBoss out of the corner of his eye twirled his upper legs one around the other.

Thalia glanced up, her body tensing, and it kept tensing, and then it seemed to chill. The chill coursed outward and the casino’s rhythm slowed.

He gave her a poke just above the cleft of her ass. It didn’t break the cold, clammy… fear?… that had gripped her.

A few seconds later and a 77Ω walked into the casino.

The casino noted this with another pause and others turned to look. From under her hood, Thalia stared at the 77Ω, tracing his every moment. The 77Ω went to the window, got a tray of pieces, and took the empty chair.

Thalia felt like tense wire against him. To be fair, everyone else in the casino was a bit tense. And the FloorBoss and other staff were watching warily.

The 77Ω was missing an oral tentacle—there was just a stub where the seventh should have been. They had deep yellow scars carved into their otherwise thick blue-green skin, and a muscled, slender physique spotted with other more minor scars scattered across their hide like stars. Their bandoliers were well-worn and adjusted with particular care, and on the left strap was a patch: the 77Ω Bounty Guild, and below it, three slash marks.

Thalia’s breathing was short, deep, fast.

“I’m not here for you, 25XA,” the 77Ω told him.

“I know. No one would pay a bounty for me,” Ahane replied flatly.

“I doubt that.”

“I don’t. They’re smarter than that. Or dead.”

The 77Ω jostled his six remaining oral tentacles in a laugh.

Thalia cringed.

The 77Ω looked at the other players, who all wanted nothing to do with him. “I’m also not here for any of you. So if we could play.” He gestured to the board.

“Maybe you should just tell us who you’re here for so you can be on your way,” Ahane said dryly.

“High House lilt on your voice, 25XA. High House.” He wagged a tentacle at Ahane.

“Says the three-mark 77Ω bounty hunter out here. Either you have fallen far from grace or you are hunting dangerous prey.”

The 77Ω chuckled again and moved several pieces onto the board. Ahane slid his tail higher on Thalia’s calf to reassure her. The 77Ω was an expert player—a challenge had arrived.

Ahane tossed a piece at the 77Ω. “Tell us whatever news you might have, Hunter. It’s been in short supply lately, and since you won’t tell us what you’re hunting, give us something else to talk about. Rumors about Humans back on 25XA.”

“More than rumors,” the 77Ω said, his gaze resting briefly on Thalia, before shifting to another hooded player at another table. “Confirmed. There are Humans at the Temple.”

Ahane snorted.

“How long has it been since you’ve been home, 25XA?” the Hunter asked.

“Cook. I’m the Cook here. And I don’t know. Stopped keeping track.”

“And you,” the 77Ω addressed Thalia, “How long have you been decorative?”

Thalia snapped her attention to him, seething under her hood, but she did not say anything.

“Oh, aren’t you interesting,” the 77Ω purred.

“Leave my assistant out of this,” Ahane said darkly.

“Assistant? Don’t you mean mate?” the 77Ω spread all his oral tentacles in a mocking grin. Although two of them coiled in a contemplative fashion and he looked back and forth between Thalia and Ahane.

“This topic is old,” one of the players chirped. “Play.”

“Who was that?” Thalia asked, absolutely ashen and pale even for her.

“A 77Ω.”

“I got that. Bounty hunter.”

“A Ω planet is one that doesn’t have a star. It’s a dark, cold planet. It was colonized long ago by the 77. They are bounty hunters. The finest in the Gestalt, and that one is one of the best. He’s 77Ω Bounty Hunter guild—which is its own guild attached to the Gestalt Bounty guild. And the three marks on his patch mean he is one of their best. Hiring one like him requires exorbitant fees and a prey of interest.”

“He sent him.” Thalia’s voice shook and rose several notes.

As much as he wanted to tell her that was not the case, she was probably right. 77Ω of that seniority did not discriminate against contracts based on if the hunt was legal or not. The only way to continue to achieve status was through increasingly difficult or exotic assignments. Not getting caught doing something illegal was part of the difficulty.

Nothing would be more exotic than an errant Human being returned to her Grey handler.

“I felt him,” she said softly.

“77Ω are a species of psy. Very good psy. He spotted you as psy as well.”

