A Fistful of Trouble (Outlaws of the Galaxy Book 2), Paul Tomlinson [bts books to read .txt] 📗

I said. “They’d see the Trekker coming. Besides, we should give her a chance to recover.”

“We weren’t even close to maxing her out,” Harmony said.

“Any hotter and the batteries would have melted.”

“Look at those tyres,” she said. “A vehicle like that likes to be driven hard over rough terrain. Not put on a choke-chain for the school run.”

“Life isn’t all about how quickly you can reach the finish line.”

“I’d rather live fast than die slow,” she said.

“You should have that as a bumper sticker. On your own car!”

“Did you bring your water?”

“Yes, mother. No.” I jogged back to the Trekker to get the cannister.

“What do you notice about those men?” I asked. We’d sneaked in closer to the Countess of Squitville and were hiding behind a stack of old wooden pallets.

“They’re all young and hunky,” Harmony said.

“What about their haircuts?”

“I think they all go to the same barber.”

“Military haircuts,” I said. “And look at their boots.”

“Army boots,” she said. “But lots of men like to dress up and pretend to be soldiers. Women too.”

“I don’t think they’re pretending,” I said. “Look at the way they hold their guns.”

These men were dressed like civilians but there was still a uniformity about them. They couldn’t hide the influence of their military training.

“Perhaps they’re ex-military,” Harmony suggested. “Soldiers of fortune.”

“They don’t look like mercenaries to me. They look more like soldiers on an undercover operation.”

“You think this is some kind of sting – to trap illegal arms buyers?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. But whatever they are, I bet their ship is protected by the latest military technology.”

“If they are soldiers, they’re not going to sell robots to Colonel Hodge, are they?” Harmony said.

“They’ll sell them to anyone.”

“I don’t get it,” she said.

“Black-market weapons often come from military sources. Someone on the inside arranges for a few crates to go missing and creates a smokescreen in the official records so no one notices the theft until some way down the line.”

“And then they sell them to the highest bidder,” Harmony said.

“Yep. Though sometimes these things are stolen to order.”

“This is bigger than a couple of boxes of guns and ammo,” Harmony said. “These guys are big-time crooks. How many of them do you think there are?”

“Minimum crew for a ship that size is probably eight or ten. I’ve seen five, but I would guess that there are at least a couple more inside – plus the pilot and co-pilot.”

“And they’re all armed with rifles,” she said.

“Yeah.”

I’d expected to find half-a-dozen gangsters or black-marketeers, not a troop of professional soldiers.

“What do we do?” Harmony asked.

“We don’t go up against the military,” I said. “They’re too heavily armed and they have too much to lose if their identities are revealed. They won’t leave any witnesses alive.”

“Could we make it look like the Colonel has betrayed them – get the two groups of bad guys to shoot each other?”

“I like your thinking,” I said. “But I want to try and avoid any killing.”

“How?”

“Let’s wait and see what happens. If it’s a sting operation, the soldiers will deal with the Colonel’s men and we won’t have to do anything. Same if the Colonel’s men try to steal the robots. If it is a sale, we wait until the exchange has been made. We let the soldiers leave and then we only have to worry about the Colonel’s men.”

Harmony thought about this. I could tell she liked her own plan better.

“If we let the soldiers leave, they’ll take the money,” she said.

“We aren’t going to see robots exchanged for cash,” I said. “Even Colonel Hodge couldn’t get his hands on that much Alliance currency. Payment will be made by crypto transfer.”

I wasn’t a hundred per cent convinced that this was true, but hoped I sounded a hundred per cent convincing.

“You’re probably right,” she said. “We’ll do it your way. But just so you know – if this thing comes down to a shoot-out, I won’t be aiming to give minor flesh wounds in the extremities.”

“Duly noted,” I said. “Just try not to hit me.”

“I would never shoot you,” she said. “Not accidentally.”

“Those soldier boys won’t want to hang around,” I said. “We have to be ready.”

“What’s the plan?” Harmony asked.

“We get on board the Colonel’s ship while the exchange takes place and then divert their flight after they’ve taken off.”

“A mid-air hijack, I like it,” she said. “Can you fly a cargo lifter?”

I nodded. “Can you?”

“Of course.”

“Do you fly the same way that you drive?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? If you fly as slowly as you drive, we’ll drop out of the sky.”

“I’m not that slow,” I said.

“If you drove any slower you’d get a parking ticket.”

“But I’d still be alive,” I said sulkily.

“If it makes you happy, you can sit in the pilot seat. And I’ll sit beside an escape pod, just in case. Aircraft incoming,” she said.

I looked down at the little screen on my watch. “The drones have enough footage of the squit-ship and the solders. I’ll bring them in and transmit the video to ACID.”

“To your friend Connie, you mean?”

“She’s not my friend. She’s spent the last six years trying to catch me.”

“It’s not like you to play hard to get.” Harmony smiled.

“We’ll let the ACID Interceptor deal with the soldiers. You and I can handle the Colonel’s boys.”

“I can see them,” she said, pointing.

The ship was a speck just above the horizon, flying low. The soldiers were aware of their approach too. Some of them got in place ready to offload the container. And the rest prepared their weapons, just in case. I was glad we’d decided not to tackle them ourselves.

“As soon as the Colonel’s ship touches down, we have to move,” I said. “Get close so we can sneak aboard. Use the dust and the heat of the engines so we’re not picked up by the sensors on either ship.”

“Aye, aye, captain!” She gave me a mock salute.

I gave her another gesture in response.

When we got a clear look at the