She hugged herself. Her little fingers tugged at the cloth of her shirt sleeves. “He’s looking for me, Ahane. He is looking for me!”

He ran his hands over her hair and down her neck. “And He won’t get you back.”

I wipeddown the counter and eyed the three dawdlers at the table-basin in the back corner. If they could finish up so I could get those plates in the washer and start a load, that’d be great.

Gluggy—the player who had brought the first bit of Human 25XA news and I hadn’t seen since that day in the casino—chugged in and hauled himself up onto a scoop-shaped stool at the counter.

I leaned against the counter on my side and waited for him to contemplate the menu.

“Do you still have the 8?” he glugged.

“No. Out.” We’d run out of cat food meatballs a while back. But folks still came in and asked for them, having heard through the rumor mill that a three-bite meal had been on offer.

Gluggy ordered the slop with bits, no drink.

I shot an annoyed look at the dawdlers and busied myself organizing bowls while Ahane ladled up Gluggy’s order. “News?”

Gluggy stretched his neck/face over the counter to watch me crouched down wrestling with drinking bowls. “I haven’t heard anything new from 25XA.”

“Any news.” I did a full body shrug to communicate I’d take any story they cared to tell. Like the fucking bounty hunter.

“There’s a 77Ω bounty hunter if you haven’t seen him.”

“Yes.”

“Makes me uncomfortable.”

His confession was truthful. “Yes. Everyone.”

“That’s going to be news all through here.” Gluggy sounded contemplative. “I can’t figure out what a 77Ω of that stature would be looking for this far off the beacon field. They’re usually hired by the Gestalt to find some escaped Zero convict.”

“Agree.”

“I bet the Site Master is pelleting himself.”

That made me snicker. Ahane summoned me with the clatter of a dish and “Assistant” and I fetched the bowl from the window and gave it to Gluggy.

Gluggy used a few tentacles to position the bowl just so, folded his neck/head back, opened his mouth to reveal the concentric ring of teeth and plunged his neck/head/mouth directly into the bowl.

He engaged in a rippling whole-body slurp.

The dawdlers decided that was their cue to be somewhere else.

Slurp slurp slurp SCRAPE slurp SCRAPE

I winced under my hood, but couldn’t look away from the fleshy worm monster going full confused hungry kitten on a bowl of slop.

Gluggy yanked his head back sunset-hair-toss style, causing a spray of slop to splatter the wall and ceiling. He left his head/neck folded back for several seconds as he sighed contently, then closed his mouth back into its slit shape and returned his head to its full upright and locked position.

I looked at the ceiling.

Well, that explained at least some of the peculiar grime and bits…

Gluggy drew several gooey tentacles across his face and was about to tell me he wanted a second helping when the 77Ω came into the diner.

All of Gluggy’s colors disappeared into a shade similar to the slop.

“I’m not here for you,” the 77Ω said pleasantly as he took a stool at the bar. “But perhaps I am here to enjoy the Assistant’s company.”

I tried not to hyperventilate.

Gluggy, being the gentle-gel-sir he was, booked it for the door.

I stared right at the 77Ω’s eyes, hidden by my hood, but that didn’t seem to matter to him. He saw me, even if he didn’t see me. I maintained eye contact.

I wasn’t going back to Him.

The bounty hunter’s presence was like the six tentacles strapped around his perfectly round mouth. “What do you want?”

He could have answered that in any number of ways, and we both knew it.

The tension pushed against the walls of the diner.

“Aren’t you interesting,” the Hunter said, twisting his tentacles one over the other like a snake mating ball.

I sorted through assorted mental responses: yes, I am, you have no idea, fuck off, go play in traffic, place your order already.

His tentacle-twisting took on an ominous motion. “The three.”

Ahane had the dish ready in record time and seemed unconcerned with the arrival of the galaxy’s top bounty hunter. I set the bowl in front of the hunter.

He grabbed my wrist. The bowl fell the rest of the way out of my hand.

He squeezed, long fingers feeling up my wrist along my wraps as his mind clamped down on mine with who are you.

I pushed back and grit my teeth. Same as I had with Him when I wasn’t in the mood to deal with His shit. He’d always won, but the fight had been the point.

I yanked.

He didn’t let go.

I yanked again. “Fuck off.”

“Yes,” the Hunter said in a silky snarl, “you’re the contract. Your mind matches the client’s signature. You thought of the client. Stop struggling. Come quietly. I have been paid to deliver you alive and with minimal damage.”

“Fuck off!” I screamed and lunged backwards.

I only succeeded in nearly dislocating my shoulder. So I grabbed his bowl, and smashed him over the head with it. Slop with bits went flying.

He hauled me across the counter. I screamed and kicked, but he twisted me around and the diner spun.

BANG.

We all fell to the ground under a wall of rubies.

I crawled away and scrambled to my feet in time to see the bounty hunter snake out from under Ahane, twist around him, and deliver a blade into Ahane’s back. I screamed. Ahane’s scales sung as they sharpened and the blade glanced off them. Ahane spun, tail whipping low, the Hunter dodged, and fell right into Ahane’s claws.

“High House,” Ahane snarled at him as he secured his grip on the Hunter and dragged him into the kitchen.

I flipped the We’re Closed sign on the door as Ahane smashed the Hunter into the flat top grill.

Something smelled like bacon-fish.

The Hunter didn’t make a sound despite being turned into breakfast, got free, and plastered himself to Ahane, worming around to Ahane’s back and trying to slide his tentacles around Ahane’s face and throat. Ahane’s claws flashed ruby and raked at the tentacles, and he fell backwards, smashing the Hunter between him and the floor in a sound of shattering glass and hammer-to-fish.

The Hunter squirmed, Ahane darted, tail whipping back and forth.

“Walk away, 25XA,” the Hunter growled, “this doesn’t concern you.”

Ahane’s tail sharpened into a three-sided blade. He said something in High Dialect that sounded like an army of angry angels had just crashed through the spheres of Heaven.

The Hunter drew a weapon from some fold of his pants and fired at Ahane. It singed Ahane’s scales and set part of his apron on fire. Ahane ignored it, spun, swept sideways, and back-handed the Hunter with one fist. The Hunter ate it, half-laughed and?—

Ahane shoved his tail through the Hunter’s throat.

Blood spurted across the kitchen and a torrent of the Hunter’s final thoughts smashed into my head as blood sprayed Ahane. Ahane drove his tail all the way through the Hunter’s neck, then pushed up, wedging the Hunter’s head backwards like Gluggy’s head folded backwards.

The Hunter fell to the ground. Blood spread in a bright purple pool under his crumbled body.

Ahane backed up, breathing hard.

“Oh, oh, god,” I whispered. “Ahane, what… what?—”

“He was never going to stop until he had you,” Ahane told me roughly, “or I stopped him.”

“But he’s dead.”

Captain Thalia of the USS Obvious, reporting for duty.

The tension and noise in the kitchen were gone, replaced with a cold, empty silence.

Ahane bent down and yanked the emblem off the hunter’s bandolier. He shoved it into the massive hole in the hunter’s neck and smeared it around, then offered it to me. “Take this.”

“Um…”

He twitched his hand. “Take it.”

I grabbed one of the kitchen tongs and took the bloody patch from him. I tossed it into a nearby bowl.

He crouched down and shouldered the corpse in a fireman’s carry.

“We’re not making him into the next number 8, are we?” I asked.

He turned around. The hunter’s head flopped against his chest by some overly-stretched skin. One eyeball dangled. “What? No, of course we’re not going to eat him. Do Humans eat the dead?”

“That’s a good way to get a nasty disease.”

“Sentients don’t eat sentients. Usually.” He headed off to the back.

Usually? I stepped around the blood puddles. “Where are you taking the body?”

“Tossing it into the abyss. Stay here. You have the patch, right?”

“You just watched me put it into a bowl.”

He carried the corpse to the airlock and went outside.

I looked at the trail of blood. “…great. What the fuck. What the fuck.”

I sagged down against the wall and ran my hands over my face.

One of the vermin skittered out of the shadows to lick up some of the blood.

“Get!” I snapped. “Get out of here. Gross.”

It scuttled away again.

Ahane returned and began to mop up the carnage.

I got another mop and went to clean Gluggy’s lunch-spew from the ceiling, shaking with well, that was violent and He’s coming for me.

He’s coming for me…